These are driving shots of a camouflaged Kia pickup prototype out testing in South Korea. While we have little to go on other than the shots themselves, they do offer up some answers about this first-ever truck from Kia. Still, they also raise some questions we can speculate the answers to. 

What we know from seeing these Kia pickup shots

First, these come from the South Korean site Bodaedream. You can see that the front end is a direct lift from the Kia Mohave SUV. This makes sense as it is the largest Kia platform, and is a body-on-frame SUV. So it is the logical choice to spin off a pickup version. We wouldn’t expect Kia to tool up an entirely new platform and sheet metal for this first go into the pickup segment. 

Looking beyond the fascia, those front fenders are Mohave-based. The plastic cladding is missing, but you can see the indent and attachment holes for them. And the windshield, A-pillars, and side mirrors are all from the Mohave. 

Standing back, the truck has a fair amount of ground clearance, and is a four-door or crew cab. So we expect that the front doors are also Mohave. The rear doors and back of the cab will have to all be unique to the truck.

Does Kia sell the Mohave here?

While the Mohave is not sold in the U.S. it is available in South Korea. In other countries, it is called Borrego. Its replacement in the U.S. is the Sorrento, which is a unibody design. So, again, the existing Mohave is a perfect launch point. Except for one thing.

Kia announced in March that it would be unveiling two all-electric pickups in the U.S. by 2027. So the images of this pickup raise questions. Is this a 2026 or 2027 pickup disguised as a Mohave? Or is it an interim Mojave-based model to become established in the truck category? 

Is this an EV pickup?

Maybe Kia has moved up its projection of a 2027 debut, seeing the unprecedented interest in the Ford F-150 Lightning and Silverado EV. This could be an EV platform with Mohave sheet metal cobbled onto it. That would make more sense, as this latest version of the Mohave is a facelifted SUV that debuted in 2008. So really, it is too old to be basing a future EV off of. 

As we said, it raises some interesting questions. The bottom line is that this is the first tangible evidence of a Kia pickup. We all know that pickups and SUVs are the foreseeable future, as are EVs. Kia has already shown it will take whatever it can in any number of segments. Some have panned out, while others haven’t. 

But a full-fledged pickup truck is one of the only segments that both it nor Hyundai haven’t entered. And a new company diving into the pickup segment is always a good thing. Just ask Rivian.