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Kia cans bakkie plans – 2021 Motoring Newsmaker No 12
The Korean carmaker will not have a rival for the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger.
The Korean carmaker will not building a bakkie after all.
Two-thousand-and-twenty-one was an interesting year for the South African motoring landscape.
Some things changed, like an acceleration towards greener cars, while others stayed the same like Toyota topping the monthly sales charts.
In this series of 2021 Motoring Newsmakers, The Citizen looks back at the top 20 most popular online stories of the year. The series is dominated by South Africa’s most popular body style, bakkies, while the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 was by far the most viewed single model on our website. Other local favourites in the form of hot hatches, fuel efficient hatchbacks, big, mean SUVs, compact SUVs, Mercedes-AMGs and BMW M cars also drew their fair share of attention.
The bakkie segment in South Africa is a very lucrative one. One carmaker that looked destined to enter this cutthroat battle was Kia. A Kia bakkie was one the cards for many years and it made perfect sense in the light of sister company Hyundai’s plans for the Santa Cruz bakkie.
But the Kia bakkie idea looks to be off the table according to comments made by Australian Kia boss last month. It’s a pity, because it would have been interesting to see how a Kia bakkie weigh up against local favourites, the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max.
To read more on the reported canning of the KIa bakkie, click on the link below.
2021 MOTORING NEWSMAKER NO 12: No more: Kia’s Hilux and Ranger rival scrapped
To see the rest of our 2021 Motoring Newsmakers, click on the links below.
No 13: Mercedes A35 Sedan the thinking man’s AMG
No 14: Toyota Corolla Cross outsells Polo pair
No 15: BMW X5 M Competition pips Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S
No 17: Never be late in a Merc GLS 580
No 18: Toyota HiAce 54 years young
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