May8

Kia announced on Thursday that it has canceled its plans to produce a mid-size pickup for the U.S. market. Kia gave the Honda Ridgeline-esque pickup truck the green light earlier this year, but decided to cancel the project due to rising fuel prices and a sagging pickup truck market.

"Because of high oil prices, the light-truck market is declining significantly, so now is not the right time to produce a pickup truck," Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Kim Dong-Jin told Automotive News.

The new truck was slated to be based on the 2010 Kia Sorento and produced at the company's new plant in West Point, Georgia. The now dead pickup was to be a mid-size unibody truck in the same vein as the Honda Ridgeline, powered by a V6 engine driving the front wheels.

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by livgon
Filed under: Car News For Enthusiasts