It’s happening. Kia has officially announced that it’ll be bringing a pickup truck to the United States. Not only that, it’ll offer a mixture of hybrid and EREV powertrains. This is the future we’ve all been waiting for, although it’s going not exactly going to be the near future. The Morning Dump has time. The Morning Dump is patient. The Morning Dump is starting to worry that it’s talking about itself in the third person. Is The Morning Dump sentient? Maybe.
While Kia is going to wait a while to get a truck to market, Ford seems to be hoping to get relief from the government on tariffs so it can build trucks now. The response from the White House is a little puzzling. GM’s response to a bunch of Chevy Malibu rear-view cameras failing is a little more straightforward.
And, finally, China’s exports boomed in March. Coincidentally, maybe, Mercedes has seen its exports fall at the same time.
Will The Kia EREV Truck Beat The Scout To Market?
Full disclosure: If you ask me the name of the truck above I will say it’s the Kia Talisman. That’s kind of a cool name, right? The Talisman! It’s actually the Kia Tasman, named for the Tasman sea, which means it’s one of the only cars I can think of named for a Dutch seafarer.
The truck looks strange, and was developed mostly for the Australian and New Zealand market. It’s not for us Yanks, but it is Kia’s first modern attempt at building a body-on-frame truck. Given how strong midsize truck sales have been in the United States, it makes a lot of sense that Kia is trying to get into this market.
What will it be though? There are now numerous electric trucks on the market (R1T, Cybertruck, Lightning, Sierra EV, Silverado EV, Hummer EV, and maybe the Slate truck soon) all fighting for a tiny share of the total truck market. A purely electric truck probably doesn’t make sense.
At Kia’s big Investor Day in Seoul, Kia CEO Ho Sung Song outlined some ambitious targets. He expects the brand, which sold about 850,000 cars in the United States last year, to hit the million mark by 2030. More hybrids is a big part of it (a K4 Hybrid is in the works), and that includes a hybrid/EREV pickup. Here’s what he said according to the transcript:
In 2025, Kia successfully entered the pick-up truck market in emerging economies with the launch of the Tasman, demonstrating strong product competitiveness. Looking ahead to 2030, Kia will expand into North America —the key global pick-up market —by introducing a dedicated HEV/EREV pick -up, built on our core HEV technology.
According to Automotive News, there’s a teaser of the truck out there, but I haven’t seen it yet as the company hasn’t posted its 2026 Investor Day video. If someone has seen it please send it over to me.
The plan is to hit around 90,000 trucks annually starting around 2030, reaching 7% of a market currently dominated by the Tacoma by 2034. That’s not a lot of trucks. Ford sold roughly 70,000 Rangers last year, by comparison, and 155,000 Mavericks.
Because it’ll almost certainly share a platform with the Hyundai truck previewed by the Crater concept, the fact that it’ll be hybrid and EREV isn’t much of a surprise. The big open question is whether or not they’ll be a full EV version. I guess the other question is whether it might end up beating the Scout to market given how slow that truck has been to develop.
Ford Didn’t Beg The White House Hard Enough, I Guess?
It’s hard to say what Ford’s sales would be if it wasn’t constrained by two fires at its main aluminum supplier, which is a necessary material for the F-150. Ford has said it has a plan, although supply isn’t likely to catch up to demand until the second half of the year.
Normally, an automaker would just try to grab whatever aluminum it could find on the global market. The challenge here is that Ford has been getting aluminum from a facility in New York, and the only automotive grade aluminum that isn’t spoken for seems to be available outside of the United States. The White House has put tariffs on imported aluminum, meaning a potential hit either to Ford’s profits or to the price of these trucks.
Because of that, Ford has reportedly reached out to the White House for temporary tariff relief and, per Reuters, didn’t reach out hard enough, with an official telling them:
“While Ford and other automakers have raised supply concerns in light of the Novelis incident, they have not requested tariff relief on this matter in a particularly pronounced way,” the official said
What does that even mean? They didn’t beg hard enough? That’s so weird!
GM Recalls 270,000 Cars For Backup Cameras That Might Fail
Here’s what’s interesting to me in this recall report from General Motors involving backup cameras on its 2023-2025 Chevy Malibu. It’s not that these backup cameras are going dead, as that’s something that’ll happen with certain cars. It’s not great, but it seems like an easily fixable problem.
What jumped out to me is this number: 271,770.
That’s the potential number of vehicles affected. That means that GM sold more than 270,000 sedans in recent history. That’s a lot of vehicles. Maybe we need more sedans?
China Is Exporting A lot Of Cars
No surprise, the total number of cars exported in China jumped a bunch according to Bloomberg:
Overseas shipments jumped 140% from a year earlier to 349,000 units, according to data from China Passenger Car Association released on Thursday. BYD Co., the world’s largest EV maker, accounted for about a third of the total, with Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and Chery Automobile Co. rounding out the top three exporters for the month, it said.
Rising fuel prices due to the Iran war are enticing buyers back to EVs and hybrids, with showrooms across Asia bustling in the past month as consumers look to shield themselves from volatile pricing at the pump. While it’s unclear how much of a lift the sector will get from the energy shock, data from the UK released earlier this month showed electric car sales climbed to a record in March.
“Chinese automakers can quickly increase their global reach during the Strait of Hormuz crisis,” PCA Secretary General Cui Dongshu said at a briefing. There was a similar shift toward fuel-efficient vehicles made by Japanese carmakers during the oil crisis of the 1970s, he said.
Strike while the iron is on fire, I guess. At the same time, another Bloomberg report shows how much Mercedes has faltered in its own exports in this complicated new world:
The manufacturer’s global deliveries dropped 6% to 499,700 vehicles, as a worsening slump in China outweighed gains in Europe and the US. Its sales in the world’s largest auto market tumbled 27% — a steeper fall than the 19% decline in the fourth quarter.
Demand for high-end vehicles in China remains subdued, while domestic brands continue to gain share. Mercedes has refreshed key models, including its flagship S-Class, to fend off competition from rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co.’s Maextro S800 sedan. The German company previously warned that margins will remain under pressure this year.
Maybe the new CLA will help?
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Here’s another one from my buddy who owns more digital music than any other 20 people I know combined. It’s Chiaré with “Zanzare”
The Big Question
What does a truck need to do in order to succeed in the United States?
What Ford should’ve done is to threaten to extinguish an entire administration never to brought back again, unless they are gifted all the aluminum free of charge and get the sale of the Silverado banned. You know, as a negotiating tactic. Then maybe they could get aluminum at the prices they got it for before all of this.
Just suggest they could make the announcement that Ford would stop production of the F150 due to aluminum tariffs ahead of market opening, dropping Ford’s stock, only for the tariffs to be lifted after the close of markets the following day, to bring it back up again.
All so we can have what we used to have before someone made it objectively worse.
Oh cool, soliciting bribes. Do we need to remind the White House cabinet members that they are legally required to disclose bribe money on their taxes? If not doing so was was good enough to get Al Capone for tax fraud, I sincerely hope we can do it again with the current crop thats running about.
Bribery and other such corruption are now the norm and actively encouraged.
It has been posited that if government officials were paid more, they would not be tempted to solicit bribes and kickbacks. It’s telling that Trump claims not to receive a paycheck.
FYI the Scouts were just delayed AGAIN. Deliveries of the SUV are now expected to start in the fall of 2028 and the truck isn’t expected until goddamn 2030. It’s incredible how badly VAG consistently borks launches of potentially appealing cars. I think we’re nearing the point that they may just shelve the vehicles entirely or sell off the assets because there’s just no way they’re going to sell any of them at this point.
All of the momentum is gone, the Rivian R2 is here, and Ford/Stellantis are going to be launching range extended trucks years before the Scout hits the market. Fucking Hyundai and Kia may have hybridized body on frame trucks on showroom floors before Scout at this rate. It’s remarkable how badly they’ve fucked up but Volkswagen uh…finds a way!
That being said I don’t think the Koreans are going to succeed at this game. They’ve got a reputation for shitty build quality that’s going to follow them forever at this point. Americans want American trucks and I think Toyota already has basically the entire market that exists for foreign ones covered.
I guess you could argue that there’s a small opening because the most recent Tundra and Taco are widely considered to be worse trucks than their predecessors and aren’t competitive products at the moment…but I can’t imagine that Toyota is just going to sit around and take it. I think they’re going to have some better powertrains available in short order.
Plus do truck buyers even really want electrification? I feel like us car blog sickos love the idea of hybrid trucks but I don’t know that the buying public does. Efficiency is like priority 1,247 for the average body on frame truck buyer, and they’re the ones who finance $80,000 trucks on 84 month loans and rush to trade into the next big thing, negative equity be damned.
The next generation V8s are about to arrive too and I feel like we’re going to see NA V6s shoehorned into the turbo 4 trucks sooner rather than later to appease the MUH DISPLACEMENT crowd. I just don’t know that Kia has a hand to play here…and I think the sorts of people that are into this idea just buy Mavericks.
I don’t think Kia will succeed not because of build quality issues, but because just look at the thing. I give them credit for trying to be different in this space, but WOOF.
On the other hand, as noted this was built for the Aussie market, and there aren’t many vehicles in this class that would be considered “lookers”. I recently watched an Aussie “ute” competition, and other than the Ranger and maybe the HiLux, they’re all pretty awkward looking.
Regarding the smaller engines, it’s funny, using Toyota as an example, everyone is upset about the demise of the V6’s, but everyone who’s actually driven the new turbo 4 has preferred it.
Even in the Ram groups. Yeah, there are some V8 die hards, but I see a lot of comments from former Hemi owners saying that they’ll never go back to it, they like the Hurricane much more.
I really like the idea of a hybrid truck myself. I don’t know the sales numbers of the hybrid F150, but when I was looking into them, owners LOVED them. At the time, I decided the Ford just wasn’t for me, but I may consider one next time around if I get another truck. Or if Ram added hybrid to the Hurricane, oh EFF yeah!!
Kia used to have a REALLY bad reputation for quality. They fixed that by increasing quality and increasing the warranty. No reason they can’t do the same again considering their current problems aren’t much different than the rest of the industry. Most new car buyers have moved on to something new by the time a Kia’s powertrain warranty expires.
The hybrid is 25% of Ford F-150 sales so I would say there is a market.
Scout is exactly following the Buzz playbook, sadly. I was really hoping to get one of these, but they’re going to be at least 5 years late to market by the time they actually come out (if it happens at all).
I would’ve considered one for my next car but now I’m going to have to do mental backflips to justify the extra trouble and cost over simply getting an R2
The R2 is right on the edge of having the range I need to get rid of my beater gas truck, assuming I can get two big MTBs inside (for aero), or we get just a couple of more charging stations along the routes I use.
I have an early deposit for an erev Terra.
I bought a ranger last month because it seemed like I could wear it out before the scout became available.
preference for a NA V6 has nothing to do with a hard on for displacement. It has to do with issues of running a turbo in a work truck.
So in the midsize class, that leaves only the Nissan Frontier, right? I’m definitely starting to see more of them in fleets here in L.A.
Edit: And the Ridgeline of course! But as a non-BOF truck you won’t see many of them in fleets. And IIRC, the Honda transmission has had problems?
Yesterday I took my Mercedes in for new tires and got a ’26 C300 as a loaner. I really prefer my ’19. The interior of the ’26 is all screens and piano black flat surfaces. Where mine has an analog speedo and tach, the new one has a picture of an analog speedo and tach, and to make matters worse, they’re partially obscured by the steering wheel. Somehow it also felt a little cramped, but maybe that’s just because I didn’t get it adjusted quite right. All this to say that maybe they’re shipping fewer vehicles because they’re ugly on the inside now. I thought it looked fine on the outside.
Just the opposite. Mercedes sales are way down in China (27%). The Chinese market loves big screens and tech.
Didn’t GM and Hyundai/Kia enter a partnership in developing trucks a while back?
I firmly believe that if Kia is releasing a pickup, it’s going to be a mid-size based on a future 4th generation Colorado/Canyon platform. Maybe with Kia supplying the engine to all them to go hybrid.
I think that might just be for commercial fleet trucks. Consumer look-toughs probably aren’t in the agreement.
You might be right. I do recall there was a commercial fleet part of that deal. However, the 3rd gen Colorado was released in 2023, so 2030 would roughly be around the time that you’d be expected a 4th gen model to be coming out, and that’s when Kia’s truck plans to sell 90k units begins. We’ll see.
Curious to see how well Kia implements a hybrid pickup. There’s a big opening, because Toyota’s method is lackluster and simply resulted in a far heavier pickup that absorbs all the big horsepower and torque ratings while barely moving the needle on real world efficiency. Tacoma loyalty is strong, though.
Ford’s F-150 hybrid boosts combined fuel economy 21% and city by 38%. That seem the path to follow.
I wish Ford let you get that powertrain in more trim levels, or a 4 cyl version in the Ranger.
Toyota’s failure is especially galling considering their hybrid experience. Not sure how they did so badly.
“What does a truck need to do in order to succeed in the United States?”
Come with a V8
Don’t forget lots of corny trims to boost your testosterone.
The Kia Tasman Wyoming Alpha-Male Edition
The Kia Tasman First-Degree Murder Platinum
The Kia Tasman Super Duper Off-Roady Boi Big Tire Machine (very tall)
The Kia Tasman Gritty Iron Worker Edition
The Kia Tasman Disney edition (to reinforce what a great family car it is)
The Kia Tasman Wood Creek (nothing different but has orange tow hooks and a mountain graphic on the bed)
Did you get a copy of Stellantis’ playbook for Ram & Jeep?
If they don’t release a Tasmanian Devil trim they need to hire a new marketing team.
Kia Tasman Honey Badger or GTFO
I’d buy a Tasman GTFO!
The best-selling truck in America’s two main engine sales are turbo V6s.
Ram buyers demand V8s, maybe they’re easier to control when hammered. Ford has been successfully selling turbo V6 trucks to scores of buyers for over a decade.
So Kia thinks they will sell more midsize trucks in the US than Ford?? Good luck I guess.
To be fair, it doesn’t feel like Ford is really trying to sell the Ranger. It’s just kind of there.
Kia Puts Toyota Tacoma On Notice, Plans To Sell 90,000 Hybrid Trucks A Year
BWA HA HA HA!!!!!!
What does a truck need to do in order to succeed in the United States?
Exist?
I can’t think of many trucks that haven’t worked here. The only conventional pickup truck I can recall failing in recent years was the Titan. Even pseudo-trucks like the Santa Cruz and the minivan-with-an-open-bed Ridgeline have sold reasonably well.
All Kia has to do is tell ChatGPT to build a Kia-badged mashup of a Ranger, Canyon, Frontier, and Tacoma and it will sell 50,000+ units per year at a decent profit (by the way, I just tried that – the result looked kinda neat. It is also called the Kia Ridgeback, apparently [I’d workshop that name, but this is a start]).
I’m looking forward to the K4 Hybrid. As it currently stands, the K4 looks nice, but the drivetrain is a big turn-off. Hopefully, they undercut the Civic Hybrid and Toyota’s offerings, putting downward pressure on the compact hybrid market. I hope they don’t just stuff in their weird turbo’d DCT drivetrain from the Elantra. An eCVT paired with an NA motor is much more elegant. If they wanted to go after Toyota, eAWD would be a big selling point too.
The turbo hybrid is in the Seltos with DCT allegedly, or with a 6 speed planetary automatic and electric motor in place of the torque converter on the bigger Sportage, Sorento, Tucson, and Santa Fe Hybrids. Hyundai and Kia have only done mechanical awd not e-awd on previous hybrid models.
It sounds like the Seltos hybrid is basically just the Elantra hybrid/Niro hybrid’s setup, the NA 1.6/6-speed DCT. I know at least one source said it was the 1.6T hybrid initially but they may have gotten wires crossed reading it because there is the existing nonhybrid 1.6T/8AT carrying over too.
I would think a K4 hybrid would just use the same powertrain as the Elantra, but a new Elantra is around the corner and that could have a new hybrid setup too. Kia also hasn’t really done hybrid sedans while Hyundai has, as the current K5 didn’t offer a hybrid like the past Optimas. Seems like they’ve left that hybrids in that price range to the Niro, but that’s surely on its way out with the Seltos hybrid.
Yeah seems like someone messed up the interpretation of the spec sheet/ announcement as per the Kia media page the specs just say 1.6L GDi and 6 dct https://www.kiamedia.com/us/en/media/pressreleases/24569/documentfile or carry over Niro Powertrain
Yep, C/D had mentioned hybrid 1.6T and still has it in their preview articles. They’ve had a number of turbo/DCT combos over the years, but never as a hybrid at least here, that I can remember.
I don’t see Kia succeeding in their mid-sized truck endeavors here
The same was said of their passenger cars. They’re damn near ubiquitous now.
Or 3-row SUVs. Every other one is a Telluride these days.
Totally different market and buyer.
If you can deliver the capability and features that people want, for less than the competitors, you’ll gain market share.
But not dominate it.
https://youtu.be/Jd3yBq6R0ZU?si=nyBfrnNHJ0ulmzRM
A proper goddamn hybrid at the very least. One that MEANINGFULLY increases fuel economy while delivering comparable payload and towing to the competition.
Give Americans a taste of platform where they can have their cake and eat it too, and they’ll take it.
The OG Prius was often mocked. Now every Taxi that was once a Caprice or Crown Vic is a hybrid Camry/Prius, or most recently, the Sienna.
So a F-150 Hybrid or Maverick
Mav yes, the F150 hybrid is inadequate, so is Toyota’s efforts.
38% boost in city fuel economy is “inadequate”?
No, but the massive price premium makes it so.
Yes. The F150 hybrid is a great concept, but the math doesn’t pencil out vs. the 2.7 ecoboost. It’s more of a performance truck that a cost-saver. Real world, the 2.7 does just as well in rural and highway driving.
I doubt too many people are comparing the hybrid to the base 2.7L instead of the 5.0L or 3.5L that make similar power.
Depends what you’re shopping for. If your goal is simply the most fuel efficient F150, (Lightning aside) you’re looking at the Powerboost or the 2.7L.
I am literally that person- We cross-shopped both engines in the Lariat trim. We went with the 2.7L in our 2021, as our driving is all country roads and highway. We average about 24mpg. Coincidentally, we have a friend who cross shopped the 2.7 and the 3.5 in a 2020 XLT.
The 2.7L is a great engine, it actually feels peppier than the 3.5 and the 5.0 in everyday driving, as the smaller turbos spool faster. I wish they had built the hybrid off that engine instead, targeting a slightly lower output and even better fuel economy. Not everyone wants a muscle truck.
I’d also personally take the 2.7L but I’m also not the typical car buyer.
The typical F-150 buyer is shopping for a mid-trim model with plenty of power. That is why the average transaction price for a full size truck is $66K
That is great fuel economy on the 2.7L. No doubt if you can beat the EPA by 20% with the 2.7L you could do similar with the hybrid.
Personally I’d prefer Ford use the NA 3.5L engine they use in the Transit as the ICE for the F-150. I see no reason to mix turbos with electric motors. I suspect we will see more NA hybrids going forward as EPA 2027 will be hard to meet without a particulate filter for gasoline DI turbos.
Yeah. The 2.7 also has a reduced towing capacity, so maybe that scares people off. IMO it still tows as much as anyone has any business pulling with a half ton, but you know how people are.
To be fair, like 85% of our driving is sedate rural highway, so it does make sense that our average matches the EPA hwy number. The hybrid is rated at the same 24mpg under all conditions- It’s hard to say if we’d see much difference in our situation. Clearly the hybrid is the way to go for most drivers if they swing it.
Agreed on the NA hybrid. A 3.5 Atkinson cycle plus a beefed up eCVT should deliver EPA numbers in the high 20s if not pushing 30. 300hp would be fine.
That’s my whole point. The Hybrid SHOULD be the base engine.
Stop using it to boost power numbers and use it to boost economy.
They are using the hybrid to boost fuel economy. It is the most fuel efficient engine. 15% more efficient than that base 2.7T.
They could make it the base engine and kill off the 2.7L but they would then also raise the base price.
Then pair it with a cheaper engine. Why is it being attached to what is already the most powerful engine in the lineup?
Hybrids are for the masses, they should be the entry level engine on all platforms.
The hybrid is the 4th most powerful engine you can get in a F-150 out of 6 options.
Why not base the hybrid on the 2.7L? I don’t know – I don’t have Ford’s market data.
Personally I would have used the NA version of the 3.5L that is used in the Transit.
As for hybrid being for the masses – the masses don’t seem to agree. For example – there is zero economic reason to buy an ICE Corolla instead of the hybrid but 80% of buyers do.
The ICE Corolla is cheaper at every trim level, and only the pure gas has the base trim. Yes, $1k purchase price matters to people buying in the sub 30k range.
Not to mention, people are beholden to what is on the lot. Custom ordering from Toyota means a looooong wait.
The Civic moving to a hybrid-only engine option hasn’t hurt sales at all. Stop making people option up to a hybrid. It should be the floor of configuration.
I think you are correct about people buying what is on the lot. A full size truck is a stretch purchase for a good portion of buyers. They aren’t custom ordering. They wait for cash on the hood, a 0% financing promotion etc. and take what they can get.
I’ve purchased one new truck. It was the first new vehicle we ever bought and was VERY much a stretch purchase. It was for my wife and we ordered and waited 5 months. There was no way we weren’t getting EXACTLY what she wanted when paying more than half a year income for a vehicle.
The problem was she wanted a manual.
(Looking back buying that truck was the stupidest purchase I ever made).
Uh oh. I felt that way about our truck too at the time, but where prices are now seems like a deal!
Prices today are slightly more expensive than when we bought ours on 2000. About 2 weeks of median household income.
Pickups are the only vehicle segment where vehicles aren’t cheaper today but trucks also went from work tools to daily commuters. Again like for like.
Yes, the ICE is cheaper upfront but in less than 4 years that purchase premium is gone and the hybrid is saving 3 cents every mile just on fuel (assuming $3.50 a gallon). (It will save hundreds on brakes too) Buying the ICE is extremely short sighted thinking when buying a durable good that will last 15 – 20 years.
The Civic still offers and ICE option but again, it make no economic sense to buy it. The Camry did go to hybrid only.
As for ordering a Toyota – it took my parents 3-4 months to get the RAV4 hybrid they wanted in 2024. Why wouldn’t someone get exactly what they want when spending so much. Taking what is on the lot makes no sense at all unless you have to buy a car the same day.
The bottom of the car market is driven by “I need a reliable car now” purchases. Waiting is a luxury of the financially stable. As is “it’ll pay for itself in X years”
Buying new cars is not a good way to become financially stable.
Luckily I learned that in my mid-20’s and made a plan to become financially stable. Even then it took almost a decade to get out of the hole but the first step is to stop digging.
“I need a reliable car now” doesn’t leave flexibility. Especially if you live where rust never sleeps.
The advice is always “buy used! Pay cash!”, fully ignoring that the overwhelming majority of households don’t even have enough liquidity to cover two consecutive missed paycheques, let alone buying a car outright.
To get anything reliable on the used market these days will mean financing at a shit rate, when new cars can be had cheaper on a monthly budget basis.
Sure, you pay more in the end, but the car is more likely to go the distance of the financing terms, and warranty to cover unforeseen costs beyond regular maintenance.
There is a difference between needing to take a loan for a car once and perpetuating that need for life. A modern car will outlast the loan 3 to 4 times.
It is $3900 more than the 3.5L Ecoboost and $3,780 more than the 5.0L.
Exactly. What’s the best selling hybrids? The ones where it’s the base engine.
Gotta save a lot of fuel to make up that $3900 difference.
At $3.5 a gallon that difference pays back two times over the life of the vehicle.
Depends on how much you drive, and what type of driving.
Also, is the option tied to trim levels or specific option packages that raise the price over say, an XLT 300A or 301A package?
Yes, the option is tied to a very common option package. It is offered in mid level trims and at a price point more the $10,000 less than the average transaction price of a new full size truck. It isn’t like Ford is only offering a hybrid in top trim models.
There we are. Should be the base engine. They did that correctly with the Maverick.
With the Maverick they started out with the hybrid as the base engine – it sold WAY better than expected, they had a year long waiting list and dealers marked them up thousands.
In 2024 Ford made the ecoboost the standard engine and charged a $1500 premium for the hybrid
In 2026 they say the Hybrid is the “standard” engine again but if you pick the ecoboost the price drops by $1,000.
Today the Maverick XL Ecoboost starts at $27,145 and the hybrid at $28,145 – at least in the USA.
Hybrid is $500 cheaper here in Canadia.
Dealer markup is a US specific problem, doesn’t change the reality that if your target is money-saving efficiency, don’t lock it away behind mark ups.
A company’s target is profit margins.
Which is done through volume at the low end.
Profit can be made through volume on the low end but that is a different metric than profit margins. Companies have found they can make larger profits focusing on models that have higher margins with less risk.
A cheap car takes almost the same resources to design, test, tool, and build and a more expensive cars but with more risk and less reward. Which is why we have seen automaker after automaker drop those cheap models / trims. That trend was accelerated by buyers preferring used CPO cars to a new base model.
“Is The Morning Dump sentient?”
Lock up the Ambien!
How about a PHEV pickup with two seats or a bench seat, a slightly extended cab for secure storage, and an 8 foot bed that’s low enough to reach over the sides? Make it rugged, basic and handsome, with knobs and no touchscreen. Price it competitively and it would sell like hotcakes.
Only fleets and the occasional rich eccentric buy new regular-cab trucks.
As far as consumer purchasing goes, they are basically the ‘brown manual wagon’ of our time.
The Maverick is successful because it is affordable, efficient and has 4 doors. It’s basically a Ford Fusion Hybrid with a bed.
I’m sure some fleets would theoretically be okay with a two door Maverick, but when you consider the extra dry/lockable storage, and calculate TCO the 4 door becomes a better option. Lots of fleets buy or lease 4 door trucks (even through they don’t need them) because they depreciate less, lowering the actual cost of ownership
Is there a wider market for an affordable regular-cab truck? The excitement over Slate suggests maybe, but I’m skeptical of how many private individuals will actually spend new-vehicle money on one.
That’s just it, civies can’t justify ~$40k on a new gas guzzling truck that only has seating for 2 or 3 people and is as comfy as a public bus. But I think a lot of them could justify one around $30k (or even better, $25k), especially if it was easy to drive & park and not too thirsty for fuel. That’s why small trucks like the S10, Ranger, and Hilux got to be so popular in the first place. Now they’re just marginally smaller full-size trucks that manage to be a true compromise: simultaneously what everyone asked for and what no one wants (ok, “no one” is an exaggeration, but you know what I mean).
The report on Chineses auto exports increasing 140% dovetails nicely with the article yesterday and Honda’s CEO admitting they are in trouble.
It needs to be the Ford F-150.
…or a Maverick.
I think build an efficiency focused hybrid. So far the hybrids we are getting seem to be designed to deliver big engine performance or better so they aren’t as efficient as the base model gas only trucks. A body on frame truck that gets around 30mpg would be brilliant, and would do a ton for the environment.
Styling wise, that’s really it. A lot of truck buyers probably aren’t interested in buying one of Kia or Hyundai’s techno-creations. The F150 Lightning and Maverick are both electrified vehicles that don’t obnoxiously advertise it. I think the Tasman looks busy, but I’d consider it. Cracking the Ford/Chevy/Dodge-Ram market in the US won’t be easy, but maybe they can sway enough R1T and Slate customers away to make it work? It’s a different demographic.
What does that even mean? They didn’t beg hard enough? That’s so weird!
It means they haven’t delivered Orange Foolius his solid gold F-150 yet.
It means they didn’t ask on a Tuesday because TACO Tuesday.
Ten praising tweets a day for five days and they would have had their tariff exception. Dummies.
This means Ford’s lobbyists didn’t bring enough bags of money to the White House.
I know that may seem cynical, but in 2024, Dear Leader’s net worth was estimated at $3.9 billion. In 2026, it’s $7.3 billion. Some is attributed to crypto, other increases to social media (probably BS valuation) and the rest to “licensing” deals. Ford needs to “license” something like the “F150 Trump Grand Flatus Edition” to see some tariff relief.
I just put myself on a list.
I mean, if we’re just making up things, let’s go with the Ford F150 6’3″ 220lb Edition
F150 FIFA Peace Prize edition?
So Kia officially confirmed that we’ll get a K4 hybrid? I’d be really interested in a fully loaded K4 hatchback with a hybrid powertrain; hopefully it doesn’t use a DCT like the upcoming Seltos hybrid.
I’m curious to see which way they go. Basically all their hybrids are a 1.6L with a six speed but some get a turbo and others a DCT instead of the traditional auto.
I’ve rented a Niro several times and it drives well with the non-turbo and slush box and returned 50 + mpg in mixed driving. Can’t see any reason to complicate things with a turbo or DCT
The Niro is a dry dual clutch transmission, the Sportage or Sorento with the turbo hybrid version of the same 1.6L engine used the conventional automatic transmission
Good to know. I curious why they don’t simplify the lineup and pick one transmission. Maybe the DCT can’t take the higher torque or isn’t set up for AWD.
There’s potentially a third HEV transmission for this engine displacement on the HEV if the reports of the turbo 1.6 HEV in the next seltos has the dct instead of the planetary setup
“…hey have not requested tariff relief on this matter in a particularly pronounced way,”
It’s sad that our current administration speaks like a generic Hollywood mob character.
Bribes. They’re asking for bribes, Matt.
^^^ Bingo ^^^
I was thinking the lack of a “pronounced way” was that Ford didn’t come into the white house with a visible hardon for the resident, but same thing basically
Just give the man a golden trophy and this will all go away.
The statement from the White House is obviously telling us Ford didn’t bribe Trump to get what they wanted.
It’s not that they’re saying the quiet part out loud so much as there are no “quiet parts” anymore.
Exactly. I hate this reality right now.
Kia is swinging for the King, but they haven’t shown great aim so far. This might not go well.
Toyota is not worried until the numbers reflect anything at all. Toyota definitely has a track record when it comes to playing the long game.
I was about to correct you on this with Hudson of Hornet fame, but TIL that brand was not named for the Hudson River, Hudson Bay or their namesake Henry Hudson of the Dutch East India Company
Henry Hudson wasn’t Dutch either – He just worked for them.
I had to look that up too…
Started researching to see if there were any others. Decided to try and shortcut with ChatGPT.
So close.I tried to force it into recognising the Kia Tasman, and it then tried to gaslight me about it.
Maybe the Tasman is so fucking ugly that even AI wants to pretend it doesn’t exist.
The response from the White House is a little puzzling.
Evergreen statement