Next up in the product plan, the year 2019 will end with the production start of the Ceed SW plug-in hybrid in September and XCeed crossover in October. “Crossover” shouldn’t be taken seriously in this application, more so because the XCeed isn’t expected with all-wheel drive.
Moving on to 2020, theKEEA.com understands that three models are planned for this year. A fuel cell electric vehicle packaged as a sedan will enter production in January, followed by the next generation of the Sorento mid-size crossover in August and an electric vehicle in December.
Curiously enough, the product plan skips 2021 altogether. The year 2022 is when Kia plans to replace the Sedona in January. Even though the South Koreans aren’t big on commercial vehicles outside of their domestic market, the “Ford Ranger rival” is expected to enter production in June 2022.
Hyundai is in the process of putting the Santa Cruz concept into production, having finished the design for the interior and exterior of the compact pickup truck. The unibody workhorse has been eyed by Kia according to the chief operating officer and executive vice president of the automaker in the United States, adding that “it’s a long way down the road.”
It remains to be seen what platform will be utilized for the Santa Cruz, but so far, reports suggest the underpinnings will be shared with the next generation of the Hyundai Tucson. A long-wheelbase Tucson has been spied in South Korea at the beginning of the year, and unless Hyundai plans to launch a three-row version of the compact crossover, the prototype in question could be the test bed for the Santa Cruz pickup truck.
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