Kia EV9 Pickup Rendering Depicts Future Electric Workhorse Aimed at the Cybertruck

So, when an EV9-like fully electric pickup truck prototype was spotted recently on North American roads, pretty much everyone stopped to take notice.

Before you say anything, we’re pretty sure it wasn’t the Tasman, since that one’s not going to be electric. Also, we already knew about the Korean carmaker’s plans to launch not one, but two electric pickup truck models by 2027, and them being hard at work testing one of them on public roads should come as no surprise.

What else can we tell you about that prototype? Well, it featured EV9-like headlights, although the taillights were very different. Think of it as sort of a Honda Ridgeline rival, but electric.

This begs the question – what would such a vehicle look like without any camouflage? Thankfully, the folks over at Kolesa started cooking almost immediately after those spy images first hit the web, and we’re now looking at the fruit of their labor.

What is it? Looks like an EV9 pickup to me, which to be fair is probably not what the real truck will end up looking like. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting design exercise. Should such a product ever make it into production (looking exactly like this rendering), I reckon it might even sway a few Cybertruck buyers from purchasing a Tesla.

Sure, the Cybertruck would still be the more spectacular vehicle, but just think about all the things Kia does better than Tesla: we’re talking more affordable cars and better built quality – people that are mindful of their “investments” would surely appreciate a reasonably priced EV9-inspired pickup truck, especially if it came with a sub-$60,000 base price, like the real EV9 SUV.

What type of powertrain would this have?

Fair question. Since the EV9 is based on the carmaker’s E-GMP platform, we reckon that would be what they’d use on a truck version too. This architecture is shared with the likes of the EV6, but also the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and the Genesis GV60.

As for performance, I’d skip the RWD variants and only make the 99.8 kWh Long Range specification available for the hypothetical EV9 pickup. It would offer 385 horsepower and 443 lb-ft of torque, getting such a vehicle to 60 mph in about 5.5 seconds or so.

Real-world rivals

Aside from maybe swaying a handful of people, I don’t really think that an EV9-based truck, or even one that mildly resembles the EV9, could truly compete with the Cybertruck. In reality, whatever Kia is planning for the U.S. market in terms of compact-sized electric trucks, they’re looking to be more of a pioneer in this segment. They probably know enough to stay away from the full-size category.