The Kia Telluride is a mighty fine SUV, but what would it look like if the South Korean automaker decided to make it into a pickup truck? As it turns out, quite interesting.
The following renderings come from the Kia Telluride Forums and imagine a unibody pickup that would rival vehicles like the Honda Ridgeline. By basing the vehicle on the Telluride, Kia would be able to retain the SUV’s powertrain and most of its mechanical components.
Of course, the third row of seats has been eliminated in favor of a bed. Admittedly, the one depicted appears to be quite small and probably wouldn’t be substantial enough to attract a great deal of customers. However, if this were a true model, it probably would have had a more sizeable bed.
The actual Telluride is powered by a 3.8-liter V6 that offers up 291 hp and 262 lb-ft (355 Nm) of torque, which is more than enough to propel the three-row, full-size SUV.
Of course, the biggest question of all is whether or not Kia will ever build a pickup truck. We know that Hyundai intends on doing just that with a road-going version of the Santa Cruz Concept and, late last year, Kia admitted that it could look at producing a pickup, perhaps one to rival vehicles like the Renault Alaskan, Mercedes-Benz X-Class, and Mitsubishi L200, although more recently they said that, although it’s an option, their current focus is on SUVs and sedans instead.
