As promised yesterday, I’m bringing you a story and more images about the beautiful Kia Mojave concept vehicle. This is Kia’s first ever pick up truck ever, but only in its concept form as for now.

2004 KIA MOJAVE

Kia Motors Corporation has rapidly expanded its product line-up in North America into several new segments, including the midsize SUV, large sedan and minivan categories, but at the Chicago International Auto Show in 2004 , the fastest-growing Korean car company held a world premier for something entirely different. A concept mid-size pick-up truck dubbed the KCV4 “Mojave.”

The first pick-up truck concept Kia has ever shown in the United States, the Mojave is specifically designed to meet the needs and tastes of North American consumers. However, due to the fact that KMC does not have a suitable manufacturing location to build a truck for North America, there are no production plans at this time.

“The idea behind the Mojave project was to take advantage of Kia’s research and development resources and create a concept vehicle that is closely aligned with Kia’s positioning in North America,” said Kia official.

“Despite the fact that we do not currently have a factory with the capacity, or the location, to manufacture this truck, the Mojave is an outstanding example of what Kia is capable of delivering, and will allow us to conduct consumer research at the Chicago International Auto Show to gauge consumers’ reactions.”

The Mojave was designed at the Kia/Hyundai Research & Design Center in NamYang, South Korea, under the direction of Lee Jae-Rim, Designer and Senior Research Engineer on the Advanced Design Team at Nam Yang.

“Our design objectives for the Mojave were unique in that we attempted to combine a forward-thinking cabin with an advanced, open and modern feel that would appeal to Generation Y consumers,” said Mr. Lee. “Alternately, the exterior design combines a more traditional exterior truck profile made up of simple, basic forms that clearly communicate the rugged capability of the vehicle.”

At 130 inches, the Mojave’s wheelbase is considerably longer than the Kia Sorento platform on which it is based. The concept truck boasts a 3.8-liter, DOHC 24-valve V6 putting out an estimated 280 horsepower, coupled with a 5-speed electronically-controlled automatic transmission.

The Mojave uses power-assisted rack and pinion steering that was engineered to be capable of working with a hydraulically-controlled rear steering system that would provide maximum maneuverability while parking (counter-steer), and additional stability during lane changes or in heavy cross winds on the highway (same-phase steer).

The final piece of the handling equation is an aggressive tire and wheel package that includes 20-inch sport tires on 20-inch machine-finished wheels.

The KCV IV was named “Mojave” for two reasons. Not only does the name represent the ruggedness and beauty of the spectacular American Southwest, it also represents the geographic location (Mojave Desert, near California City, CA) where Kia and Hyundai R & D built a 4,300-acre, $50-million proving ground facility where the next generation Kia vehicles for the North American market are proving their mettle before receiving the final approvals for production.

More images: [click image to enlarge]

We have already seen some spy shots and interior teaser pictures from Kia, so we can imagine how Kia’s first full size SUV will look like. But one thing we were missing and were not convinced about, is the name of it. Not anymore!

There has been a lot of guesswork done about the name in last few months. First, Kia released a concept car named Mesa at NAIAS last year, so everybody thought this is the name for production vehicle.Right after that we heard about Offenbach, which sounds very German by the way.

But at the end, Kiaworld blog found out, that the SUV name will probably be Mojave! On the 1st of August, Kia trademarked two names for U.S. market; Mojave and Mohave. Names were chosen for a SUV vehicle. So we can assume that at least in US market, Kia’s full size SUV is going to be named Mojave.

Mojave sounds familiar doesn’t it?! Well, everyone knows Mojave desert in USA that covers about 125,000 square kilometers of southern Nevada, western Arizona, southwestern Utah, and southeastern California. But do you know that Mojave is also a name for Kia’s pick-up truck concept car from 2004?

We will write a story about that later today, just to remember you how Kia’s cool concept car looked like!

You can see Mojave teaser picture and additional information here: Teaser shot (click here)

Seems like our colleagues at Auto.cz have a reliable source of when and where is Kia testing their pre-production vehicles. They were getting tons of Kia/Hyundai spy pictures lately.

The vehicle looks boxy, but it’s meant to be this way! Younger generation people just love that. Look at the success Toyota achived with it’s youth oriented Scion brand in last few years. And Kia is targeting the same population with the upcoming Soul crossover.

Will Kia succeed? What do you think? 

Click image to enlarge:

  [Photo source: auto.cz]