The Kia Tasman ute is one of the most anticipated new cars coming to Australia in the next 12 months.
The Tasman is expected to be unveiled this year and will be available in Australia in time for the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament. It will fill another gap in the Kia range locally and challenge Mazda and Ford for second place in the VFACTS sales charts.
Like the best-selling Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, it is a body-on-frame vehicle with a boxy design.
Kia has confirmed it wants to compete with current segment leaders, meaning the Tasman will have to offer a braked towing capacity of 3,500kg and a payload of 1,000kg on some variants.
However, it won’t have a V6 engine to rival the higher-end variants of the Ranger.
As recently reported, the Tasman will launch in Australia with a four-cylinder turbodiesel engine. Kia has not announced any plans to add a six-cylinder engine or hybrid and plug-in hybrids to the lineup, as most of its competitors are also sold with four-cylinder engines.
On the outside, our renderings – and the camouflaged prototype they are based on – show that the Tasman will have a very distinctive design.
Based on the spy photos and our current renderings, the cabin should be a pretty luxurious place to stay.
Expect a version of the dual-screen infotainment setup to roll out across the Kia range, although the exact difference from its less robust SUV siblings isn’t yet clear.
A retro T-bar shifter and large four-wheel drive dials are also likely to be present.
Our renders suggest chunky door grab handles, but lots of leather in the high-end GT Line models. At the rear, the window line is significantly curved, which also affects the view to the rear.
While the Tasman is produced in South Korea, Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith says the Australian division has played an important role in ensuring it can keep up with rivals who dominate the local sales race.
“The Kia Australia team has worked closely with the research and development team at headquarters to develop the Tasman, a vehicle that we believe will meet the needs of our unique market. “So it’s very pleasing that he has been given a name that is appropriate for his personality,” said Mr Meredith.
“We have great ambitions for Tasman in our market and the fact that its name has such a clear connection to our region is testament to Kia Australia’s critical role in its development and future success.”
Kia has previously said it wants the Tasman to account for 10 per cent of Australian light commercial vehicle sales.
Almost 240,000 vehicles were sold in Australia in 2023, including 1.2 million new car sales recorded in the 12-month period.
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