Kia is leaving all options on the table with its forthcoming pick-up, including a segment-disrupting electric version
An all-electric version of the all-new 2025 Kia Tasman ute could grace Australian showrooms as early as 2026, with local Kia officials this week emphasising the new pick-up is well and truly future-proofed for the fast-changing dual-cab market.
Kia Australia last month told its dealers that the first Kia ute would arrive Down Under in 2025, but in a roundtable interview with journalists this week chief executive officer Damien Meredith was more circumspect in his forecast, saying the so-called Tasman will be released here “in 24 to 36 months”.
However, carsales understands that Meredith was in fact referring to the rollout of the entire Tasman line-up, indicating the diesel version will arrive just before the end of the next financial year in June 2025, followed by a fully electric version only 12 months later in mid-2026 (36 months from now).
And given that Kia has promised to launch not one but two electric utes globally by 2027 (as part of its rollout of 14 new EVs within the next five years), the battery-powered Tasman could followed just a year later by Kia’s first dedicated electric pick-up.
While the $93,000 rear-drive LDV eT60 became Australia’s first battery-electric ute in late 2022, Toyota could release a bespoke EV ute here as soon as 2024, in addition to an electrified version of its next HiLux post-2025, and the Kia Tasman EV will also face competition from a gaggle of other new electric ute rivals in coming years.
Toyota BEV ute concept
“We announced to our dealer network that it’s happening and we’re confident that in the next 24 months to 36 months, it will be in Australia,” Meredith said during this week’s media briefing.
“There’s still a bit of work to do… We haven’t got a great amount of information to share with you but we’re getting there. It has been a long, long, long trail.”
Kia Australia has spoken about its desire for a ute for more than five years and the Korean brand insists it is acutely aware of the changing landscape within the booming Aussie ute market.
An EV would certainly help Kia get a headstart in an emerging part of the lucrative hay-hauler market, but Kia has also made no secret of its desire to offer Ford Ranger Raptor levels of performance in the segment.
As we reported yesterday, Kia has left the door open to using the Stinger’s twin-turbo petrol V6 for its high-performance Tasman, but there’s speculation the EV version will in fact be the flagship Raptor rival.
Ford Ranger Raptor
“Raptor has been around for a while – back when we started this program it was a four-cylinder bi-turbo,” Kia Australia product planning boss Roland Rivero told journalists this week.
“You’re always looking at the main benchmarks,” he said, adding that the Tasman will be ahead of the curve in terms of technology, comfort and safety – even in 2025.
Kia has heavily benchmarked the new Ford Ranger in its development of the ‘TK’ Tasman ute, which is based on an all-new ladder frame and will launch here within two years with a diesel engine, a full range of body styles and 1000kg payload and 3500kg towing capacities.
As part of a development program starting in 2020, it’s understood Kia engineers disassembled several production Rangers and conducted extensive back-to-back testing both on-road and off in a bid to build a better ute.
However, the Ranger will be three years old by 2025 and the first Kia ute will face stiff competition in the form of a new Toyota HiLux and co-developed Mitsubishi Triton and Nissan Navara models.
Asked this week whether they were concerned about the Tasman being outdated by the time it landed, Kia officials were unperturbed.
Source: Autospy.net
“It’s been a moving target in regards to specification, design and pricing. But those things are always churning away in the background,” Meredith said.
“We think we’re getting closer and we’re pretty happy about it.”
The Tasman is set to be produced in South Korea – a major point of difference from the bulk of Thai-built utes sold in Australia – and will be offered with Kia’s standard seven-year warranty.
Kia is hoping to leave no stone unturned with its forthcoming Tasman ute, with Australian officials confirming they plan to offer everything from trade-friendly variants through to the Raptor-level performance.
As one of the world’s biggest ute markets, Australia will be critical to the success of the new Korean ute. Extensive market research was conducted here and there’s been plenty of local input into its design and development.
As part of that, Kia Australia’s local chassis tuning chief Graeme Gambold has been in regular physical contact with the Korean R&D team behind the Tasman and will also oversee the local ride and handling program for the new model.
“It’s an exciting product range from an engineering point of view,” Gambold said.
“The challenge will be to make it as good as the prime benchmarks and that means some pretty tough work to get a heavy ladder-frame, high centre of gravity vehicle to be as good as what we can see in the current offerings.
“It hasn’t presented a challenge as yet, but I’m sure as we get to the fine-tuning stage there will be a lot of heated discussions as to which components get a slight upgrade and so on, which we’ll need to negotiate on.
“The suppliers and the head office are pretty keen on making sure they get it right.”
Digital images: Kleber Silva. Spy photo: AutoSpy.net
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Keyword: Kia Tasman EV ute to debut locally in 2026