It’s true. It’s happening. And it could end up being the most Australian ute in the world after the Ford Ranger.
That’s right, design and development for the Kia Tasman is well underway, with the company promising that the dual-cab ute rival to the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max, Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton will be in dealerships in Australia sometime between June, 2025 and June, 2026.
Confirmed this week in Sydney by Kia Motors Australia (KMAu) newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer, Damien Meredith, it places Australia front and centre in a leading role in how the Tasman will shape up.
And speaking of roles, it’s no coincidence either that Meredith – who steps up from Chief Operating Officer – is the first non-Korean person to achieve CEO status at KMAu, as well as the guardian of the Tasman’s transition from concept to showroom blockbuster.
“We’re confident that in the next 24 to 36 months it will be in Australia,” he revealed. “(But) there’s still a bit of work to do in regard to a host of things.”
“We’re getting there… but it’s been a long, long, long, long trail.”
With all that in mind, here’s what we learnt this week about the exciting new Tasman.
Tasman mania
Firstly, that name is not set in stone by any means, but a working title to let the world know that this ute is going to take the fight right up to the current and proudly Australian-engineered benchmark of the segment, the Ranger.
Ute genesis
Secondly, since the decision to play in this class was made some five years ago, the latest Ranger and others have kept KMAu’s product planners on their toes as to what needs to be achieved in order to topple the best.
“It’s been a bit of a moving target in regard to specification and design and pricing,” Meredith admitted.
“We think we’re getting closer and we’re pretty happy about that.”
Australia a priority
Thirdly, Australia likely got the project over the line, with a projected annual sales number of at least 20,000 units elevating the Tasman to top-five seller status and making this country one of the biggest in the world in terms of overall volume aspirations.
“We said at the beginning, back in 2018, that where we were taking the brand and developing the dealer network, we believed that we could possibly do 10 per cent of the LCV (Light Commercial Vehicle) market,” Meredith said.
“That hasn’t changed and that has been a common thing I’ve been saying for five years.”
In layman’s terms, 10 per cent of the 4×2/4×4 ute market last year translates to 23,000 units, considering that – in a severely supply-restricted market – Australians still managed to buy nearly 229,000 of them.
Australia’s influence
Fourthly, Australia’s similarity to other key markets like the Middle East and South Africa makes it ideally placed to influence the Tasman.
“A substantial amount of input (in terms of design and engineering), where a lot of work has already begun and been done, to – as much as possible – influence the development to suit our market,” according to KMAu product planning boss, Roland Rivero.
“Lots of visitors have made the trip (to Australia) … engineers from Namyang (Kia’s design and engineering headquarters in South Korea), getting acquainted with our market, getting acquainted with our customers and dealers… and basically bolstering our understanding of what our market requires and needs by way of a ute.
“When you’re involved this far out, Australia’s role is being seen as a very important one relative to a lot of markets.”
Ford Ranger’s influence
Rivero also singled out the Ranger as an influence that underlines the importance of Australia, as well as what the Tasman needs to be in the eyes of the ute consumer.
“If you dissect the market and look at where the key areas and who are the main benchmarks, that has evolved,” he added.
“Obviously over the last couple of years, from when we started the conversation, there has been an all-new Ranger that has come about, and so has Amarok, and it was critical that they understood who the main benchmarks were.
“Features, towing capacities, payloads, body styles (that sort of thing).”
Australian testing right now!
To that end, the Tasman is already undergoing testing in Australia, with long-time KMAu collaborator Gambold Testing Services (GTS) providing extensive research and development testing to ensure suitability to our conditions.
“We’ve done work with vehicles up there,” GTS owner Graeme Gambold revealed. “It’s a pretty known technology, in terms of durability and everything.
“If you look back at Kia’s range, ladder-frame vehicles are what they grew from, it’s not completely knew like EVs are or something like that, so there’s a lot of pre-existing knowledge within the R&D centre (in Namyang) on how to build LCV platforms, so I don’t think durability or bringing such vehicles to market falls short of what it should be.”
Futureproofing Tasman
KMAu is also keenly aware that the Tasman has to be better than Ranger, which means being futureproofed against coming crash-performance, safety and emissions legislation, among other requirements.
“Even though we already have Ranger and Amarok, they were rated under 2022 ANCAP parameters,” Rivero said.
“We’re aware of what’s to come, and we’re aware of how long the common life of an LCV is, and that it has to have longevity and have to be suitable for our market. All of those have been looked at.”
Still time to change things
Meredith’s replacement as COO, Dennis Piccoli, added that the Tasman still has time to pivot towards whatever is needed leading up to its 2025/26 launch, as things can change if necessary.
“I was up (in Namyang) last week, and the big focus of the engineers is to get this thing right,” he said. “But nothing’s in concrete yet. So, it will evolve, and if it needs certain changes in certain technologies or changes in certain directions, it will get them.
“It’s a very big focus on making sure that it is very suitable for this market, so the chief engineer from there down is listening to Roland and Roland’s group to make sure it is right.”
Tasman: what we might get
Finally, Rivero hinted at what the Tasman range might look like, and whether it will go head-to-head with everything Ford offers with Ranger.
“We are adamant that we need to look at the entirety of the category and strategically target all the major parts of it,” he said.
Of course, this raises more questions than answers.
Will it actually be called Tasman? Will the ute be built in Korea or – like the rest of the top-selling dual-cab utes sold in Australia – be made in Thailand? Or even in South Africa? And how low will the price go, given the brand’s march upmarket over the past few years?
Stay tuned for more very, very soon.
Keyword: Move over, Ford Ranger: Why the 2025 Kia Tasman is a new type of Australian dual-cab ute, with timings and more confirmed!