2025 Kia Tasman ute to be officially announced in March

Local testing and promotion of the 2025 Kia Tasman ute will soon commence as the countdown to the mid-2025 launch of the highly-anticipated Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux rival looms.

In March, Kia Australia is formally expected to confirm its entry into the Australian ute market and announce the Tasman name.

While it’s already well-established the ute will be called Tasman, Kia has yet to actually make the announcement.

Acknowledging how well known the Tasman name for the ute already is, Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith joked in an interview with carsales last week that the ute was named after “a patch of water between Australia and New Zealand”.

Camouflaged pre-production examples of Tasman prototypes will also soon start arriving in Australia ahead of the reveal of the vehicle’s design, which is expected in the last quarter of 2024 (October-December).

“Expect to see a camouflaged prototype being driven around Australia this year before the reveal,” confirmed Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero.

With an annual sales target of up to 25,000 Tasmans, Kia Australia will be outstripped by only the Korean domestic market for anticipated annual ute sales. It has been more heavily involved in development of this model than any other in its history.

If Kia delivers on its sales target, the Tasman should be pivotal in lifting the auto brand to second on the Australian new-vehicle sales ladder behind dominant leader Toyota.

Meredith acknowledged the pressure of the situation: “Pressure creates diamonds,” he said.

Rivero and his product team have been to Korea to work on the Tasman numerous times and record numbers of Kia engineers have also made the trip to Australia for investigation of the local ute market.

There have also been tear-downs of rival utes.

“Australia is a major, major component of it [ute development],” said Rivero. “We are the biggest individual volume nation next to the Korean domestic market and that doesn’t happen [normally]. So we are a major focus.

“When it comes to development, the number of engineers involved and have visited Australia… has been unprecedented.

“It doesn’t happen for any other product. And there are more coming on a weekly [and] monthly basis.”

Rivero revealed key development challenges included achieving a five-star ANCAP safety rating for the Tasman, which will be tested against the latest 2023-2025 protocols.

Achieving five stars for vulnerable road user protection is one ANCAP hurdle, while fitting required corner radars and sensors to cab-chassis models is another.

Kia is also developing its own bull bar for the Tasman and not relying on the aftermarket to do the job – as Volkswagen has with the Amarok – because some potential fleet customers insist they will only buy a ute that is available with a factory bull bar.

Kia’s advice from fleets it has contacted is that while the base vehicle must be five-star, an abrogation of that rating by a bull bar is OK as long as it is a genuine factory item and not aftermarket.

“HR departments and fleet managers have policies they adhere to and we have to work within that as much as possible to make the car a success,” said Rivero.

Non-negotiables that Kia Australia insists on for the Tasman include a five-star ANCAP rating, 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity and a one-tonne payload.

Meredith said promoting the Tasman to private buyers or fleets had yet to kick into gear, but he was encouraged by responses so far.

“There’s a little bit [of interest] from a fleet point of view already. I know of a couple of smaller companies that I have talked to directly that are showing interest because they are Kia converts and they are looking forward to adding the ute to their fleets.”

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