2025 Kia Tasman ute to hit Australian roads soon

The 2025 Kia Tasman ute has been anointed as Kia’s “most Australian product ever”, as local development of the highly-anticipated Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux rival continues.

After commencing a lengthy teaser campaign last month, which featured a host of Aussie sporting royalty inside a pub, Kia is preparing to formally hit Australian roads in the coming months to embark on an unprecedented ride and handling program ahead of its showroom arrival in 2025.

“We’ve got a lot of local testing, durability and accessory development, and thousands of Australian-based kilometres to be chalked up in the coming months and we will obviously document all of that,” said Kia Australia marketing manager Dean Norbiato.

“It’s the most Australian-based product we’ve ever had. It’s documenting that path to launching mid-2025, which we’re still on track for.”

Kia Australia product planning boss Roland Rivero confirmed the local branch of the South Korean car-maker is currently readying a fleet of engineering development mules, which will be deployed around the country.

“In the second half of the year you’ll probably start to see heavily camouflaged test mules making tracks around Australia,” he said.

“The level of involvement from an Australian standpoint is unprecedented. We are the biggest market and as a result Kia values our input.”

As part of the development work, Kia says it will pitch the Tasman against its key rivals “in a proving ground environment”.

“Something as trivial as seats, they will be tested in Australia – both on-road and off-road,” Rivero said.

Much like rival brands, Kia will launch the Tasman in Australia with a full suite of in-house accessories, partnering with different aftermarket manufacturers.

Kia Australia is insistent on those suppliers being integrated into the development phase to ensure parts are consistent with Kia’s quality control.

“We’re breaking new ground,” Rivero said. “We’ve teamed up with multiple suppliers, but we can’t say who they are just yet.”

Kia is reluctant is nominate a pricing figure just yet for the Tasman, but believes it can compete favourably with Ranger, HiLux and other big players – as well as carrying over its existing seven-year factory warranty.

“If we’re targeting 20,000 sales per annum, we’re going to need to be competitive on price to get that number – about 10 per cent of the market,” Rivero said.

“Considering its capability and specification levels, it will be a good value-for-money proposition.”

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