Can the Kia Tasman be a success despite its exterior design?

Apparently, the ute buyers of Australia are warming to the controversial exterior design of the new 2025 Kia Tasman.

At least that’s what the executive team at Kia Australia is insisting as the most important launch in its history is rolled out.

“Road presence will dilute the angst we have seen,” insisted Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith.

“We have seen the dial change to well, ‘I’ve seen it in the flesh now, it’s not too bad’.”

The Tasman was revealed to the world simultaneously in the Middle East and the Tasmanian capital, Hobart, in October 2024.

The public response then was overwhelmingly negative and brought an impassioned defence from the design team responsible for it.

Now it’s had time to stew, Meredith said he’s seeing more positive responses to the vehicle since its initial reveal.

“The angst of the initial aspect when we first launched in the Middle East and Hobart simultaneously, I think it’s dulled dramatically since then.”

In response to a question about whether Kia would consider a change to the Tasman’s “aesthetics”, its global development chief Gwang Hoon Heo suggested that was doable.

“I think for the model development stage based on your feedback, Australia is the number one market for us that’s why we applied all your feedback,” he said. “But if there is a missing [sic] we will keep updating.”

There are three key exterior elements that draw ire: the squared off body, the horizontal fender flares and the ‘blind’ front-end design.

Kia has responded to the criticisms by introducing body coloured fender flares for two of the eight colours offered with the Tasman – Clear White and Tan Beige. The rest stick with dark grey.

“It [Tasman] was never designed to have body coloured fender flares,” Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero said.

“We did have a bit of a study tour with our fleet customers and they spoke directly to HQ.

“The request came … for a nice clean canvas for their livery and the request was to try to keep that as minimal contrast as possible.

“We responded to the fleet customer request and that’s why it was done on the clear white. On the tan beige, it’s more for the Middle East.”

The Tasman is launching in Australia with 11 variants, including dual-cab pick-up 4x4, dual-cab pick-up 4x2, dual-cab chassis 4x4, single-cab chassis 4x4 and single-cab chassis 4x2 configurations.

All are powered by a 2.2-litre 154kW/440Nm turbo-diesel engine mated with an eight-speed auto and boast one-tonne payloads and 3500kg braked towing.

Pricing ranges from $38,010 to $74,990 plus on-road costs with at least 20,000 sales per annum forecast locally.

Australia is a key market pivotal to the Tasman’s viability. It has also been a critical development and testing venue.

At the launch last week, Kia reported 2500 advanced orders with the top-spec Tasman X-Pro the most popular choice.

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