Kia Tasman road show cancelled

The “unprecedented” road show to introduce the controversially-styled Kia Tasman ute to the Australian public has been cancelled.

Announced at last November’s global public reveal of the Tasman in Hobart, the road show has foundered because Kia Australia was unable to obtain the necessary vehicles to distribute fairly across its network of 140 dealers.

“It’s hard to do a national road show with only two vehicles,” Kia Australia marketing general manager Dean Norbiato told carsales.

The first time Kia dealers will gain substantial access to the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux fighter will be when it goes on-sale early in the second half of 2025.

Kia is playing down the impact the road show’s cancellation will have on the Tasman, which it is forecasting to sell between 20,000-25,000 examples of per year.

That would likely propel Kia Australia beyond 100,000 sales annually and into second place in the market behind dominant Toyota.

Helping sustain local Kia management’s belief is a record 25,000 expressions of interest (EOIs) for the Tasman on its website.

Norbiato said the vehicles were not available for the road show because testing and development work was still underway.

“The need for any available vehicle to be with the engineers for fine tuning has taken precedence, which is understandable,” he said.

“We want to get the product right first and foremost and the first steps with the customers need to be the right ones.

“So having the best possibly-engineered product is an imperative and most important.

“So, unfortunately, there are not a wealth of Tasmans in the country so we can do as much pre-promotion as we would like.”

With just two vehicles available, Kia has opted for a series of targeted promotional exercises such as the Brisban 4x4 show, the Avalon air show, this week’s Melbourne motor show and the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Norbiato says the Tasman’s public appearances are producing a positive response to its polarising exterior design.

“The common theme is ‘my God that looks better in person’,” he said. “And we are starting to see different colours and not just black under harsh lights, but in Tan Beige and Stellar Grey.

“You are starting to see a narrative shift.

“We do heavy analysis per interaction and it’s 80 per cent positive.”

Norbiato said the Tasman’s record EOIs were boosted by 20 per cent when the second round of television advertising for the vehicle kicked off coinciding with the 2025 NRL season.

“We’ve never had more expressions of interest on a product than Tasman,” confirmed Norbiato.

“Look, also, it is the second biggest category behind medium SUV – one in every five cars sold in  this country – so we have never had a product in this category.

“So we are not surprised by a level of interest in a very important and mature category in Australia.”

The next likely milestone for Tasman will be the announcement of pricing. Norbiato confirmed it has been locked in, but the reveal date has not.

“I’m really encouraged by it [pricing],” he said. “Hopefully we have something to share not too far away with regards to that.”