Kia Tasman SUV: “We can turn it around quickly”

Kia Australia has emerged from the local release of the Tasman ute encouraged that a spin-off SUV to fight the Toyota Prado and Ford Everest is within reach.

While a business case is yet to be signed off, feedback from Korean engineers at the launch of the Tasman indicated such a vehicle could be executed quickly.

This latest update follows on from earlier hints that the SUV is on the way and as per the Tasman, Australia would be a key market.

That gives the local Kia division substantial voice at the table in pushing for its approval and its subsequent developments.

Kia Australia has committed to selling at least 20,000 Tasmans per year, amounting to a quarter of the global production run.

As reported here, Tasman’s success in Australia is critical to the program’s global survival.

But given the large ladder frame SUV market sits at less than half the volume of 4x4 utes in Australia after six months of 2025, it’s fair to theorise that lower sales volumes for the SUV would be on the table.

The good news, according to Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero, is that a Tasman-based SUV would not be a start from scratch exercise, so development costs will also be lower.

“It [program costs] doesn’t have to be multiplied by two just to do an SUV,” he said.

Rivero was encouraged by responses about the SUV from the two senior Korean engineers who attended the Australian Tasman media launch last week.

“What I was pretty happy with – because it was brought up several times with the engineers here – the chassis vice president basically said we could turn it around very quickly, [because] we already have the foundations,” he said.

“It was good to hear from our engineers that if the market is growing for an SUV, that is something that they would entertain and look at very seriously.”

A Tasman SUV would launch in Australia with the same 2.2-litre turbo-diesel/eight-speed automatic powertrain as the ute and ideally retain a 3500kg braked towing.

It would almost certainly only be offered as a 4x4 as Australia’s new NVES CO2 reduction scheme makes 4x2 diesel SUVs more expensive; the Ford Everest 4x2 has already been axed and the Isuzu MU-X 4x2 is headed the same way.

As per the orthodox ladder frame SUV structure, the Tasman SUV swap to a coil spring rear end and offer both five- and seven-seat configurations.

At some stage, like Tasman, the SUV is expected be offered with an adapted version of the Hyundai Group’s new 2.5-litre petrol-electric hybrid system that debuted globally in the inbound second-generation Hyundai Palisade.

But all this is dependent on a business case that is still in the works.

“It hasn’t been green-lit because the business case is under study and it has to be a global business case and not just an Australian business case,” explained Rivero.

“After all the most respected markets have launched Tasman, what we need to do is what we did for Tasman.

“That is, have the global conversation of all the regions that get Tasman: ‘what numbers do you think you could do for an SUV?’.”

Meanwhile, a Tasman-based SUV wasn’t the only potential spin-off under discussion at last week’s launch.

Asked about the possibility of the Tasman Weekender Concept that debuted at the Seoul show last April making it to production, Tasman program boss Gwang Hoon Heo said:

“That is another opportunity for us. So if the Australian market really wants another model in the market we will seriously consider it, but now we are in very early stages … of feasibility.”

Yep bring it we say, with the Stinger’s twin-turbo V6 petrol engine!

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