Kia Tasman
The Kia Tasman is a mid-size pickup truck manufactured and marketed by Kia since 2025. It is built on a body-on-frame chassis, and powered by turbocharged four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines.
It was unveiled simultaneously in two locations on 29 October 2024 at the Jeddah International Motor Show in Saudi Arabia, and in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Etymology
The vehicle is named after the Tasman Sea, located between Australia and New Zealand. According to Kia, the name was chosen due to the importance of the Australian and New Zealand markets for the vehicle.Overview
The Tasman is produced in South Korea, with Australia targeted to be one of the main markets for the vehicle. Kia claimed the Tasman is "the most Australian vehicle" it has ever developed. Kia Australia claimed a major involvement in the development of the pickup truck, and targeted around 10 percent of pickup truck market share in the country once the Tasman went on sale.The Tasman is built on an all-new platform, and slated to compete with the Ford Ranger, Isuzu D-Max, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Toyota Hilux, and matches their braked towing capacity of and a payload of around.
The name 'Tasman' was confirmed in April 2024, before the first official appearance of the Tasman on 23 April 2024, when Kia Australia released images showing the vehicle wrapped in artistic camouflage sticker designed by local artist Richard Boyd-Dunlop.
The Tasman, which required four years of development and more than 18,000 quality tests. Every Kia design studio worldwide contributed twenty initial Tasman design studies to the project. They were later reduced to three final full-size proposals shown to Kia regions and the winner was subsequently chosen.
The Tasman is offered with four bed accessory configurations: Single Decker, Double Decker, Sports Bar and Ladder Rack. There are chassis cab and single cab models.
The Tasman Weekender concept was unveiled on 8 April 2025.
Exterior
The Tasman features the Kia's Opposites United design philosophy with the Kia Tiger Face. There are vertically positioned lighting signature in the headlights, front windshield and rear window positioned at 45°, and the stamped Kia logo on the tailgate. The wheel arches incorporate additional elements within them such as additional storage, fuel port access and the front headlights.Interior
The interior of the Tasman was designed based on the theme of “use-case”.Inside, the Tasman features a triple screen layout with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, 5-inch display for the HVAC controls and a 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system. Like all Kia products, the Tasman includes the brand’s ten must have sustainable items used for the crash pad, seats and interior carpet. Other interior features include dual wireless charging pads, a folding centre console, a Harman Kardon sound system, and a 33-litre hidden storage area under the rear seat bases.
For passenger space, the Tasman has 940mm of headroom, shoulder room and legroom for rear seat space. The rear seats are able to recline up to 30°.
The load bed in the Tasman measures at,, and, in length, width, and height, respectively. This has a cargo capacity at, a maximum load bed payload of in 2WD mode, and a towing capacity of.
Powertrain
Safety
For the suspension, the front uses a double wishbone setup and the rear uses a rigid axle setup with leaf springs combined with vertical shock absorbers. Both setup features Kia’s frequency selective Sensitive Damper Control and Hydraulic Rebound Stop technology.The AWD system automatically switches to provide enough traction on different road surfaces and has three standard driving modes - ECO, Smart and Sport. In addition to the standard driving modes, there are various terrain modes available depending on the relevant market. Other drivetrain features are Electronic Locking Differential, an X-Trek mode that allows for low-speed off-road driving, and Kia's Ground View Monitor camera system. The Tasman is available with Advanced Driver Assistance System and Highway Driving Assist 2 safety systems, both systems have been adapted with trailer profile functionality.
Markets
The initial rollout target markets included Korea, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Africa, and the Middle East. Notably, Kia has announced that the Tasman will not be available in the United States, Canada, or Mexico, at least not for the 2025 model.Middle East
The Tasman went on sale in August 2025, it offers several trims in the Middle East, primarily differentiated by drivetrain, off-road capability, luxury features, and accessories, with five main variants available in the UAE: LX 2WD, LX 4WD, EX, X-Line, and X-Pro+. All trims share a 2.5L turbo petrol, producing of torque or optional 2.2L turbo diesel with 8-speed automatic.Oceania
Australia
The Tasman went on sale in Australia on 17 April 2025, with customer deliveries later commenced in July 2025. At launch, the Tasman was available as a dual-cab pick-up model and it is available in five variants: S, SX, SX+, X-Line and X-Pro. All variants powered by the 2.2-litre CRDi turbocharged diesel engine and all variants comes standard with 4x4, except for the base S variant which comes standard with 4x2.In August 2025, the single-cab and dual-cab chassis models were added to the line-up for the S and SX variants. All single-cab and dual-cab chassis model variants are standard with 4x4, except for the single-cab chassis S variant.