Kia is about to be in the pickup truck business in a bigger way than ever. The South Korean carmaker already makes a pickup and has done since 1980, the pocket-sized Bongo cabover available in global markets that leans almost exclusively to the commercial market. The Kia Tasman jumps into the midsize segment with a focus on retail light-duty buyers. It’s not likely for the U.S., but Kia’s given itself a scaled-down version of a potential eventual U.S. challenge by focusing on Australia. In 2022, sales of utes, as they’re called down there, were more than 18% of the overall market. According to Australia’s Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, out of the 1,216,780 vehicles sold down under in 2023, the Ford Ranger claimed the title of overall best-seller, breaking the Toyota Hilux’s seven-year streak in the position. The Hilux slotted into second, the Isuzu Ute D-Max came third. That’s three pickups leading the Toyota RAV4 in fourth, a copy of the state of affairs in the U.S. last year but a size down (here it was F-150, Silverado, Ram, RAV4).
There’s a steep drop after the top two, though. After Ranger and Hilux sales in the low sixty thousands, the D-Max rings in the low thirties, the next best Mazda BT-50 in the upper teens. The Volkswagen Amarok moved 6,626 units, only about 700 ahead of the Ram 1500. Point being that there’s money in play in the pickup segment, but Kia will need to fight for attention among a crowded midfield.
It’s clear Kia plans to spread the word around the world, even though the announced markets so far only include Oz, South Korea, Africa and the Middle East. The automaker uploaded a 30-second teaser to YouTube ahead of releasing a web series on the Tasman’s development. All we’re told for now is that engineers conducted 1,777 different types of tests to create and refine the Tasman, multiple rounds of each test adding up to about 18,000 individual evaluations.
Unless Kia creates capacity to build the Tasman here, which could depend on a sibling SUV on the same platform getting the green light, the chicken tax rules the Tasman out. The first episode in the R&D series drops July 22, that’s when we’ll begin to find out what we’re missing.