A smooth drive on rough roads

Kia Corporation unveiled the full details of the Kia Tasman, the brand’s first pickup truck.

The Kia Tasman has been designed to push the boundaries of what’s possible from a pickup and invites customers to “Dive into a New Dimension.” With its purposeful design and cutting-edge technology, combined with class-leading convenience features and an ultra-spacious, comfortable cabin, the Tasman is poised to redefine standards in the sector, allowing drivers to explore new horizons.

Leveraging more than five decades of expertise developing special-purpose vehicles, including off-roaders, the Kia Tasman is a truly transformative pickup truck that effortlessly meets the needs of both work and leisure activities.

Injecting the legacy of Kia’s SUV models with exceptional off-road capability, including the robust Mohave, the Kia Tasman has been comprehensively engineered to meet customers’ diverse needs across all forms of terrain.

“Kia’s first-ever pickup truck was created from the ground up to transform the market and respond to the growing preference for lifestyle-oriented trucks with advanced features,” said Ho Sung Song, president and CEO at Kia.

“The Kia Tasman is a progressive pickup truck that follows its own path — not the competition. The Kia Tasman combines true pickup values with exceptional capability and practicality, and advanced features that defy conventional thinking. This essence is instilled in our global slogan ‘Dive into a New Dimension,’ enabling customers to broaden their horizons. It offers world-first solutions for those seeking a lifestyle vehicle for leisure and outdoor activities while meeting the needs of small business operators, such as traders and farmers.”

Shunning the familiar

The Kia design team deliberately shunned the familiar form language that has dominated the pickup genre for decades. This fresh approach to aesthetics strips away the unnecessary to begin with a basic, honest form that highlights the vehicle’s sense of solid power through simple yet functional elements, without relying on the oversized styling that has come to dominate the pickup segment.

“Created especially for explorers, adventurers and people who like to get things done, the Kia Tasman is designed to serve as a dependable companion in every situation,” said Karim Habib, Executive Vice President and Head of Kia Global Design.

“Solid and capable, its design begins with an honest form, using simple and rugged elements to capture a spirit of practicality. The Kia Tasman is a pickup truck that effortlessly blends lifestyle and utility, and represents our commitment to always bring bold and innovative ideas to our customers.”

The Kia Tasman projects power, confidence and capability in equal measure. An expansive radiator grille and bumper design emphasize the pickup’s width, while the hood trim and grille frame the familiar Kia Tiger Face, featuring vertically oriented signature lighting incorporated into the headlamps.

The upright windshield and rear glass contribute to the Kia Tasman’s bold silhouette, reinforced by the 45-degree angles of the vehicle’s striking graphic elements. The unique fender design combines practical functions, such as headlights and storage units, demonstrating functionality and clear, confident design.

At the rear, the Kia Tasman visually reinforces its highly practical nature. The tailgate showcases a bold, stamped logo, while the tailgate handle and high-mounted stop-lamp are seamlessly integrated for enhanced functionality and a utilitarian character.

Inside its purity and practicality combined

Just as the Kia Tasman’s exterior aesthetic breaks free from conventional thinking, the pickup’s interior introduces a bold new dimension of design quality for pickup customers. Purity and simplicity are prioritized in equal measure through a practical cabin that will remain a dependable partner to the user through the years.

The robust and rugged space is in keeping with the character of a pickup truck. The interior design leverages concise, symmetrical proportions to create a stable, balanced appearance.

Large air vents featuring a honeycomb pattern — a key theme of the interior — emphasize the functionality of the ventilation. A multi-function steering wheel and the modern, minimalist lower center dashboard and tunnel sections with carefully positioned buttons provide intuitive control of the Kia Tasman’s advanced technology. Luxurious, sophisticated shapes and details applied throughout the cabin raise the bar further for pickup interior design.

State-of-the-art 12.3-inch + 5-inch + 12.3-inch panoramic widescreen technology gives the driver and passenger access to vehicle controls and advanced infotainment options. An optional eight-speaker Harmon Kardon premium audio system allows users to take full advantage of the standard-fit Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration.

To support its customers in new and more meaningful ways in both their business and leisure activities, Kia has equipped the Tasman’s interior with a broad range of innovative features and equipment. These include a large folding console table, dual wireless charging pads and hidden storage bins concealed beneath the rear seats offering class-leading storage capacity of 33 liters. The Kia Tasman also boasts best-in-segment headroom, shoulder room and second-row legroom of 940mm, with the rear seats able to recline between 22 and 30 degrees, ensuring a spacious and comfortable environment.

Trims and specifications

The Kia Tasman is offered as a double cab base model and in X-Line and X-Pro trim. The X-Pro provides superior off-road performance thanks to its 28mm higher ground clearance, which totals 252mm. It is equipped with 17-inch gloss-black wheels with all-terrain tires, while X-Line features larger 18-inch alloy wheels paired with highway and terrain tires.

Additionally, Kia provides customizable chassis cab variants to meet specific business needs, along with single cab options that optimize bed space by reconfiguring the passenger compartment into a single row layout.

Customization is central to the Kia Tasman’s appeal, with a range of accessories available designed to enhance leisure and work activities, enabling consumers to tailor their orders to their specific preferences. These accessories are standardized in design, innovative and unique in character, and provide versatile real-world solutions that enable users to make the most of their vehicle’s spaciousness, practicality and go-anywhere ability.

The Kia Tasman will be offered with four bed accessory configurations: Single Decker, Double Decker, Sports Bar and Ladder Rack, with the first three available immediately from launch. In addition, there will be a total of 13 accessory products offered , including two types of side steps and beadlock-style wheels.

The Tasman Single Decker features a canopy and butterfly doors for easy access, and a roof rack for a rooftop tent. The Tasman Double Decker features a trunk equipped with butterfly doors and a sliding tonneau cover, offering customizable cargo space. The Sports Roll Bar variant comes with a functional frame for mounting outdoor lifestyle items. The Ladder Rack variant features a ladder-type rack and is also compatible with rooftop tents.

Superior performance

Based upon a fully optimized body-on-frame platform, the Kia Tasman will be offered in Korea with a 281PS 2.5-liter petrol engine mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. With 421Nm of torque, the Kia Tasman can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 8.5 seconds and on to a maximum speed of 185km/h.

In the Australian market, the pickup will feature a 210PS 2.2-liter diesel engine paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission. Producing 441Nm of torque, the engine can propel the Kia Tasman from 0-100km/h in 10.4 seconds, while top speed remains unchanged.

In other regions, such as the Middle East and Africa, customers can choose between the 2.5-liter petrol engine equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission, and a 2.2-liter diesel engine with a choice of an eight-speed automatic or six-speed manual transmissions (depending on market).

Utilizing an optimized composite bush structure to mount the Kia Tasman’s body to the frame-type chassis ensures improved rigidity, body control, stability and comfort. Equally, the double wishbone front suspension units have been developed to improve ride and handling in all conditions. The rear features a rigid axle with leaf springs for optimum robustness and load carrying capability, incorporating vertically mounted shock absorbers to ensure more effective damping and greater control, even at the extremes of suspension travel.

The capabilities provided by the front and rear suspension units are significantly enhanced by Kia’s frequency selective Sensitive Damper Control (SDC) and Hydraulic Rebound Stop technology. These further minimize vibration transmitted to the cabin and improve body control and comfort, even on the roughest terrain.

Safe to drive

To ensure that the Kia Tasman’s engine provides the level of protection expected by pickup customers when traversing water, Kia’s engineers have positioned the air intake inside the vehicle’s fender. This gives all Kia Tasman variants the ability to ford water up to 800mm deep at a speed of 7km/h. Further water ingress prevention measures, such as the use of waterproof connectors for selected interior parts, have also been taken to protect critical components, ensuring excellent durability in challenging conditions.

State-of-the-art all-terrain drivetrain technology tested and proven in numerous locations, including the snowy tundra of Sweden, scorching deserts in the Australian outback and the Al Qudra in UAE, and steep inclines in the US and Korea.

Both the X-Line and the X-Pro are equipped with all-wheel-drive as standard, which is optionally available on the base model. The AWD system switches automatically to the configuration required to provide optimum traction on different road surfaces and offers three driving modes — ECO, Smart and Sport — with various terrain modes available within these settings depending on the relevant market.

The X-Pro model provides an additional Rock mode, specifically designed to enhance performance on challenging mountainous terrains. In the Middle East and Africa, Desert, Mud, Snow and Rock modes are fitted to all-wheel-drive variants of the Kia Tasman. In Australia and all other general markets, all-wheel-drive variants are equipped with Sand, Mud, Snow and Rock modes.

Works everywhere

Kia’s designers and engineers have spared no detail to create a pickup truck that opens new dimensions of support for small business owners, such as traders, farmers and those working in outdoor environments with thoughtful and highly practical features.

Standard-fit items include corner steps, giving easy access to the illuminated load bed, while a power outlet (rated at 240 volts in Australia and 220 volts in other markets) for hand tools or laptops, and a sliding cargo floor that makes loading and unloading materials and equipment more convenient, are offered as optional features. Along with divider-forming capabilities for the bed, the Kia Tasman offers optional bedside flexibility, with a mini table for items such as a Bluetooth speaker or cup, making it ideal for work and camping activities.

Inside, the folding console table adds further versatility to the Kia Tasman, allowing it to transition from a work vehicle to a mobile business space. This gives users the opportunity to use their laptop for work or relaxation.

The Kia Tasman’s load bed is 1,512 mm long, 1,572 mm wide (1,186 mm between the wheels), and 540 mm deep, which provides best-in-class cargo capability of 1,173 liters (VDA). Thanks to a multi-skeleton, highly strengthened bed structure, the Kia Tasman can carry a maximum payload of 1,195kg in 2WD mode, in addition to a 3,500kg towing capacity.

Time for play

Ensuring that every element of the Kia Tasman’s chassis and suspension has been developed to soak up punishment across harsh off-road terrain also delivers excellent benefits for on-road driving. Predictable, engaging handling and a comfortable ride ensure that the Kia Tasman is a pickup that can be enjoyed to the full during.

Even on long highway journeys, features such as enhanced sound-deadening materials, additional wind-sealing strips and advanced noise extractor technology provide a hushed, vibration-free cabin ambience not typically available in the pickup truck sector.

Kia Tasman users can also benefit from the latest technology to help keep them safe on every journey. Not only do the pickup’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) offer features such as lane keeping assist, blind spot collision warning and remote parking assist through Highway Driving Assist 2, they have also been optimized with trailer profile functionality. This function enables the specification of the trailer to be incorporated into the pickup’s ADAS, which then automatically optimizes driving characteristics accordingly.

The Kia Tasman will initially launch in the Korean domestic market during the first half of 2025 before subsequently being introduced in Australia, Africa and the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia expected to be a particularly strong market.