2025 Kia Tasman ute hoped to rocket South Korean brand up Australian sales charts
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Kia Australia will boldly enter the dual-cab ute market in 2025, alongside the launch of its most affordable electric car yet – models which could see the brand move into second place on the sales charts.
The hotly-anticipated 2025 Kia Tasman ute – the car maker's first dual-cab ute to tackle the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux – arrives in Australia in 2025, as part of what is tipped to be a record year for the brand.
Due in July next year, the diesel-powered Tasman is strongly focused on the Australian customer and follows utes from other brands – such as Ford and Toyota – in being tested Down Under.
The first vehicle to arrive in Australia with a Kia badge was the 1991 Kia Ceres, a cab-chassis light truck imported privately, with the Kia Mentor small car and Sportage SUV formally launching the brand locally in 1997.
Yet Kia's global transformation in the past decade, culminating with a new logo in 2022 after its product revolution came with a more upmarket, stylish persona.
The Tasman is looking to mix that style with muddy boots, cattle dogs and wide-brimmed hats in a way the brand hasn't attempted before.
"The expressive design that we’ve created is obviously – with the market being so well established – had to be something new,” Kia’s Vice President of Next Exterior Design, John Buckingham, told local media including Driveat the unveiling of the Tasman’s unconventional styling.
Given the best-selling vehicle in Australia for much of the past decade has been a dual-cab ute – in the form of the Toyota HiLux and more recently the Ford Ranger – even minor success in the segment could push Kia into new sales territory.
Kia pipped Hyundai – with both brands part of the Hyundai Motor Group – in the Australian sales race in 2023 by less than 1000 cars, doing so despite falling just short of its best annual sales figure, with 77,830 deliveries in 2022.
MORE: Designer reveals why 2025 Kia Tasman ute looks so different
Kia streaked further ahead to be almost 10,000 deliveries clear of Hyundai in 2024, to the end of November.
After sitting outside the Top 10 a decade ago, Kia now sits in fourth position behind leaders Toyota, Ford and Mazda – all of which have a dual-cab ute in showrooms.
While Toyota – whose sales double next-best Ford, and every other brand in Australia – would remain on top without its popular HiLux, Ford would tumble down the order without its Ranger.
Together with the Everest SUV – which uses the same fundamental underpinnings and engines – the Ranger made up 89 per cent of Ford Australia sales in the first 11 months of 2024.
The HiLux – including its SUV spin-off, the Fortuner – made up almost 24 per cent of the brand's total sales over the same period.
Mazda is the least reliant on its dual-cab ute, with an updated BT-50 coming in 2025 after it made up nearly 16 per cent of its sales – around 1200 BT-50s a month.
Kia is looking to take around a 10 per cent slice of Australia's annual ute market, meaning between 20,000 and 25,000 Tasman sales.
If Kia comes close to that figure, it would elevate the brand easily into second place overall above both Mazda and Ford and make it only the fifth brand in history to sell 100,000 vehicles in a calendar year.
Kia Australia says an SUV based on the Tasman would also be a worthy potential addition to Australian showrooms, given the Ford Everest's success, but such a vehicle is not confirmed to be in development.
Yet the Tasman isn't the only lever Kia will pull in its 2025 showroom showdown.
The brand's best-seller locally – the family-sized Sportage SUV – will be updated in 2025, with the refreshed version revealed ahead of its arrival in Australia by the middle of the year.
Meanwhile, the existing Sportage is on course for a record year in 2024 – beating its previous best set in 2022 – and head off arch-rival Mazda CX-5 in the process.
Kia will also bolster its line-up with the K4 small car – the successor to the Kia Cerato – launching initially as a petrol-powered sedan sometime between January and March 2025, with a hatch version expected at a later date.
The car maker's electric line-up will also be bolstered after the delayed late 2024 arrival of the Kia EV5 – a Tesla Model Y rival – following quality issues discovered after the arrival of the first batch of cars that forced an 11th-hour hold-up.
More battery-powered models are on the way with Kia's electric-car sales in Australia up 24 per cent year-to-date – compared to a 3.1 per cent increase for the broader market.
Yet Kia Australia told Drive local new-car showrooms have hit the limit of 'early adopters' with electric-car sales a 'slow burn'.
Despite this, it said it must sell more electric cars with the introduction of Australia's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) in 2025 – and the EV5 enables it to sell the diesel-powered Tasman under the new rules.
The EV3 small electric SUV – similar in size to the Kia Seltos currently in showrooms – and is due here in March or April 2025 with pricing yet to be announced, but at an estimated $50,000 is likely to see it the most affordable electric Kia yet.
The EV6 is due to be given a facelift in 2025, including an updated EV6 GT performance version – the fastest car from Kia – due alongside the wider range in the first months of the year.
The post 2025 Kia Tasman ute hoped to rocket South Korean brand up Australian sales charts appeared first on Drive.
