Kia Tasman: What if it had a Hyundai twin?
01/04/2025 03:00 PM
Nearly all new Kia cars have an equivalent sibling from Hyundai. The Tasman ute is the latest exception to the rule – but what if it wasn’t?
Hyundai is known to be working on its first dual-cab ute, as an electric vehicle on car-derived, not heavy-duty ladder-frame, underpinnings.
But what if it used the new Kia Tasman – a ladder-chassis, diesel-engined workhorse – as the basis of a more affordable ute to tempt traditional ute buyers into Hyundai showrooms?
There is no firm indication such a Hyundai-badged Tasman is on the way, but if one is in the works – and it is being kept a closely-guarded secret – the illustrations above and below created for Drive by Pratyush Rout show what it could look like.
As sibling brands within the larger Hyundai Motor Group, the Hyundai and Kia brands share engines, underpinnings, technology and other features in their vehicles to reduce costs.
MORE: Hyundai ute for Australia still a while away, and definitely won't be a diesel
However, in most cases, Hyundai and Kia cars look nothing alike, rarely sharing body panels and typically embarking on wildly different design directions.
It remains to be seen if there is room in the Hyundai and Kia group for two diesel dual-cab utes, so with the aim of amortising costs, these illustrations imagine a Tasman-based Hyundai that wears unique front and rear ends, but shares the doors and body structure.
Up front, inspiration has been drawn from the ute Hyundai already sells overseas, the Tucson SUV-based, light-duty Santa Cruz, with split headlights and a boxy grille.
MORE: 2025 Kia Tasman unveiled – new Korean ute to upset Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux
The Tasman’s doors and body shell have been retained, but new wheel arches have been applied to match the new front end, and restyled rear with a full-width tail-light bar home to Tucson-inspired signatures.
Fans of old Australian cars will spot the hypothetical ‘Hyundai Kimberley’ name, our nod to the locally-built Austin Kimberley of the 1970s that was twinned with a model called the Austin Tasman.
A name borrowed from the Kimberley region of Western Australia – just as the Kia ute is named after Tasmania, and the body of water between Australia and New Zealand – would be a good fit for a ute suited to local conditions.
The Tasman’s 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine would be shared, as would its heavy-duty chassis, one-tonne payload and 3500kg braked towing capacity.
Hyundai Australia has strongly hinted a ute is on the way, but it will be electric, not diesel-powered.
“I can only imagine companies that do have a diesel ute, and it’s such a high proportion of their sales, they will be looking for portfolio offset,” Hyundai Australia chief operating officer John Kett told Drive in July 2024.
“We obviously don’t have that problem today. We don’t have a diesel ute. We’re certainly looking at [a ute] in the future that would be electrified, but it’s not close enough for us to talk about.
“I don’t want to speak to other brands that have a diesel ute, I’m just trying to explain the permutations and combinations that we look [at] constantly, around balancing the EV [electric vehicle] portfolio with our hybrid portfolio, and our ICE [regular petrol and diesel] portfolio.”
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