Criminal intent! Kia Tasman to target police duties as new diesel ute looks to steal the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max's cop car thunder

The incoming Kia Tasman ute appears to have set its sights on official police duties, with our sources shown a picture of a police livery ute as one of several potential uses for the incoming dual-cab.

The image above has been digitally created here by CarsGuide's graphic design guru.

Diesel-powered dual-cabs are popular with police fleets across the county, with the Ford Ranger used in Victoria, the Toyota HiLux in the Northern Territory, and the Isuzu D-Max having been used in Queensland.

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And it would appear Kia wants a slice of that pie, after reportedly showing a picture of a ute-based paddy wagon in police colours as it highlighted the various potential uses for its incoming dual-cab at a recent conference.

The new ute is expected to arrive in Australia between June, 2025 and June, 2026 - some time after initially expected - with Kia using the unexpected extra development time to study the newest crop of utes as it seeks to ensure its vehicle can top the class.

“It’s been a bit of a moving target in regard to specification and design and pricing,” Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith told CarsGuide recently.

“We think we’re getting closer and we’re pretty happy about that.”

The arrival of the Ford Ranger and Amarok has also guides that development, the brand says.

“If you dissect the market and look at where the key areas and who are the main benchmarks, that has evolved,” Kia Australia's product planning boss, Roland Rivero told us recently. “Obviously over the last couple of years, from when we started the conversation, there has been an all-new Ranger that has come about, and so has Amarok, and it was critical that they understood who the main benchmarks were.

“Features, towing capacities, payloads, body styles (that sort of thing).”

Australia has emerged as a critical market for the Tasman - though that name has yet to be official confirmed, following a trademark registration in Australia last month - which is why development research has focused heavily on our booming ute market.

“A substantial amount of input (in terms of design and engineering), where a lot of work has already begun and been done, to – as much as possible – influence the development to suit our market,” Rivero recently told us.

“Lots of visitors have made the trip (to Australia) … engineers from Namyang (Kia’s design and engineering headquarters in South Korea), getting acquainted with our market, getting acquainted with our customers and dealers… and basically bolstering our understanding of what our market requires and needs by way of a ute."

The ride and handling tuning program that's been rolled out across all Kia vehicles will apply to the Tasman too, with the testing and changes made in Australia genuinely transforming the way the brand's vehicles hold up to our conditions. In fact, that work is already underway.

While the powertrain remains a mystery, we do know the Hyundai Group is home to a thundering straight-six diesel producing 205kW and 588Nm. That would make the Kia ute Australia’s most powerful diesel dual-cab.