'Get it right as a ute': Here's what needs to happen for a Kia Tasman SUV to be built and take aim at the Ford Everest and Isuzu MU-X according to Australian executives

There have been some fairly ordinary efforts at digital renders, and the idea has been mentioned a few times online - but just how seriously is Kia taking the idea of an SUV sibling to the upcoming Kia Tasman?

Ford’s Ranger has the Everest, the Toyota HiLux has the Fortuner, and the Isuzu D-Max has its MU-X sibling - is Kia Australia as confident something like that could work for the much-hyped Tasman?

Kia Australia’s General Manager of Product Planning Roland Rivero told CarsGuide it’s already being discussed via expressions of interest, but it’s on the backburner until the Tasman is properly settled in.

“We've expressed interest in it. And as you can understand, headquarters’ plan for Tasman at the moment is to get it right as a ute and see some success in it as a ute,” Rivero says.

“Hit a sales plan in all the respective regions, Middle East, South Africa, South America, and the domestic market - and, of course, Australia.

“And then we can look at creative things that we can do moving down the track.”

For Kia, the aim is to chalk up a sales tally of 20,000 Tasmans a year - Chief Executive Damien Meredith told CarsGuide the Tasman’s launch and its first six months of sales are “a critical element for the back half of the year [2025]”.

Kia officially starts taking orders in Q2, with the ute to launch mid-year.

According to the brand’s spokespeople, including Rivero, there are already more than 20,000 expressions of interest in the Tasman, despite the divisive design which isn’t set to change between its reveal and its launch in Australia.

“What you've seen at the reveal is what you're going to get,” Rivero told us at the launch of the Kia K4 early this year.

The Tasman has already launched in South Korea, its home nation, where in just over two weeks it racked up around 4000 sales - a huge feat for a market where annual ute sales didn’t even reach 14,000 last year.

But the domestic market isn’t the only factor in whether an SUV sibling to the Tasman could launch, nor is Australia according to Rivero.

“For it to see the light of day, an SUV, the interest would have to come from multiple regions also,” he told CarsGuide.

“So we definitely need the Middle East, South Africa and all those other regions to put their hand up and say, we will sell incremental volume with an SUV version of the Tasman.

“At this point in time, there's no further news or nothing further to report, other than we'd love to see one, and we're conveying that interest to headquarters.”

While an expression of interest from Kia Australia is likely taken seriously by HQ in South Korea, especially when it comes to utes and large SUVs, there are some things an EOI just can’t make happen.

For example, it would seem like you’ve got a better chance holding out for an SUV version of the Tasman than you do of waiting for a left-hand drive version of Kia’s full-sized SUV for North America, the Telluride.

Roland Rivero thinks a Telluride could work in Australia, but the practicality of it just doesn't line up, he says.

“I would like to see Telluride, but North America, the Georgia factory, refuses to make right-hand drive for Australia.

“And I think Telluride is a very important product for North America, and the investment for them to make a right-hand drive and get it sent to Australia is something they’re just not willing to do at the moment for us.

“So there's no foreseeable plan to see Telluride come to our market.”

If you want a large SUV from Kia that’s more rugged than the Palisade, you’d better cross your fingers that the Tasman performs well not just here, but internationally.