Secret ute confirmed? Game over Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max and Mitsubishi Triton as electric Kia Tasman casually confirmed, could beat rivals to the all-electric pick-up punch: Report

The cat is out of the bag — an electric Kia Tasman ute is coming and it’s been confirmed in a surprisingly casual way by one of the company bosses. 

All that's been announced by Kia until now is that its Tasman ute will be offered only with a diesel engine in Australia at launch. A hybrid is tipped to follow.

The latest confirmation of a fully electric version came while United States motoring website CarBuzz interviewed Kia South Africa's Head of Marketing Christo Valentyn at the Tasman ute launch recently.

"I'm probably not supposed to say this, but... an electric one is coming," Valentyn told the outlet.

The casual manner in which such big news was delivered is surprising. This is the first confirmation from Kia that an electric version of the Tasman is coming and Valentyn may have landed himself in some very hot water for making an announcement that we would have expected to be revealed in a more official capacity.   

Given Kia’s major electric vehicle push right now, it’s not surprising that an electric Tasman is coming. Various electric Kia utes have been spied testing (via The Korean Car Blog) in the wild, too.

Still, this is big news because Kia might have managed to do what other established ute brands, such as Ford with its Ranger, Toyota with the HiLux and Mitsubishi with the Triton, have failed to do — bring an electric ute to market.

LDV was the first company to bring an electric ute to Australia, but bring only two-wheel drive and having a limited range saw slow sales. It will be replaced by the brand's eTerron 9 next year.

Kia revealed the Tasman ute's vital specification in late October. The ute will arrive with a 2.2-litre diesel engine making 154kW and 441Nm, and have an eight-speed transmission.

A 3500kg braked towing capacity and impressive off-road capacity will make it a direct rival to the Ranger, HiLux, Isuzu D-Max and Triton. 

A petrol-electric hybrid variant has been all-but confirmed by Kia, with specifications yet to be fully disclosed.

The big question now that the cat is indeed out, is when is the Tasman electric ute coming?

CarsGuide put the question to Kia Australia General Manager of Product Planning Roland Rivero.

“All I can confirm is that Tasman’s ladder frame platform is fairly modular and can underpin numerous powertrains,” Rivero said.  

“For now, Australia will only introduce the R2.2 Turbo Diesel. However, Tasman like many light commercial vehicles will have a fairly long model life and as such we will continually look at other powertrain options in the future in light of NVES and market demand... There are no sacred cows.”

To us it’s clear Kia will introduce an EV Tasman once the diesel variant has found a foothold in Australia.

It’s been a big year for Kia with the brand bringing its fourth fully electric vehicle to Australia with the EV5 mid-sized SUV in October.

Kia Australia year-to-date sales are sitting at 75,485, up by seven per cent on this time in 2023 and with a month left of the year that places the brand in fourth place ahead of its sibling Hyundai.