"We'd love to spawn a Ford Everest competitor": 2025 Kia Tasman ute could deliver Toyota LandCruiser Prado-fighting ladder-frame SUV

The incoming Kia Tasman could find itself fighting more than just the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max, with the brand in Australia putting its hand up for a ladder-frame SUV version to battle the Ford Everest and LandCruiser Prado.

That's the word from Kia in Australia, who says it would "love" a ladder-frame SUV with real off-road credentials, and will be "negotiating hard" to get one.

"We'd love one. But with Mohave already developed, and I know Mohave is a fairly old product now, but at this point in time globally you need a strong global case, not just an Australian business case," says Roland Rivero, General Manager of Product Planning at Kia Australia.

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"So we'd love to spawn a ladder-frame SUV, like an Everest competitor, out of that same (Tasman) platform. And theoretically you could, but it is something that we still have to negotiate hard with headquarters."

Surely helping those negotiations is the fact new reports point to production of the Mohave/Borrego – a US and Korean body-on-frame SUV that received a mostly lukewarm welcome – finally being axed, with its South Korean production line to be handed over to the Tasman.

That sounds, to us at least, like a strong case for replacement. The other determining factor, says Kia, will be international support for the model.

"What we need for it to happen is other markets, major markets that source Tasman, to also want to have a ladder frame SUV," Mr Rivero says.

"We're hoping that South Africa or the Middle East would be keen on it, but at the end of the day we need all of the stars to align for something like to happen."