'We've chosen the right one': Kia stands by 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine choice for the 2025 Tasman ute explaining how it will be up to the task despite going into battle against 3.0-litre diesels in the Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max

Kia has steadfastly defended its choice to stick with a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine (154kW/440Nm) for the launch of its new Kia Tasman ute, despite larger displacement engines and now hybrid options proving popular with dual-cab buyers.

Australian General Manager of Product Planning, Roland Rivero, said: “We’ve chosen the right one”.

“Other markets have the 2.5-litre turbo petrol, which is not great for us when it comes to an NVES perspective. It’s got a little more power but down on torque, so I think we’ve got the right one for our market and obviously we can monitor and move forward with what needs to be done under NVES.”

Rivero is talking about Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which places Euro-style emissions limitations on vehicles sold locally. Kia is particularly shielded from this thanks to its wide array of electric and hybrid vehicles, which help bring down its fleet average.

Rivero is also confident the 2.2-litre will impress potential buyers once they get it on the road, even if it’s not the most powerful option out there.

“The 2.2, it’s in Sorento and Carnival, it’s done a great job in those products. Yes, it doesn’t have 500Nm of torque, but it’s not always about that, it’s also how it’s distributed through the transmission,” he said.

Kia’s local Chief of Ride and Handling, Graeme Gambold, said it was a software tune for the transmission's shift-mapping and the gearing itself, which would make the eight-speed automatic a key point to set the Tasman’s performance apart.

“If you’ve got more gears, it can be more busy. But I think the gearing is well matched to this engine.” he said.

He said the Australian division had significant input on shift-mapping to keep things smooth both on- and off-road, and to keep torque availability high when using the car’s built-in towing mode, which can also account for user-inputted trailer weights.

Rivero was confident of the engines durability on offer, and this is thanks to a newly-developed multi-stage radiator and cooling system deployed in the Tasman, along with the largest cooling fan the brand has ever fitted in a petrol or diesel vehicle.

“They could have tuned the engine differently to get a few more headline kilowatts out of it, but it would hurt drivability. The way it is now, it’s not hunting for gears or having harsh changes,” said Rivero.

The same story goes for the durability of the brand’s eight-speed automatic, despite it also being sourced from passenger cars such as the Carnival rather than developed specifically for light commercial use.

“The durability tests these [parts] go through is quite intense. The eight-speed automatic, for example, has bigger componentry than a 10-speed. The durability is probably better than more complicated systems,” said Rivero.

As for experimenting with an up-sized version of this engine, or a new one altogether, Rivero said it all came down to the business case, at least until Tasman is a success.

“At the end of the day, we have to weigh up the business case for those added complexity proposals,” he said.

“It would need a very reasonable business case. We’re a big voice, but you’ve got to have the collective of other [right-hand drive markets] to be able to justify that."

As for the other end of the spectrum? Rivero hinted the Tasman’s newly-developed ladder frame was “modular” and could "accommodate numerous powertrains”, but because of the diversity of powertrains across Kia’s range the brand “has time” to explore its options in the future as Australia’s emissions laws tighten later in the decade.

He wasn’t worried about launching a diesel ute in an age where BYD’s Shark 6 has proven this is a segment where there is demand for electrification.

“In this category the diverseness of usage is unparalleled. At the end of the day you know, others will experiment and obviously try new things out, which is great, it’s good to have that healthy competition, but you can’t deny that there are going to be customers which still have a very definitive need by way of towing capacity, payload, off-road capability and a locking rear diff, for example,” he said.

“We need to get the fundamentals right, and over 80 per cent of this category is four cylinder diesel.”

The Kia Tasman will land in customer hands by July, priced from $42,990 before on-roads for the base S, with prices topping-out at $74,990 for the top-spec X-Pro.

Kia has high hopes for the initially dual-cab offering, hoping that it can capture up to 10 per cent of its market segment — some 20,000 sales annually.