A five-door SUV sibling to Kia's maiden dual-cab ute is officially on the cards, as long as the Korean car giant can prove there's enough demand for it from countries other than Australia.
Family Cars
An SUV sibling to the new Kia Tasman ute is under study, as part of a broader range of ladder-frame, off-road-capable models to complement the brand's first pick-up.
The green light is yet to be given to a Tasman SUV, however – contrary to rumours – and a number of speed bumps stand in its way, including proving demand for such a vehicle is as strong overseas as it is in Australia.
Confirmation that studies into a Tasman SUV are underway has come from the South Korean Kia executive in charge of developing the ute's body and chassis.
"Now we are starting to consider about that [an SUV]," Dong Hoon Kang, Kia's Vice President of Mid-Large Sized Vehicle Chassis Engineering Design Centre, exclusively told Drive.
While a five-door, seven-seat wagon derivative would be the most logical step forward from the Tasman ute, the line-up may not stop there.
Asked if there would be demand for a Tasman SUV outside of Australia, Kang said: "Not only for Tasman, we are considering about ladder-frame vehicles, utes and SUVs.
"We need to consider all of that, not only for Tasman. So now we are starting to consider."
The Korean executive's comments suggest Kia is studying a much broader range of ladder-frame vehicles, which would not be directly related to the Tasman, and could instead take other shapes and sizes.
It could include a direct successor to the Mohave, a ladder-frame, seven-seat SUV sold in South Korea from 2008 to 2024, and would be to a Tasman SUV what the Toyota Prado is to the cheaper, HiLux-based Fortuner.
Kia has already confirmed it is working on a second ute, a larger electric model for the US market aimed at the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T, and which is expected to use a ladder frame.
That vehicle could spawn an SUV, or Kia may be considering other types of off-roaders to capitalise on high demand for boxy 4x4s in the style of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
"We started to develop the Tasman since, maybe, 2019 – it takes a long time. It took a long time," he told Drive.
"But maybe I think that it [the SUV, would be] a little bit shorter than [that] – we already have the kind of foundation."
Kia Australia has expressed interest in a Tasman SUV, should one become available, but has cautioned the car giant would need to prove demand exists globally before giving it the green light.
"I think it has to be globally feasible," Kia Australia head of product planning, Roland Rivero, told Drive.
"So it can't just be Australia that that's strongly pushing for it to see the light of day and get the green light. We'll need the Middle East, we'll need South Africa, we'll need South America all on board wanting one as well."
Australia is aimed to account for 20,000 of the 80,000 examples the company plans to build each year.
Kia aims to sell the same number of Tasmans in its home market of South Korea, but executives said Australia is the vehicle's primary market, and one of the countries they thought of first when the project was on the drawing board.
The illustrations at the top of this story, created by Theottle, show what an SUV version of the Tasman could look like.
It could make use of much of its ladder-frame chassis – all-new from the ground up, and developed specifically for the Tasman – and the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine to amortise engineering costs, but may tweak its wheelbase or swap suspension components to deliver a less ute-like drive.
Family Cars Guide
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
