Kia Tasman just the start as Kia goes all in on utes

Kia is pushing boldy into the global dual cab ute and pick up market with plans to sell 80,000 Kia Tasman utes each year – and introduce a battery-electric pick up in the United States (US).

At Kia ‘Investor Day’ in Seoul, South Korea – where Kia’s parent company Hyundai Motor Group is headquartered – the car maker shared its five-year-plans to grow sales in key markets around the world.

The forecast includes plans to build 80,000 Kia Tasman dual-cab utes each year, with Australia one of the biggest markets at around 20,000 per annum – one in four produced.

That level of sales success would give the Tasman around 10 per cent of the dual-cab ute market, currently led by the sparring Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux – the two battling as Australia’s best-selling vehicle for the last decade.

The Ranger topped Australia’s new vehicle sales charts in 2024 with 62,593 sales.

Scheduled to land here in mid-2025, the Tasman will come with a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, a four-wheel drive option and category benchmark 3500kg braked tow-rating.

While the Ranger will be offered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain in Australia from mid-2025, Kia has not confirmed a hybrid Tasman.

Instead, the car maker has said it will produce a fully electric version of the Tasman but is yet to confirm timing.

The local arm of Kia has not said if it will be offered in Australia to compete with the likes of the LDV eT60 and recently revealed JAC T9 electric utes, among others.

Kia also confirmed it will enter the world’s biggest pick-up market – the US – with ambitious plans to sell 90,000 examples of a battery-electric ute there from around 2027/2028.

For context, Ford sold a tad over 7000 F-150 Lighting utes in the first quarter of 2025 and Tesla 12,000 Cybertrucks – equating to 28,000 and 48,000 for the year – making Kia’s 90,000 target unprecedented for an electric pick-up.

It didn’t share any more specifics or indicate size of its US EV pick-up but described it as both ‘urban and outdoor friendly’, suggesting it may be positioned below the more rugged ladder-chassis Tasman.

The move to a US pick-up comes despite the uncertainty around tariffs from The White House – including a blanket 25 per cent tariff on all automotive imports.

This could see the Kia electric pick-up – and a Hyundai spin-off – made in the US, with Hyundai announcing a $US21 billion ‘onshoring’ investment in late March 2025.

It included funds a factory in Georgia – its third in the US – as well as a steel plant in Louisiana.

The two pick-ups will be joined by its electric commercial PBV (Platform Beyond Vehicle) range as part of the car maker’s global range.

The PBV line-up consists of five modular electric models –  from urban sized passenger vehicles, people movers, cab chassis and cargo vans – with Kia forecasting 250,000 global sales by 2030.

By then, Kia plans to be selling 4.19 million vehicles annually, up from its 2025 goal of 3.22 million and a record 3.09 million in 2024.

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