2025 Kia Tasman ute continues testing in Australia without camouflage

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Kia's new ute is closing in on showrooms, and now pre-production examples still in the country have dropped their disguise.


Alex Misoyannis
2025 Kia Tasman ute continues testing in Australia without camouflage

The 2025 Kia Tasman is less than six months away from Australian showrooms, and prototypes are still touring local roads as final testing prepares to wrap up globally.

The black Tasman spotted by Drive in Sydney appears to be an X-Pro flagship model, judging by what appear to be all-terrain tyres, and is among the first local sightings of the ute without disguise.

Australian showroom arrivals of the Kia ute are on track for June or July this year in dual-cab format, with prices to be announced closer to launch.

Kia executives told media late last year the Tasman – powered by a 154kW/441Nm 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine – had attracted close to 20,000 expressions of interest locally.

"You're all aware of the commentary around launch from an aesthetic standpoint, but we're really starting to see a narrative shift in terms of opinions," Kia Australia general manager of marketing Dean Norbiato said in December 2024.

"A lot of people, the more time they see it and spend with it, we are seeing a separation in opinion from the initial launch.

"We've done some customer research as well. We had a week-long research piece with the Tasman, and in terms of the feedback, we feel we're confident from a position of overall sales volume targets we have with that model – the product and its specification – that we're in a good position."

Alex Misoyannis

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

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