Kia Tasman Ute Guns for the Big Time

The upcoming Kia Tasman ute will use a familiar 2.2L turbodiesel engine. It will also offer a braked towing capacity of 3.5 tonnes, along with a payload of 1000kg. Well, that’s the current theory.

Kia Australia has confirmed that the powertrain will not be an all-new one, and nor is it going to be a six-cylinder. Hints that the engine will be familiar to Kia owners suggest the 2.2 turbodiesel from Sorento will be the basis. It outputs 148kW and 440Nm in that role. However, with a retune it should make more torque, given the Ranger and Hilux benchmarks of 500Nm. Details on actual engine output, transmission, and 4wd components await release by Kia.

Part of the reason the diesel will be shared with other models is that Kia is heading down the road to electrification. There is therefore no further significant investment in diesel development. 

Kia says that despite being an older powertrain, initial testing is looking “really, really good”. And that’s just in prototype mode. 

The brand has evidently said to its R&D department that it must hit targets “expected of a true-blue Aussie ute”. 

Three key goals that R&D is working towards on the Kia Tasman ute are a 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity, one-tonne payload and 10 per cent downball weight. Regarding payload, the one-tonne figure is a starting point (GVM minus kerb weight). Adding passengers, bull bar etc and you’re looking more like a 600kg payload. That’s the same for all utes, however.

Kia has ambitious sales targets over the ditch, hoping to move around 20,000 Tasman utes in its first year on sale. That’s similar to Triton and Navara sales combined. 

Diesel versions of the Kia Tasman will launch next year, and a fully-electric model will likely follow within 12 months of the diesel ute’s debut.