With customers continuing to show interest in ever more capable off-road SUVs and pickups, automakers are racing to get traditional, body-on-frame options on the market. Nissan and Mitsubishi have a few models on the horizon, including the Xterra and Montero, and Hyundai announced its plans for a pickup by showing an SUV. Kia has seemed well-positioned to join the conventional SUV fray using the Tasman, but a Kia executive says that’s probably not going to happen. However, that doesn’t mean Kia can’t or won’t enter the segment a different way.
Kia Tasman 2.5TCarBuzz
Kia’s Focused On The Core In Australia
According to car news outlet The Drive, Spencer Cho, the man in charge of Kia’s global business planning, told Australian media that a Tasman SUV probably isn’t happening, at least not anytime soon. He made it clear that Kia is focusing on its current line of vehicles and ways to support it, rather than expanding to other models. This comes after earlier reports that the company was considering such a vehicle, which would likely be relatively easy to develop on the existing Tasman platform. Those reports also noted that the project would be at least somewhat contingent on Tasman being a success, and so far, sales of the pickup have been sluggish.
The 2025 Kia Tasman in the desertKia
An SUV Could Still Work On Other Platforms, In Other Markets
The key to this news is that it’s specifically regarding the Kia Tasman and the Australian market. While the Tasman is Kia’s first globally-available body-on-frame vehicle in years, it won’t be the last. A couple of months ago, the company confirmed that it would introduce a body-on-frame pickup truck in hybrid and extended-range forms for North America. It’s quite possible that it will be a close cousin to the Tasman, but the fact that it has very different powertrains means it could have significant differences. It’s also going to be built in the US, unlike the Tasman.
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This vehicle may make more sense for Kia to use as the basis for an SUV for a few reasons. The US market is far bigger than most automotive markets, so it’s easier to reach the volume needed to justify new product. Also, the US tends to demand more comfort and refinement from vehicles than in other markets, and the Tasman wasn’t designed specifically for the US. The new American-built truck on the other hand, will be. The hybrid powertrains alone would go a long way to improving refinement, not to mention fuel economy. Offering an SUV variant of this vehicle would also spread out the cost of the new truck platform, at best making the platform even more successful, or at worst, mitigating some of the losses of a specific body style.
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The whole SUV idea could arguably be made easier if Hyundai also decides it wants an SUV. It’s going to launch a midsize truck of its own in a few years, probably on the same platform as the Kia. However, it revealed its plans by showing an SUV concept supposedly based on the truck platform. Hyundai said it’s just a concept for now, but it’s hard to imagine the company passing up the opportunity. Plus, just as an SUV could spread out the costs of the truck, a second SUV could spread out the costs of that body style’s development. As one other bonus for both hypothetical SUVs, the SUV market in the US is much less loyal than the truck market, and that’s important for brands that don’t have much, if any, pickup history here.
Source: The Drive
