Watch Kia’s New Tasman Pickup Test in the Desert

• The Kia Tasman is a midsize pickup slated for markets like Australia, Korea, and the Middle East.
  

• Kia has been teasing the Tasman in a series of videos demonstrating its off-roading skillset.

• The Kia Tasman is expected to make its full reveal this October.

Kia is building a midsize truck, and it’s getting close to launch. Taking inspiration from Tasmania, the Kia Tasman is gearing up for a global launch in 2025 and is showing would-be customers what they can expect from the upcoming pickup.

This most recent teaser shows the Tasman ripping around a desert in Al Qudra, UAE, for what the company is calling a desert endurance test.

Of course, we still don’t know what we can expect from the Tasman. It’s expected the Tasman will launch with a 2.2-liter turbodiesel under the hood, and its body will ride on a ladder frame.

We can see from the teaser video above that the Tasman will feature a stick axle. It also looks like the rear uses a pair of coil springs to handle the load, which means there will be some multi-link layout to control the rear axle’s motion.

According to the Korean Car Blog, the Tasman is going to make its official reveal near the end of October.

However, this is still only speculation until the folks from Kia confirm the date to pull back the sheet on this midsize pickup. With a 2025 launch already confirmed, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Kia to set up the Tasman’s reveal before the end of ’24.

Now, you’re probably wondering if Kia plans on pitting this against the Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, and Chevy Colorado at dealerships across the United States. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen—at least not initially.

Kia said the Tasman will have a global launch, but it specifically mentioned Korea, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East as target markets to start. Regardless, you can see what a camouflaged Tasman can do in the desert in the video above.

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