2025 Kia Tasman review: Prototype off-road drive

Who would have thought a dual-cab ute from a mainstream Korean brand would be the most talked-about new vehicle of the year.

The 2025 Kia Tasman is the company’s first proper attempt at a dual-cab ute, aiming to capitalise on the ever-enduring of pickups in the Australian market and other parts of the world.

It’s also filling a key gap in Kia’s lineup, given what’s really stopping it from achieving Top 3 status on the Australian sales charts is the lack of a commercial utility to duke it out with the likes of Toyota, Ford and Mazda.

But come July that’s all about to change, and Korea made sure it got people talking with the design. Love it or hate it, you can’t accuse the Tasman of being a copycat take on any of the name-brand utes like some Chinese competition.

Further, Kia’s approach has been a focus on comfort and versatility, highlighted by its very SUV-like cabin and localisation of the ride and handling setup to tailor it to varying Australian tastes.

Ahead of the full production-spec market launch in the new financial year, Kia Australia invited us to try a handful of pre-production prototypes – of varying degrees, mind you – in flagship X-Pro specification to get an early taste on some closed off-road courses before the final spec lands in local dealers.

Is Kia’s polarising dual-cab up for the mammoth task of competing with Australia’s favourite vehicles? Read on to find out.

How much does the Kia Tasman cost?

The Kia Tasman range will open from $42,990 before on-road costs when the dual-cab range launches in July, with the flagship X-Pro on test in pre-production form to start from $74,990 plus on-road costs.

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What is the Kia Tasman like on the inside?

If you thought the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok were SUV-like inside, the Tasman feels positively luxurious.

While the brown interior of some of the pre-production cars sadly won’t be making it to the launch range – please sound off in the comments if you want it here – the interior of the Tasman distinguishes itself from other Kia models in terms of overall design though retains a lot of elements that we know and love from the brand’s passenger vehicles.

There’s a surprising amount of soft-touch materials littered throughout, nicely contrasted with the brown elements of the Korean-market colourway. A more demure blackish-grey cabin was also present, and while it’s nowhere near as visually stimulating, our comments around the craftsmanship and feel remain.

X-Pro models will get a cool quilted leather trim complete with electric front seat adjustment and memory functions for the driver, heating and ventilation for the front pews as well as heated outer rear seats, in addition to a sunroof. Really, you could be in a boxy Kia SUV if you didn’t know what it looked like from the outside.

Kia’s connected car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC) also features, with conjoined 12.3-inch widescreens incorporating the digital driver’s cluster and touchscreen infotainment displays. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto features across the range, with the SX and up adding native satellite navigation.

All Tasmans will feature the Kia Connect suite of net-based services too, including remote functions controlled via a smartphone application, as well as connected navigation for compatible systems.

The upright fascia and straight lines of the cabin give a real impression of width and space, and there are cool stitching and trim details mixed in. The mesh-effect vent treatment also looks pretty cool.

Storage is good too, with a dual charging tray for smartphones as well as big cubbies dotted throughout. Tradies and families shouldn’t have much trouble stowing their odds and ends.

Another thing to note is the general feeling of quality. This doesn’t feel like a commercial-spec cabin, at least in this grade, and all the touchpoints and switchgear feels solid.

We don’t have images of an Australian-spec rear seat, but there’s good space in there for adults even if you squeeze three across. Naturally, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time back there to get a proper feel.

There was no time to trial its tub or towing abilities either, so we’ll have to wait until the full production launch for that. See the below table for key specs.

*Sub-1000kg payload available to qualify for novated leases

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What’s under the bonnet?

At launch just one powertrain will be offered across the range, a 2.2-litre four-cylinder single-turbo diesel.

As previously reported, local versions of the Tasman are homologated to older Euro 5 standards in line with Australian mandates, and therefore don’t feature AdBlue injection.

Kia Australia says the Tasman will likely remain Euro 5-compliant until the Euro 6d emissions standard is mandated in Australia across the industry from around 2028 – and the Euro 6-compliant 2.2-litre diesel with AdBlue is already offered in other overseas markets.

Further, the 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol available in Korean models, which develops a healthy 207kW/421Nm, is off the cards for the Australian market.

Hybrid and ‘electrified’ powertrains are “under study” according to the local product team, though additional detail isn’t official just yet.

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How does the Kia Tasman drive?

I’ll preface this again with the fact we spent a limited time driving the pre-production Tasman X-Pro on a couple of short off-road courses at the Glenworth Valley location.

Over two days we were given short stints behind the wheel of an “X-Pro-ish” pre-production vehicle on a couple of different off-road activities. Kia’s team said this vehicle was “around 90 per cent” production-spec.

The first activity was a little obstacle including a water crossing, muddy trails and some offset moguls. Our time in the driver’s seat was pretty fuss free, though some journalists struggled for traction out of muddy and watery dips after successive runs saw the all-terrain tyres get a little mud-plugged.

Kia has equipped the Tasman with an on-demand four-wheel drive system with 4A mode, which means the Tasman’s on-demand technology will activate the rear axle when it detects slip.

While this kind of all-wheel drive system seems pretty common, a lot of dual-cab utes – namely the four-cylinder ones – have selectable four-wheel drive with standard 2H (rear-wheel drive) mode for normal driving.

For the general trail work over gravel and mud we kept the Tasman in its 4A mode, letting the system do the work. Once we got to the ruts and moguls, we pulled up and used the rotary selector dial to engage 4L – or Four-Low.

These obstacles gave us an opportunity to try the Ground View Monitor camera system that uses the surround and front-facing cameras to stitch together a see-through chassis feed, with graphics and animations for the front wheels so you know where to place the vehicle ahead of an obstacle.

Now this isn’t ground-breaking stuff, and has been available in rival 4WDs for some time, but Kia’s camera quality and digital graphics are really crisp and easy to view on the move.

The off-road pages in the infotainment system are also handy. You can get a real-time feed of a visualisation of your Tasman X-Pro with readouts for pitch and roll, torque distribution and wheel articulation. It animates the vehicle in motion and steering angles, as well as showing oil pressure, battery voltage, and tyre pressures.

In fairness this first exercise wasn’t designed to really test the Tasman at its limits, but it was probably as gnarly as most people heading up a camp trail will likely go.

The mix of conditions and surfaces also allowed us to get a feel of how the Tasman handles off-road terrain with regards to traction, steering and noise intrusion.

From the get go I noticed how insulated the Tasman’s cabin is. The four-cylinder diesel sounds quite loud and rattly on the outside but is impressively suppressed in the cockpit.

Likewise, noise from the road surface is nicely kept at bay and the general rigidity feels very good too – you don’t get the scuttling noise from the separate cabin and tub like a lot of other utes experience on the rough stuff.

The steering is very light but relatively direct and communicative for this type of vehicle, though I found the pre-production car was a little vague about centre which meant a lot of mini-corrections when driving on the off-road courses.

Kia Australia’s representatives told me they’re applying another revision to the steering tune to ensure better on-centre feel, so it’ll be interesting to drive the final production spec off-road.

On day two we tackled a pretty rocky and rutted hillclimb, this time to better demonstrate the 4WD system’s capabilities as well as the X-Trek feature which is unique amongst the dual-cab ute segment.

The X-Pro comes with an electronically-locking rear differential with in-cabin switch, while the wider range gets a reactive limited-slip rear differential.

We actually didn’t use the diff lock feature in the X-Pro prototype, though during the product presentation we were shown visual representations of how the proactive rear torque split benefits in low-grip conditions. Basically, you get smoother and more predictable progress by way of better traction and control.

The X-Trek function unique to the X-Pro is like the Crawl Mode you’ll find in a Toyota LandCruiser. Think of it as a hill-ascent control (rather than the common hill descent control) that allows the vehicle to maintain a steady speed navigating uphill and rocky climbs without driver input via the throttle.

It takes a quick switch into 4L and then pressing the labelled switch, and off you go. You can adjust the speed in five stages, and particularly on rougher terrain avoids you coming on and off the throttle over rocks and bumps, maintaining consistent throttle input and speed through obstacles which is preferable in these kinds of scenarios.

The Ground View Monitor also came in handy here giving good forward visibility over crests, given how upright and bluff the Tasman’s face and bonnet is, and there was greater variance in the readouts to the off-road menus.

It may be long but the Tasman only scraped its bum on the sharpest of dips, in part helped by the X-Pro’s lofty 252mm running clearance and 26.2-degree departure angle. Kia quotes approach and rampover angles of 32.2 and 25.8 degrees, respectively.

For reference, a Ford Ranger Wildtrak Bi-Turbo quotes 234mm of unladen ground clearance, as well as approach, departure and rampover angles of 30/23/21 degrees respectively.

If I was to mention one main gripe it was on the odd occasion the Tasman’s eight-speed auto would get caught between gears around the 12-15km/h mark, often shifting up and letting revs drop too low and then shifting down.

In both instances this resulted in a lurching sensation with too much throttle application, which was annoying and can be unnerving if you’re scaling a slipper and rocky climb. You can take control via the paddles if you need, though.

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What do you get?

The X-Pro will sit atop a five-trim range in Australia – read our full price and specs article here.

Tasman S equipment highlights:

• 17-inch black steel wheels
• LED headlights
• Daytime running lights
• Rear bumper steps
• Tailgate with ‘lift assistance’
• Smart key with push-button start
• Cloth interior upholstery
• Dual-zone climate control
• 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster
• 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• 6-speaker sound system
• Under-seat second-row storage
• Mechanical rear differential lock (4×4)

Tasman SX adds:

• 17-inch alloy wheels 
• Power-folding side mirrors
• Terrain Modes
• First-row safety power window
• Satellite navigation

Tasman SX+ adds:

• 18-inch alloy wheels
• LED fog lights
• Bedliner
• 240V tub outlet
• Cloth, leatherette upholstery
• Wireless smartphone charger
• Ambient mood lighting
• Second-row air vents
• 240V centre console outlet

Tasman X-Line adds:

• LED projector headlights
• Roof rails
• Rear wheel-arch flare storage system
  • Not available on Tan Beige and Clear White examples
• Artificial leather upholstery
• Heated front seats
• 8-way power-adjustable driver’s seat
• Column shifter and shifter paddles
• Dual wireless smartphone charger
• Second-row armrest
• Privacy glass
• Remote smart-park assist

Tasman X-Pro adds:

• 17-inch black alloy wheels
• Fuel tank underbody protection
• Electronic locking differential
• X-Trek Mode
• Terrain Modes
• Ground view monitor
• Off-road dash information
  • Steering direction, steering angle, oil level
• Heated steering wheel
• Ventilated first-row seats
• Heated second-row seats
• Harman Kardon premium audio
• Sunroof

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

Colours

The Tasman can be ordered in a choice of eight exterior paint colours depending on variant.

Standard: $NCO

• Clear White – incl. body-colour flares

Premium: $700

• Steel Grey
• Interstellar Gray
• Aurora Black Pearl
• Tan Beige – incl. body-colour flares
• Denim Blue
• Cityscape Green
• Runway Red

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

Is the Kia Tasman safe?

The Kia Tasman is as yet unrated by ANCAP, though Kia Australia anticipates a rating will be announced in August.

Kia has engineered two distinct front bumper designs for the Tasman, one being more road-focused for the core range and the other more off-road friendly for the X-Line and X-Pro models.

As a result, Kia Australia is aiming for a five-star ANCAP safety rating from S through SX+ grades, with the X-Line and X-Pro set to be unrated regardless.

Standard safety equipment includes:

• Autonomous emergency braking
• Adaptive cruise control
• Blind-spot monitoring
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Lane-centring assist
• Lane-keep assist
• Rear-view camera
• Trailer sway control
  • Integrated trailer brake controller

SX and above add Kia’s Highway Driving Assist system and navigation-based adaptive cruise control.

The X-Line and above are equipped with parking collision avoidance assist, a surround-view camera and blind-spot cameras.

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How much does the Kia Tasman cost to run?

As the wider Kia Australia lineup, the Tasman will be covered by a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

Finer details like servicing intervals and capped-price service pricing will be announced closer to launch.

To see how the Kia Tasman lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

CarExpert’s Take on the Kia Tasman

It’s early days, but it seems the Tasman has been subject to a very vigorous development process to ensure it’s as competitive as it can be in Australia’s ever-popular dual-cab ute segment.

First impressions of the X-Pro are solid, capable specifications and 4WD equipment bolstered by a luxurious, quiet cabin. Still, we need to try it on the black stuff and while towing to flesh out how it compares with key rivals.

I’m also a fan of the looks. Sure it’s not classically handsome, but Kia’s dual-cab forges its own trail with its distinctive and imposing design, and there are some cool colours available to offset the contrast cladding – I’d actually prefer the grey fenders on the Tan Beige paint, personally.

But this was just a palette cleanser and quick first taste of Korea’s new dual-cab. I’ll have to withhold full impressions – including on-road and towing assessment – until the full production launch in July.

I’m expecting big things, though…

Interested in buying a Kia Tasman? Get in touch with one of CarExpert’s trusted dealers here

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