Kia is committed to its bold sales targets for the Tasman ute, which are hoped to see it outsell familiar names such as Triton, BT-50 and Navara – despite fresh competition from BYD and rival Chinese brands.
More than 2500 customers have placed money down on a 2026 Kia Tasman ute, as the first examples of the brand’s maiden dual-cab roll off showroom floors.
But the big job lies ahead of the South Korean car giant, as it aims to sell 20,000 Tasmans annually in Australia – or a 9 per cent share of the ute category, one of the most competitive segments of the new-car market.
It would place Kia’s new ute fourth on the ute sales charts, based on last year’s results, ahead of the Mitsubishi Triton (18,077) and Mazda BT-50 (15,164), but behind the Ford Ranger (62,593), Toyota HiLux (53,499) and Isuzu D-Max (30,194).
The ute market is even busier this year, with the arrival of the BYD Shark 6 – of which more than 10,000 were delivered from January to June – and a wave of new rivals from China.
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Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith told media the brand is confident in hitting its target over the first 12 months of deliveries, 10,000 of which are forecast for the rest of this year.
“We’re based on achievement. Kia Australia is based on achievement. We won’t do anything silly to get that 20,000,” he said at the Tasman’s local launch.
“I think we’ve proven ourselves over a long period of time that we set ourselves a goal and we do it, but we do it in a manner that’s equitable to the market. So we’re pretty confident that we’ll do about 20,000.”
Asked if 20,000 is the ultimate goal – or it has even bigger aspirations for its new ute – Meredith said: “I think probably the maximum would be – in its life cycle, maybe in one of those years in three to five – it might be 25,000.”
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The Kia executive dismissed suggestions that the brand would look to challenge the Ranger and HiLux for sales dominance in the category.
“I think that if we can do 20,000 to 25,000 [sales] year in year out over the next 10 years, we’d be pretty happy,” Meredith said.
About 2500 customers have pre-ordered a Tasman – as of late July, when these remarks were made – according to chief operating officer Dennis Piccoli.
“We’re moving every day, quite obviously, as the network’s taking orders – we’re sitting at around 2500. We’re on track to hit that annualised rate that you saw, at around 20,000,” he told media.
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“That said, the [ute] market’s got to be there. It’s back a smidgen [this year compared to 2024], and the production has got to be there as well.
“The car’s launched in Korea and going quite well. … We’re scaling up the accessories at this point in time, so we think that through quarter three [July to September], it’ll take a couple of months for us to hit our stride, no question about that.
“But as [a safety rating from] ANCAP comes out, the fleet market enters. They’re beginning trials as we speak, so there’s plenty of interest in that space as well.”
Piccoli said the cars being traded in by Tasman customers are – for now – a “mixed bag”, with “some Kia trades that we can see, and equally some of the existing players that are in market, some of the Japanese products”.
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The X-Pro and X-Line flagship variants are the most popular models in the Tasman range thus far, as the majority of initial customers are private or ABN-holding buyers, rather than large business or government fleets.
These customers are likely to favour the cab-chassis models, which are yet to arrive in significant numbers.
Cheaper variants in the model range are forecast to account for the majority of sales as the Tasman settles into showrooms.
“The [share of sales of the] X-Series [X-Line and X-Pro models], we thought, was probably going to be around the 35 [per cent mark} over the life of the product … I’d say 65 [per cent] of the others, [that] then hinges on where the fleets land.”
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