A potent turbo-petrol version of Kia’s maiden ute offered overseas will not come to Australia – without hybrid power, at least – for two simple reasons.
High emissions and inferior around-town performance to the turbo-diesel will keep a 207kW turbo-petrol version of the Kia Tasman out of Australian showrooms.
But it could reach Australia later in the Tasman’s life in the form of a hybrid variant, combining the 2.5-litre turbo four-cylinder engine with an electric motor to boost performance and cut fuel use.
In variants of Kia’s new ute sold in South Korea and the Middle East, the 2.5-litre turbo-petrol develops 207kW and 421Nm, and is sourced from the likes of the Hyundai Sonata N Line sedan and various Genesis luxury models.
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Its only rival in Australia would’ve been the Volkswagen Amarok Aventura, which is available with a 222kW/452Nm 2.3-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine sourced from the Ford Mustang.
Although the petrol engine has only accounted for about 5 per cent of Amarok sales, Kia Australia says demand is not the reason why only the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel Tasman will be sold here.
“No, it is not a [case of there being] no market,” Kia Australia general manager of product planning, Roland Rivero, told Drive.
“It was the maths of CO2, and then applying the NVES [New Vehicle Efficiency Standard emissions rules] formula to it.
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“So we’re currently quite happy that in this first phase of NVES, Tasman, by our calculation, is in credit. Well, it’s a small amount of credit, but it’s still in credit. We would be starting immediately in the penalty if we went with the petrol 2.5-litre turbo.”
The 154kW/441Nm diesel engine emits a quoted 200 to 214 grams per kilometres of CO2 in four-wheel-drive dual-cab pick-up form, depending on trim grade, against an estimated target of about 215g/km.
It means Kia earns emissions ‘credits’ for each one it sells, equivalent to offsetting a fine of $100 to $1500 on a vehicle that does not meet the rules.
In contrast, the 207kW/421Nm 2.5-litre turbo-petrol engine in a Tasman X-Pro would be rated at CO2 emissions of an estimated 232g/km if sold in Australia, using Korean specifications as a guide.
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It equates to a per-vehicle fine of about $1700 that Kia Australia would need to offset with hybrid or electric cars, if it is to avoid paying it – but that’s not the only reason the turbo-petrol is off-limits.
“It was also down on torque. We drove it a fair bit,” Rivero told Drive.
“We did evaluate it in Korea, Graeme [Gambold, Kia Australia chief ride and handling engineer] and myself, and we just found that the low-down get-up-and-go of the R2.2 turbo diesel was better as well.
“So it was a combination of NVES, but also just [for] the daily drive and daily usage, we felt that the diesel was a better fit.”
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While the 2.5-litre turbo-petrol may not be offered in the Australian-market Tasman in its current form, it could come to local utes in the form of a hybrid.
The Kia head-office engineer overseeing development of the Tasman’s body and chassis exclusively told Drive the new ute has been developed to support hybrid and electric power.
“We already have a hybrid system [in the Kia range], but now we are considering it is good for utes and/or ladder-frame SUVs. … We are not decided,” said Dong Hoon Kang, officially Kia’s Vice President of Mid-Large Sized Vehicle Chassis Engineering Design Centre.
He replied “yeah” when asked if petrol power would be a better fit for a hybrid Tasman than diesel.
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