Kia Australia was extensively involved in the conception and development of the Tasman, which has been benchmarked against the top-selling Ford Ranger.
The Korean carmaker’s local division was not only instrumental in establishing a business case for the all-new ute, but also played a larger and earlier role in its development program than it has with any previous model.
“Like every other Kia product in the range, the Tasman is going through a substantial local ride and handling program. However, unlike any other product in the range, our level of involvement has been greater than ever,” explained Roland Rivero, Kia Australia product planning general manager, to Australian media.
“Traditionally, Kia Australia tunes late in the development stage where the hard parts selection has already been decided, and these include springs, stabiliser bars, bump stops and the like, which form the foundations of the vehicle’s dynamics.
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“We select from the shelf and tune the shock absorbers to our liking along with the [motor-driven power steering] map and away we go.
“Not the case with the Tasman. We were very much involved in the shortlisting of hard parts. In our feedback robust and respectful negotiations has greatly influenced the Tasman’s on-road dynamics.”
Kia Australia says our market will be the largest for the Korean-built Tasman, which will also be sold in Korea and select other Asian markets, as well as markets across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
“Given its importance for our market – a significant mix of sales [is] to come from the land Down Under – no other product in the Kia range has ever had this level of involvement from Kia Australia during the product development process,” said Mr Rivero.
While Kia says it benchmarked the Tasman against the Isuzu D-Max, Mitsubishi Triton and Toyota HiLux, it called out the top-selling Ranger in particular.
“Our initial tuning work is looking very promising and, up against the dynamic benchmarks – Ford Ranger – the Tasman is competitive, offering excellent ride comfort [and] comfortable, capable and confident cornering capability,” said Mr Rivero.
Kia Australia’s chief ride and handling engineer Graeme Gambold says the company is now starting local fine-tuning of the Tasman ahead of its July 2025 launch.
“We’ve spent maybe 12 months now hard engineering the underpinnings of the car so a lot of those changes will go global,” he said.
“All the hard engineering design will be carried across globally. It’ll just be things like the final shock absorber tunes and steering tunes that they may adopt our spec for other countries, but we don’t ask them to.”
Items that will be “commonised” across the Tasman’s various markets will include the rear leaf springs and stabiliser bars.
There will be at least two different ride and handling tunes for the Tasman, however, with Australia and Korea getting their own unique setups.
Kia Australia says that “every step of the way” its global parent and its R&D team asked for its advice, on not just its dynamics and towing capability but also its name, wading capability, and even its seat design.
“Kia Australia has acted as a mini technical centre and we’re pretty proud of our involvement and influence,” said Mr Rivero.
MORE: Everything Kia Tasman
