Kia Tasman bakkie: ‘SA launch in 2025’
South Africa is regarded as “a key market” for the Kia Tasman bakkie, which has been pencilled in for local introduction in late 2025. Here are some insights from Kia SA.
At the recent local launch of the 2024 Kia Sonet (an updated version of the brand’s small crossover), the conversation turned to the Korean brand’s upcoming 1st double-cab bakkie – the new Kia Tasman.
While Kia has many products in its portfolio, not all of them are – or will be – sold locally. After all, car firms are businesses; it makes no financial sense to bring in models that won’t sell in sufficient volumes.
Mzansi is obsessed with double cabs!
However, Kia SA’s mother company is well aware of how popular double-cab bakkies are in South Africa.
“Kia Global has indeed been engaging with us extensively regarding market requirements, positioning and homologation, with one of the many consumer-facing studies conducted in the run-up to the model launch conducted in South Africa,” said Christo Valentyn, Kia SA’s GM of Marketing.
“We are, indeed, considered a key market for Tasman, so the positioning (especially from a price and competitiveness perspective) will be critical to our ambitions,” he added.
Given how competitive the bakkie market is in South Africa, it will be fascinating to see where the Kia Tasman will be positioned. As a reminder, the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger tussle for market superiority every month and Isuzu’s D-Max is not far behind. LDV and JAC have recently launched the T60 and T9, while GWM is preparing to introduce the P500 and an updated version of its P-Series, named the P300.
Kia Tasman bakkie in South Africa?
So, when can we expect the Kia Tasman bakkie to touch down in South Africa? Some publications (based in other countries) are reporting that the bakkie will go into production in December 2024…
However, Valentyn said: “We have not received any formal notification of such a change. Our planning around Tasman therefore remains based on the original start of production in Q1 of 2025. All things being equal, our planning is still pointing towards a market launch in the 3rd or 4th quarter of next year (2025).”
Engines and Body types?
We understand the global reveal of the new Kia Tasman will take place in November 2024. There have been quite a few hints as to what’s coming and we believe the new bakkie, which is said to be based on an all-new ladder-frame chassis, will be offered in double-cab and single-cab body styles.
The engine is likely to be the familiar 2.2-litre 4-cylinder turbodiesel (CRDi), which is used in the Sorento executive SUV and, just to remind you, that powerplant’s peak outputs are 148 kW and 440 Nm.
The Tasman trademark has been registered – now we await the local debut of Kia’s new double cab.
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