Kia Tasman SUV in the works? Ute-based seven-seat off-road wagon could be a match for Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X and even Toyota Prado!

If any publicity is good publicity, Kia Australia must be rapt with the public’s response to the Tasman ute.

While debate over the design, the specifications and the pricing for the 2025 Kia Tasman rage on, the brand has more than 20,000 expressions of interest and is probably on track to hit its target of more than 10,000 units delivered in the second half of 2025 after its mid-year launch.

But there’s something sitting on the ‘ideas’ shelf at Kia, the backburner if you will, that could be the icing on the cake for the Tasman: an SUV version to go toe-to-toe with the popular Ford Everest or the Isuzu MU-X. And Kia Australia is interested.

Firstly, why would Kia do it? Well, assuming all goes to plan with the Tasman ute, an SUV version could give its sales a healthy boost - especially when Kia doesn’t really offer a ‘rugged’ family SUV already.

Ford, for example, sold 100,170 new vehicles in 2024, 62,593 of which were Ranger utes. But it also sold 26,494 Everest SUVs, the model based on the Ranger’s underpinnings.

It’s a similar story for Isuzu. Its 31,194 D-Max ute sales in 2024 and 17,978 MU-X SUVs suggests the right product planning could mean an SUV version of a ute sells about half as many units as the ute it’s based on.

Of course, that’s hypothetical, but if Kia sells 20,000 Tasmans annually in Australia as it plans to, even a few thousand Tasman SUVs would make it one of the brand’s most popular models here.

Kia Australia’s General Manager of Product Planning Roland Rivero told CarsGuide the idea is already being discussed globally.

“We've expressed interest in it. And as you can understand, headquarters’ plan for Tasman at the moment is to get it right as a ute and see some success in it as a ute,” Rivero says.

“Hit a sales plan in all the respective regions, Middle East, South Africa, South America, and the domestic market - and, of course, Australia. 

“And then we can look at creative things that we can do moving down the track.”

The creative things are where it gets interesting. The Tasman has clearly won some potential buyers over with its design, given the number of expressions of interest Kia is holding, but there’s been some backlash that an SUV version could quell.

Our render of what the Tasman SUV could look like if you apply the same kind of logic as any other ute-based SUV gives the Tasman a little more mass and makes the divisive features seem a little less obvious.

With essentially the same front as the ute but a bigger side profile and a boxier rear, the Tasman SUV almost has a tough ‘military-spec’ vibe to it.

In an olive green, a sand or tan, or even all black, the Tasman SUV looks purposeful. ‘Pretty’ isn’t necessarily the word for it, but no one ever said that about the original Defender while being correct.

Of course, optional body-coloured fenders and accessories are there for personalisation. The Tasman ute already looks more at home with a bullbar on the front, for example.

Inside, though, the Tasman’s interior shouldn’t be so divisive.

The cabin is already a plush place for a ute, with a mix of materials and design features befitting a premium family SUV. Perfect for the SUV version of the Tasman, then.

More insulation from sound, more vents, and of course a third row of seats could make the Tasman a properly useful family hauler for weekends and holidays.

It’s all stuff we’re sure Kia’s engineers and designers have not only looked at, drafted, and possibly even presented to the brand’s executives and accountants, but it’s what the latter make of the Tasman ute’s performance that really determines whether an SUV will come to fruition.

“For it to see the light of day, an SUV, the interest would have to come from multiple regions also,” Roland Rivero told CarsGuide.

“So we definitely need the Middle East, South Africa and all those other regions to put their hand up and say, we will sell incremental volume with an SUV version of the Tasman.

“At this point in time, there's no further news or nothing further to report, other than we'd love to see one, and we're conveying that interest to headquarters.”

Stay tuned.