Light up Australia has bluntly denied rumors that the Korean brand is undergoing a facelift due to its polarization Tasman ute, but says it is examining all options to boost the model’s low sales figures.
“There is no accelerated facelift for the Tasman,” said Raymond Pok, product planning manager at Kia Australia Daily Sparkz.
“Our focus is to continue (Tasman’s) success in this current form. The normal timelines and life cycles for Tasman will be where they are in terms of a facelift.”
These comments followed various rumors and reports that suggested Kia was working to revamp the Tasman’s polarizing appearance in response to ongoing criticism since its launch. These include a sighting of a camouflaged ute in early 2025 and seemingly AI-generated images of the ute that emerged later last year.
However, Mr Pok’s confirmation doesn’t mean there won’t be a facelift. It’s likely that Kia will introduce at least some tweaks to the Tasman in the next few years as part of a mid-life update, although there’s no concrete information on this yet.
With Daily Sparkz you can save thousands on a new car. Click Here to get a great deal.
In any case, it’s no secret that the Tasman hasn’t met Kia’s own sales forecasts, let alone compete with Australia’s best-selling small car. With 1167 sales so far this year, it is well behind the Ford Ranger 4×4 (11,592) and the Toyota HiLux 4×4 (8951) and even behind the Mitsubishi Triton 4×4 (4856) and the Mazda BT-50 4×4 (2358).
Damien Meredith, CEO of Kia Australia, said Daily Sparkz that the brand’s first ute on the market is underperforming and current sales figures are well below the brand’s original forecast of 20,000 annual sales.
“No, it hasn’t performed as expected. We definitely wanted more volume from Tasman – that didn’t happen,” he said.
Even though the Tasman is less than a year on the market after its release in mid-2025, it falls well short of Kia’s own expectations and the popularity of its competitors, including the best-selling Ranger 4×4, which routinely finds more than 50,000 new homes each year.
“The reality is that it has not been a year but nine months since launch. We still have a lot of work to do to bring it to an acceptable level.”
Asked what could be done to improve the Tasman’s sales performance, Mr Meredith said Kia would pursue all possible avenues but did not name specific tactics.
“We need to look at every lever you can use in terms of value, pricing, repositioning (etc.),” he said. “We haven’t stopped trying. We won’t stop trying until we find the right mix of what needs to be done to make it more successful.”
That’s in line with Mr Meredith’s previous comments about the Tasman, as he has long said the Korean carmaker is committed to getting its first small car up and running in the Australian market.
Kia has also said it will focus on the fleet business in 2026 with its fleet-focused entry-level variants, although the results are not yet clear.
It now offers several budget-oriented ones 4×2 single cab variants priced from $38,010 before on-road costs. That’s only about $900 more than the cheapest two-door Ranger 4×2, but thousands more than the equivalent HiLux and Triton.
Also worth mentioning is the Tasman’s double cab Sales of 4×4 pickups are also exceeded by several models from car brands that have been around for a much shorter time in Australia than Kia, namely Chinese models such as the BYD Shark 6 and GWM Cannon.
“We understand the competitive nature of this segment and we also understand how strong the two key players are, and also the new entrants that have been gaining volume and market share very, very quickly,” Mr Meredith said Daily Sparkz.
“We need to look for ways to participate and expand our size.”
MORE: Kia backs slow-selling Tasman ute – ‘We have to make it work’
MORE: Explore the Kia Tasman showroom
