2025 Kia Tasman rendered & spied with Ford Ranger Raptor

The hotly anticipated Kia Tasman pickup is nearing its global debut, and these latest images leave no doubts as to where its sights will be set.

Spied in winter testing this week at a facility in Sweden, the Tasman was caught alongside the new Ford Ranger Raptor – which could offer a clue as to what sort of power this particular Tasman is packing.

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In its second-generation form, the Ranger Raptor is powered by a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol engine in Australia, producing 292kW and 583Nm.

Kia has access to a similarly brutish unit, in the Hyundai group's 279kW/530Nm 3.5-litre turbo V6 – with the sorts of figures that could comfortably dialled up if a bit of brochure boasting is desired.

The European specification Ranger Raptor spotted here is fitted with the 150kW/500Nm four-cylinder bi-turbo diesel shared with lower variants, while retaining the Raptor's coil-spring rear suspension with Fox Live Valve dampers.

Recent spy pictures from South Korea showed a Kia Tasman prototype with heavier-duty leaf-spring rear suspension, but the example spied in Europe appears to have coil springs like the Raptor – and the current Nissan Navara.

Whatever it's hiding under the Kia's big square bonnet, these photos offer a first clear look at how the Tasman will measure up to the Ranger in exterior dimensions.

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Click the above photo for our full Tasman gallery

At a glance, it's clear Kia's ute will be comparable in overall size – as expected –but it looks as if a longer rear overhang is in play, perhaps hinting at a roomier tub.

Indeed, that long rear overhang evokes thoughts of the Jeep Gladiator, although the American truck has a much longer wheelbase than any regular dual-cab ute. (3487mm to the Ranger's 3226mm.)

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2025 Kia Tasman rendered

Based on these photos, and earlier images captured by a Korean YouTube channel, we tapped our friend Theottle to produce some speculative renderings of how the Tasman might look in its finished form.

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What do you think? Tell us in the comments, and catch up with our ongoing coverage below.

November 25, 2022: “I think your renderer has made it look sensational”

Kia Australia's general manager of product planning, Roland Rivero, said of Theottle’s Mohave-based Kia ute render.

Unfortunately, the pictured render won’t be the ute’s final form: “it’s not uncommon in any kind of prototype testing – particularly when you’re only currently working on chassis, for instance – to borrow panels from another car just to disguise it," he said.

Like punters and journalists, Kia’s Australian arm is keen for more info: “I think for [Kia], if there was a vehicle in development, an announcement would be appreciated sooner rather than later”, Rivero continued.

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Our speculative, Mohave SUV-based rendering is likely not accurate – but it does look good...

“Because you've got to develop a dealer network. Some dealer showrooms might only have the size to cater for passenger cars or SUVs, so adding this [ute] to the lineup would actually mean investment and infrastructure.

“So I think you’ve got to give a dealer network time to do that – you can't expect dealers’ to turn around in two months – so ideally something of an announcement, if there was going to be one, is made sooner rather than later if [the vehicle] was already in chassis development mode,” Rivero said.

How successful could Kia’s ute be?

With a light commercial vehicle to rival the likes of Ranger, HiLux, Triton and D-Max, Kia Australia COO Damien Meredith is certain the brand’s sales would grow. It’s not hard to see why, given the ute segment accounts for 200,000 annual new car sales.

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“If you get 10 per cent of the LCV market it's over 20,000 Aussie sales”, Meredith said. That would be enough to see Kia climb the sales leaderboard and potentially take second place from Mazda.

Of course, this would all hinge on the ute being successful. While it seems guaranteed, it isn’t, we’ve seen new players fail before – most recently the Nissan Navara-based Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

On that theme, Kia’s Australian execs made it clear to Wheels that if what we’re seeing is going to spawn a new vehicle – or range of them – then it will be new from the ground up.

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“If [Kia] was going to develop a product of this nature, they wouldn't be basing it off a 2008 product that's over 10 years' old, it's simply just which product in our range can we grab panels off to at least complete a mask for now.

“If there was such a product, expect it to be all new from the ground up”, Rivero added.