Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the new Kia Tasman is as Australian as a new car can get these days. Since the departure of the locally-built Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, Kia has been one of the leading brands when it comes to tailoring cars to our unique conditions.
Traditionally this has been centred around a local ride and handling test program to ensure each new model is better suited to our more pockmarked roads as well as Australian drivers’ taste. But for the Tasman Kia Australia has been involved earlier and in more ways than ever before.
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Everything from the concept, design and even the name has been influenced by Australia and our ute-loving ways.
“By far, this is [the most Australian Kia ever],” said Roland Rivero, Kia Australia product planning manager. “Not even close.”
As utes have become the ‘new family car’ in Australia, effectively replacing the Commodore and Falcon of previous generations, Kia Australia was clear from the beginning that the Tasman couldn’t simply be a simplistic workhorse ute.
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“Actually, [Kia HQ] understood the story,” Rivero said. “Basically, the days of Commodore and Falcon has now transitioned into [Ford] Ranger and [Toyota] Hilux. To be completely honest, that’s where our market has gone.”
He added: “Whilst it’s a tool trade Monday to Friday. Saturday, Sunday, I know there’s tax benefits and whatnot, but the ABN holder takes advantage of that. And then at the end of day, it becomes a family vehicle on the weekends when all the tools have been unloaded. And if you want, you don’t even have to remove them, just make room. Plenty of space in the tub, you can have your groceries and your tools.
“So I think that was understood by headquarters early in the piece. And they respected that and they gave us that, that plush, family-friendly interior as a result.”
The more SUV-like interior, which is a clear differentiator between the Tasman and its rivals, was another element of the vehicle that was driven by the Australian market. Jochen Paesen, head of interior design for Kia globally, said his team studied the preferences of Australians and that informed their choices.
“I think also from a design point of view, the guys came over, had a look, tried to understand the market,” Paesen said. “Honestly, this is such an important market generally for us to learn from because there’s not many markets in the world where pickups or utes are used in this way. So it was a perfect place for us to learn and to try and understand the market, and it served us very, very well.”
Interestingly, while the Tasman is Kia’s first ute this was not the first time Paesen had worked on one. During his time with Volkswagen he was credited with the interior design of the first generation Amarok, another ute lauded for its more SUV-like cabin.
And this isn’t the only Australian influence. In an effort to ensure the Tasman meets the five-star criteria for the Australiasian New Car Assessemnt Progam (ANCAP), which will help with fleet buyers, the front end design was tweaked for our specific needs here.
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“There is some unique design that we’ve got specifically for this market in relation to the ANCAP,” explained Kia global exterior, John Buckingham. “So there’s specific work that we’ve done for the market from a design point of view to make sure that it has the pedestrian safety baked into the design, which is unique to Australia.”
Kia Australia is also working on a range of genuine accessories, including bullbars, canaopies and other equipment that will be produced by a variety of well-known Australian off-road brands.
While the Tasman is unlikely to ever enjoy the same cultural impact as the Commodore, in this post-manufacturing era of the Australian car industry Kia has demonstrated that our unique market needs can still be met by major international brands.
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