It hasn’t been the fairytale start Kia was hoping for, but those claiming the Tasman ute is already a flop are getting ahead of themselves.
A big part of the problem for Kia is the expectations it put on itself, with local CEO Damien Meredith telling media that he was confident that the company would sell 10,000 Tasmans in 2025 and then has hopes for 20,000 annually starting in 2026.
To be blunt, as a journalist I don’t want to criticise Meredith for putting a figure on it, because these days car company executives avoid a direct number like it’s the plague. But the reality is, that set up the brand for a high pressure situation of which any number less than 10,000 can be seen as a failure.
The latest new car sales, which recorded up to the end of October, were released recently and it has confirmed that Kia has sold 3109 Tasman so far in 2025. Now, having only arrived in the middle of the year, it would be unfair to judge the Tasman against models that have been on sale the whole year.
But we can look at the monthly sales, and in October Kia sold 610 Tasman, compared to 4402 Ford Rangers. Looking more closely at the 4×4 market, which is where the majority of buyers are, the Tasman’s 570 sales was only the ninth best-seller; behind the Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max, Mitsubishi Triton, BYD Shark 6, Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series, Mazda BT-50 and GWM Cannon.
READ MORE: 2025 Kia Tasman review
It underlines the core problem the Tasman has, which is a significant number of very established rivals in a sector of the market that is dominated by two players and where brand loyalty is a major factor in a buying decision.
Still, Kia is 6891 units short of its ‘25 goal, so short of out-selling Ranger or HiLux (or both) in November and December, it looks highly unlikely Meredith will hit his 10k target.
So does that mean the Tasman is a dud?
Not yet, for the simple reason Kia is still introducing the full range of Tasman models. While the dual-cab pickup 4×2 and 4×4 are already in showrooms, the Double Cab Chassis has only just arrived and the Single Cab Chassis is still yet to hit dealers.
READ MORE: 2025 Kia Tasman – what you need to know
Will these mean double or triple sales, to achieve the 20,000 target in 2026? That’s unlikely, as cab chassis variants are typically less popular these days. They will definitely add volume, potentially a lot of fleet sales, but the pickup is the key model Kia needs to find success with.
The elephant in the room is styling, of course, but in my time driving the Tasman I found a surprisingly even mix of those who hated it and those either not offended or who liked it.
Taking a step back though, the hard truth is, Meredith simply set the bar incredibly high. In 2024 only three utes sold more than 20,000 units – Ranger, HiLux and D-Max – so aiming to become one of the four best-selling utes in an increasingly crowded ute market was a bold declaration.
If Kia can even achieve 10,000 sales in the full year of 2026 it should be seen a success for the Tasman, as they would likely mean it is amongst the top five or six most popular utes. And that should be considered a success, rather than a failure, despite what the company hopes.
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