A Kia executive has explained why the upcoming Tasman bakkie – which is under consideration for SA – likely won’t be offered with a V6 engine at launch…
Kia is set to reveal its new Tasman ladder-frame bakkie towards the end of 2024. And it seems recent rumours that a V6 engine won’t be offered from launch hold plenty of water. In fact, an executive from the Korean firm’s Australian division has explained why the Tasman will likely hit the market exclusively in 4-cylinder form.
Roland Rivero, Kia Australia’s general manager of product planning, hinted to Drive that customers won’t have the option of 6-cylinder power at launch, saying the “bulk” of buyers in the 1-tonne bakkie segment opt for 4-cylinder diesels and pointing out the company planned to “strategically target the big volume”.
“We’ve dissected that category in that segment accordingly, so the big volume areas are targeted,” Rivero explained. “And if it means that initially there’s no V6 diesel or V6 petrol in the mix, then that’s what we have to do,” he said.
“The majority of the products out there in the marketplace, bar say a [Ford Ranger] Raptor and a V6 [Volkswagen] Amarok, fundamentally are doing it with a 4-cylinder turbo, with 3.5-tonne towing, over-a-tonne payload and meeting most of the needs of farming, agriculture, building, construction – you name it.”
That said, could a 6-cylinder motor join the Tasman range (if that’s indeed what it ends up being called) at some point further down the line? Well, Rivero certainly left the door open, though confirmed the aging 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel unit offered in the Mohave in South Korea was “not being looked at”.
“There’s a 10-year life – it’s got an extended model life, an LCV [light commercial vehicle] – and the extended model life gives us the ability to look at any low-hanging fruit that we may have missed along the way,” he told Drive.
While Kia has yet to confirm which 4-cylinder turbodiesel it plans to offer in the new Tasman, reports suggest the brand’s familiar 2.2-litre CRDi engine employed by the likes of the Sorento and Carnival (where it generates peak outputs of 148 kW and 440 Nm) is the most likely.
In March 2024, Kia’s local distributor confirmed to Cars.co.za that it was “conducting all the feasibility studies to see whether or not [the new bakkie] will be a viable product for the South African market”.
Though the Kia South Africa told us “no timing of possible introduction is available as yet”, it’s worth noting the new 1-tonne bakkie – which is expected to be offered in both single- and double-cab body styles (the latter catering to the all-important leisure market) – is slated to launch in fellow right-hand-drive market Australia only at some point in 2025.
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