- Kia says there’s no plan to fast-track a Tasman facelift.
- Sales fell short of Kia’s targets despite strong owner feedback.
- Rugged Weekender variant remains a concept with no timeline.
Kia doesn’t seem especially fazed by the Tasman’s lukewarm reception. The pickup landed with all the enthusiasm of a dropped tool tray, and even the company admits that sales in Australia this year have fallen short of expectations. Still, a facelift isn’t on the table any time soon.
Read: Someone At Kia Used AI To Show Off Tasman, What Could Possibly Go Right?
Roland Rivero, Kia Australia’s general manager of product planning, recently spoke to the media just weeks after a batch of in-house, AI-generated renderings appeared on Kia’s own public website, looking polished enough to pass for the real thing.
They briefly lit up forums and headlines, fueling hopes that a redesigned Tasman was quietly in the pipeline. It wasn’t.
“If there’s any rumor or if there’s any suggestion that we are going to fast-track a PE [product enhancement], or a facelift, that is completely incorrect,” Rivero told Drive.com.au. “A facelift, as per usual, would fall within the milestones of the product lifecycle plan, and there’s no fast-tracking of any sort.”
Rivero went on to say that new Tasman owners are “very, very positive about their purchase, and they speak very highly of their purchase.” Encouraging words, but the real issue for Kia is scale. As Rivero put it, the company “just needs more of them.”
In the first five months the Tasman has been available in Australia, just over 3,700 examples have been sold. This would equate to a full year’s sales of roughly 11,148 units, well shy of the 20,000 mark Kia was aiming for.
The Weekender Still on Ice
A new variant would be a road-going Tasman inspired by the Weekender concept. The one-off concept featured a tweaked front fascia, wider arches, and much more aggressive looks. It certainly looked a lot more interesting than the standard Tasman. Sadly, it remains a concept.
“Weekender has created some attention, but it remains a concept at this point in time,” Rivero explained. “Whether it’s executed in an EV5, or it’s executed in a Tasman, they remain as concepts. Concepts can have multiple roles – they can inspire future PEs and future redesigns – but at this point in time, it [Tasman Weekender] is not planned to go into production.”
