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Kia has launched official teaser photos of its first-ever pick-up truck, the Tasman. Named after the ‘rugged magnificence and pioneering spirit’ of Tasmania, the island on the southernmost tip of Australia, the truck you see right here wears an Australia-inspired camouflage wrap.
Developed in collaboration with famend artist Richard Boyd-Dunlop hailing from Australia and New Zealand, the wrap – themed round ‘The Path By no means Taken’ – visualises a journey of inspiration encountered whereas driving alongside the coast and throughout the outback. It attracts on the mixed-media artist’s adventures, hitching rides behind utes throughout Australia.
Identified for his distinctive creative type and skill to mix numerous media to create visually daring and highly effective collaborations, Boyd-Dunlop captures parts of land and sea with the Tasman camo wrap. The end combines the ‘fiery hues of the outback with commanding blues that pay homage to Australia’s influential surf tradition’.
“Our Tasman pickup truck embodies Kia’s dedication to design and innovation, in addition to its spirit of journey. Artist Richard Boyd-Dunlop crafted an unique camouflage design, with the assist of the Kia design staff, that depicts a journey and displays an essence of journey that’s distinctive to the Tasman,” mentioned Karim Habib, government VP and head of Kia International Design.
Kia has confirmed that the Tasman is scheduled to make its debut in 2025, and the C-segment pick-up truck’s launch technique might be phased globally, together with key markets akin to South Korea, Australia, Africa and the Center East. Conspicuously absent from the listing of named markets is ASEAN, which member Thailand is without doubt one of the world’s most vital one-tonne pick-up truck markets.
“Along with effortlessly fulfilling the function of a work-orientated pickup, the Tasman is designed to satisfy clients’ various private wants. Appropriate for a demanding 24/7 life-style, Kia’s versatile truck will assist even essentially the most excessive leisure actions,” Kia says.
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No technical particulars have been launched, however Kia already has the constructing blocks for a good pick-up, not least the two.2-litre turbodiesel lengthy utilized in fashions just like the Sorento SUV and Carnival MPV. In its newest type, the R engine produces 202 PS and 440 Nm of torque, which is aggressive however not class-leading within the one-tonne truck phase.
Kia additionally has entry to a plug-in hybrid powertrain, which pairs a 1.6-litre turbo-four with a 90 hp electrical motor, which within the Sorento develops a complete output of 264 PS and an all-electric vary of 51 km because of a 13.8 kWh battery. A PHEV truck sounds alien to us, however Ford has a Ranger PHEV for Europe and Australia.
The Tasman is unquestionably not a rebadge of the car-based Hyundai Santa Cruz. Additionally in contrast to the Hyundai compact truck, which is just for North America, Kia’s pick-up truck is a world product, and that additionally signifies that the Tasman needs to be powerful and strong. What do you suppose the Tasman and Kia’s transfer to enter the pick-up truck market? By the best way, there might be one other truck from the corporate, a much bigger EV.
GALLERY: Kia Tasman spyshots
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