Kia may not yet sell a pickup truck here in the States like its affiliate, Hyundai. But down under, it markets the Tasman, a midsize truck built on a ladder frame. It apparently isn’t selling phenomenally well, even though Australians tend to dig trucks just as much as we do. It’s fair to say the Tasman is objectively not the most elegant vehicle ever conceived, so a redesign could help. An AI-generated post from Kia itself has fueled a rumor that the automaker is rushing one to market, but an executive has flatly squashed the misconception.
“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,” Roland Rivero, Kia’s chief of product planning for the region, told Australia’s Drive (no affiliation). “A facelift, as per usual, would fall within the milestones of the product lifecycle plan, and there’s no fast-tracking of any sort.”
The render that gave rise to the rumor is very clearly the product of AI. It’s got that smeary look that approximates something realistic but lacks precision, most obvious in the garbled tire labels. The trees in the background of the example above are, of course, very blurry too, lending a painterly vibe to the whole affair. These images were initially posted to an official Kia website in South Korea, which explains why they had more credibility than renders of this nature usually do. Not always, but usually.
Also complicating matters is that emergency redesigns actually do happen in the auto world, contrary to Rivero’s response. The obvious semi-recent example is the Chevrolet Camaro, which suffered a widely panned nose job in 2019 that was quickly corrected just a year later, in 2020. That 2019 tweak gave the sports car a gaping maw more in line with Chevy’s pickups, complete with a center-mounted bowtie. It was a bad look, and the brand was right to listen.
I’m not writing this from a part of the world where I get to see Tasmans on the road, but the truck’s exterior would seem to similarly benefit from a rethink. The bulging hood, copious black trim, and weird treatment of the headlights being built into the fenders all make it stand out, but not necessarily in a good way. Kia’s design ethos as of late is clearly focused on eliciting a reaction, positive or negative. Sure, the Tasman accomplishes that, but once you become numb to a design, you see it for what it is—and the Tasman is, unfortunately, really ugly.
One way or another, though, Kia needs to find a way to boost sales. “What we definitely do know for a fact is that the customers who have purchased a Tasman, they’re very, very positive about their purchase, and they speak very highly of their purchase,” Rivero said. “We just need more of them.”
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