A few weeks ago, it was reported that Kia will be releasing a midsize pickup by 2025. It will be the South Korean brand’s first foray into that segment that is currently being dominated by the Japanese marques and the Ford Ranger. That said, the model doesn’t have a name just yet, but it seems that Kia has a possible candidate.
Looking around the ever reliable World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) database, Kia has registered the name Tasman in Australia. While it might not mean much right now, the word Tasman has been registered in other trademark databases around the world. There are also pending trademark applications for Kia Tasman in France, Costa Rica, and Uruguay.
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
Report: Toyota Rush facelift coming this month?
What commuters need to know about the McKinley Hill-San Lorenzo COMET buses
With that, it appears that Kia is keen to use that name on one of its products in the future. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Tasman is the final name for the pickup. But given the buzz surrounding this future model, it’s starting to look that way. Of course, Kia can also throw a curveball and use an entirely different name altogether.
As for other details about the future pickup, it is said to carry the internal code TK. It also appears that the pickup will use a traditional body-on-frame chassis instead of a unibody platform. Engines options are unknown at the point, but there are two likely candidates. There's the tried and tested 2.2-liter CRDi as seen in most Hyundai-Kia products, or the 3.0-liter V6 CRDi that’s exclusive to the Mojave.
