If you haven’t heard already, Kia is making a pickup truck. It’s called the Tasman, and while it’s understandable that you might assume it will be a Hyundai Santa Cruz with a different badge and styling, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a legitimate, body-on-frame pickup truck aimed at midsize rivals such as the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux. And while we don’t know much about the Tasman’s specs, the latest teaser suggests Kia has every intention of making it pretty darn capable off-road.
Now, this isn’t the first time Kia’s released a teaser that hints at the Tasman’s off-road capability. The Korean automaker released a different video last month showing it in desert testing, and at the time, we were pretty impressed. Not just by what the teaser showed the truck could do but also by the fact that Kia seems pretty serious about making sure the Tasman is a winner. This time around, the ad is shorter and shows it playing around in some pretty gnarly mud.
Unfortunately for those of us who live in the U.S., while Kia hasn’t specifically said it won’t sell the Tasman here, it still hasn’t said that it will. Unlike some other cars that aren’t sold here, it’s more understandable that Kia might develop a truck for international markets and never even offer it in the U.S. due to our asinine Chicken Tax. Then again, Kia has plenty of factories in the U.S., so why not dedicate some of that space to building the Tasman? We deserve it.
Even if the Tasman never becomes a true sales rival for the Toyota Tacoma, there are still a lot of opportunity here. America loves its pickup trucks, and it looks like the Tasman will be legit. Maybe if we all beg loudly enough, Kia will listen and give us a chance to buy it. Should we start a letter-writing campaign? A social media drive? Maybe start mailing the C-suite cookies? I don’t know, but if the rest of the world gets this truck, and we don’t, I am going to be perturbed.