A mock-up Kia Tasman police car has appeared for the 2025 edition of the Australasian Police and Emergency Service Games in Hobart, hinting at future emergency services use in Australian states and territories.
The 2025 Kia Tasman ute has gained its police stripes ahead of its launch in July – but it hasn't clocked on for emergency service duties just yet.
Kia Australia – a sponsor of the annual Australasian Police and Emergency Service Games held between Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific nations – has created a mock-up police version of the Tasman to show its support for the event, and hint at its potential availability for emergency service fleets in the future.
In a social media post, organisers said the Kia Tasman mock-up police car will be stationed at the forecourt of the game's hub near Salamanca Place in Hobart, Tasmania, between Thursday March 13, 2025, and Saturday March 22, 2025.
It is the first public showing of the new ute in Australia following its media reveal in Hobart in October 2024, ahead of the Melbourne Motor Show on the first weekend of April where Kia Australia will showcase its Tasman, EV3, EV5, and another vehicle which is still to be confirmed.
Complete with a black-and-white chequered band running across the length of the ute, 'police' lettering, roof-mounted red-and-blue lights, and a snorkel, the rest of the black-coloured Tasman is mostly identical to the model shown in October.
However a bar has been added to its lower front bumper, which could appear in the final production model due in local showrooms in July.
It is unclear why Kia has added this extra design element, but it could allow the Tasman to receive a higher vulnerable road-user protection score when crash-tested by ANCAP later this year.
The show-car at the police games in Tasmania is missing the extended or body-coloured wheel arch options which will be available to Australian customers when the Tasman launches in mid-2025, amid criticism of its sausage-shaped flares fitted as standard.
The mock-up police car appears to be based on the mid-spec Tasman X-Line, which will likely be positioned similarly to the Ford Ranger XLT and Toyota HiLux SR5 variants used by police forces in some Australian states and territories.
Police authorities in Australia supply ute models – such as the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max – for many uses, including divisional vans, general-duties, and riot and dog squads, to support their general-duties and highway patrol sedans, wagons and SUVs.
Kia Australia has an existing relationship with police fleets across the country.
The Kia Sorento SUV – which offers a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel like the Tasman – is currently used for general-duty services in most regions, while the twin-turbo V6 Kia Stinger featured as one of many highway patrol cars replacing the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon until it was discontinued in 2022, with a small number of vehicles still in use.
Fire, ambulance and other emergency services also use several dual-cab ute models as support vehicles across Australia.
The Kia Tasman will be available in Australia with a 154kW/441Nm 2.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine matched to an eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission, with two- or four-wheel-drive depending on the variant.
Kia is aiming for between 20,000 and 25,000 annual sales of the Tasman in Australia, which would see it become the nation's fourth-highest-selling ute behind the Ranger, HiLux and D-Max and allow it to move closer to knocking Mazda and Ford off the sales podium as the second-best-selling brand locally.
Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
