If you thought designers had run out of ways to differentiate boxy pickup trucks from one another—without, you know, resorting to Tesla's Cybertruck stealth-bomber-on-meth angularity—Kia has a beer it wants you to hold while you watch this. Where do we even begin? The Tasman's headlights are mounted strangely low and way out at each front corner, essentially incorporated into each plastic front fender flare. A curious body-color frame separates those headlights from the toothy grille that wouldn't look out of place on a hot-rodded 1950s-era Mercury coupe. And what on earth is going on with those odd eyebrows—or are they mustaches?—capping each wheel opening like awnings? Combined with odd body panel stampings and a sort of embryonic take on the Jeep Gladiator's taillights, the Tasman is a riot of incongruent design.

The silver lining here is that the Tasman's basic shape and stance look decent, and darker paint colors hide those weird fender flares well. (Kia says the flares themselves hide some kind of in-fender storage, like an uglier, external version of Ram's clever RamBox pickup bed storage cubbies.) Even better, the Tasman gets more attractive the less of it is included; Kia provided imagery of a regular-cab, stake-bed version, and it's almost handsome, even if the front end still resembles a bottlenose dolphin cocking its head and staring you down.

Things improve greatly inside the Tasman, where Kia's now-ubiquitous dual 12.3-inch displays cap a clean and muscular dashboard design incorporating elegant toggle switches. Everything inside is rectilinear and simple, and manages to appear both trucky and high-end.

Size-wise, the Tasman is almost identical to the U.S.-market Toyota Tacoma's crew cab variant, measuring in at the same 213 inches long. It's a hair narrower—76 inches to the Tacoma's 76.9 inches—but its height is similar, at 73.6 inches to 75.6 inches, a slightly larger range than the Tacoma's 73.8 to 74.7 inches. The Kia's wheelbase is 3.2 inches shorter, which is why its rear overhang appears so much longer than the Toyota's. Kia will offer the Tasman in an off-road-y X-Pro trim, which is the version with the most ground clearance (9.9 inches, versus 8.8 on standard versions) and stands the tallest; also on offer are X-Line and Base variants.

Mechanically, the Tasman can be had with either a 277-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter gas-fed four-cylinder engine with an automatic transmission or a 207-hp 2.2-liter turbodiesel four (with 325 lb-ft of torque), also with an eight-speed automatic transmission or an available six-speed manual. The front end is supported by double wishbone suspension, while the rear has a live axle and leaf springs. A locking rear differential is available, and the truck is offered with two- or four-wheel drive with low-range gearing. Kia intends this truck to be as much a workhorse as a lifestyle vehicle in the markets it'll be sold in, and as such, things aren't purely rugged and utilitarian—frequency selective dampers should help calm the ride quality, and even Kia's Highway Driving Assist 2 (HDA) feature is available and tuned to work with a trailer. Oh, and the Tasman can tow up to 7,700 pounds.