CarBrandLogos archive · Kia · 2019
A big American three-row SUV designed and built for America, and it showed.
Discover the storyPhoto: Kevauto · CC BY-SA 4.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Kia Telluride, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Kia's previous attempt at a large SUV, the Mohave sold in some markets as the Borrego, arrived in 2008 just as fuel prices spiked and never found its audience in the United States. The Telluride, launched in February 2019, was aimed at the same buyers with a completely different approach.
Kia Telluride · TastyPoutine · CC BY-SA 3.0
02
It was styled at Kia's California studio, engineered largely for North American tastes and built at the group's plant in West Point, Georgia. The shape was upright and squared-off with thin vertical lights, closer in spirit to a Range Rover than to the soft-edged crossovers it competed with. Inside, the three rows were genuinely usable by adults, the materials were better than the price suggested, and the equipment list at mid-range trims covered things rivals charged extra for.
2023 Kia Telluride interior · deathpallie325 · CC BY-SA 4.0
03
The reception was unusual for a Kia. It took the 2020 World Car of the Year award and the North American Utility Vehicle of the Year, and demand ran so far ahead of supply that dealers sold cars above list price for a sustained period, something that had never happened to the brand. Reviewers repeatedly noted that it did not read as a value alternative to a Highlander or Explorer so much as a straightforwardly better car than either.
2023 Kia Telluride rear end · deathpallie325 · CC BY-SA 4.0
04
Mechanically it is undramatic: a transverse front engine driving the front or all four wheels, no low range, no pretence of off-road ability. Its significance is commercial. The Telluride was the point at which Kia stopped being judged against its price and started being judged against everyone.
At a glance
Produced
2019–presentBody
5-door SUVTechnical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the Telluride's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Contemporaries from the 2010s
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