With apologies to fans of the 1989 film, Field of Dreams, another American fantasy that might just become a reality if Australians wish hard enough for it is the coming, second-generation Kia Telluride.
With the Tasman mid-sized ute now in development and less than three years away from launch, Kia Australia (KAU) is believed to be lobbying hard to add the full-sized SUV to its growing and diversifying local portfolio at around the same time.
To bring you up to speed, the Telluride is the five-metre long, two-metre wide and 1.75m high seven- or eight-seater monocoque-bodied sister model to the Hyundai Palisade, and is aimed squarely at the Ford Explorer, Chevrolet Traverse and Toyota Highlander (sold as the Kluger here).
Launched in North America in 2019 and facelifted last year, it has become a massive hit Stateside, outselling the Palisade as well as other non-American brands’ three-row SUV efforts like the Nissan Pathfinder, Honda Pilot and Subaru Ascent, to become yet another one of Kia’s global success stories.
The Telluride is even said to have inspired Toyota to go one-up over the Kia with the conceptually-similar and recently unveiled Grand Highlander.
But, like the latter, being engineered solely for left-hand drive and only made in the USA means that the big Kia is not an economically viable proposition for Australia, despite larger SUV sales continuing to grow. Re-engineering and sourcing costs respectively are deemed too excessive for the accountants to recoup.
Furthermore, with Telluride demand in North America far-outstripping supply, there just isn’t the capacity nor desire to export it to Australia, even if Kia found a way to make the business case work.
What’s worse, the Palisade is actually manufactured in Korea, making it substantially cheaper to import from the home market rather than the USA. This was central in helping Hyundai build its business case for right-hand-drive (RHD) production for Australia since 2020.
However, salvation might be at hand when the next-gen Telluride comes on stream sometime during 2025, thanks to rumours suggesting that Kia might be considering a second, Korea-based production line to the one that already exists in Georgia, USA.
Whether this indicates that the two related SUVs would be assembled together in the same factory or merely share components that would include interchangeable RHD parts is unknown.
Korean media has reported that the next-gen Palisade, codenamed LX3 – is pencilled to commence production by mid 2025, with an all-new and larger body, a roomier interior and a powertrain shake-up in line with shifting consumer trends.
That’s said to include a fresh 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) options, to replace the ageing 1.6-litre turbo-petrol and 2.2-litre turbo-diesel units, as well as a 3.5-litre V6 turbo petrol engine to usurp the 3.8-litre naturally-aspirated version, for buyers seeking more traditional forms of propulsion. Eight-speed autos and the choice of front or all-wheel drive are also thought to be in the plan.
It isn’t clear if some or all of these changes and advancements coming to the Hyundai would translate to the Telluride, but given their related DNA underneath distinctly different skins, we wouldn’t bet against it – particularly considering the latter’s 100,000-unit-plus annual sales results in North America (and growing).
We also hear that the next Telluride will brandish some of the coming EV9 electric vehicle’s “Opposites United” styling philosophy, with more angles and edges than the existing model, but the word is that a more rugged and outdoorsy attitude has been infused into the design.
While KAU declined to confirm such speculation, the head of product planning, Roland Rivero, revealed that he is very keen to see another three-row SUV to slot in between the big-selling Sorento and EV9 flagship.
“Palisade is out of Korea, and Telluride is strictly in this point of time out of the Georgia factory in the US,” he said.
“And that’s the difficulty. Georgia is already at capacity satisfying the North American market including Canada, and to ask for development for RHD – and we’ve put our hand up for it because it is a great product that’s won various awards and accolades – is (not possible) … so, there’s currently no Telluride development for Australia.”
That said, with Carnival booming right now – volume is up by nearly 40 per cent year-on-year to make it KAU’s fourth most popular model to date – there are fears that, were it made available, the existing Telluride might have cannibalised sales of its segment-leading people mover.
“We always look at every product that is built globally for us, but every time we look at a product, we want it to be adding to our volume and adding to our brand,” according to KAU Chief Executive Officer, Damien Meredith.
“Telluride is a fantastic product, but would it be incremental business or would it be absorbing Carnival sales? That’s always part of the equation. If it had been delivered in RHD mode, it would have been a really, really hard decision – but we didn’t have to make that decision.”
Still, with concerns that Kia as a brand is famous for value and economy cars as well as SUVs and EVs but not big adventurous outdoorsy vehicles, it seems that KAU could lean on the future Telluride to help establish the brand in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) market in the lead up to the launch of the Tasman ute.
“We’ve been using Sorento in a tougher environment from a communication point of view to start to develop what we can do with potentially an LCV,” Meredith said.
“If it had been available, we would have used Telluride to develop that foundation for LCV. But we’ve had to use Sorento.”
These seem to be very legitimate reasons to fight for the next-gen Telluride for Australia, especially after all the hard work that is going in making the ute as suitable for our country as possible… but will Kia HQ give it the green light for RHD production out of Korea for us?
Watch this space.
Keyword: Kia Telluride update: If Korea builds it, it will come (to Australia) - and with turbo hybrid power and economy to boot!