2022 New York Auto Show Week: Kia Updates the Telluride

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

It seems like just yesterday that Kia unveiled the Telluride three-row SUV. Now it’s apparently due for its first significant refresh.

Kia’s press materials promise changes to both the exterior and interior design, though the attached teaser image suggests the basic exterior shape will remain. Softened, perhaps, but still boxy.

Kia is fairly mum, for the moment, on what else to expect, other than to say that convenience and tech will be upgraded. The biggest news is the addition of an X-Pro trim.

Oh, Kia also says capability will be upgraded, and while the type of capability in question here isn’t clear — is it cargo capability? More power? — we’d guess it’s off-road-related, especially with the announcement of the X-Pro trim.

Kia takes the wraps off the Telluride Wednesday morning, just after 10 Eastern time. Expect the updated Kia Niro to be shown, as well.

The Telluride’s platform sibling, the Hyundai Palisade, is also slated for a similar update. We’ll have a separate post on that today or tomorrow.

[Image: Kia]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Apr 11, 2022

    The all new KN Notatruck POS edition with $10,000 ADM coming soon to a showroom near you.

  • Theflyersfan Theflyersfan on Apr 12, 2022

    Bare minimum...please for the love of all things holy, Kia, ****can that logo and use the home market stylized "K" logo. I haven't seen one Kia in any shape, form, and color where this logo looks good. It doesn't match anything, it's jarring, and really, I'm surprised Trent Reznor hasn't sued over trademark infringement. And then when you're done peeling the NIN logos off of your cars, work on your electrical and lighting systems. I'm tired of seeing 6 year old Hyundais and Kias with multiple dead lighting assemblies. Makes your brand look cheap like they don't hold together well. You had an excuse in the 80s and 90s when you guys were the cheap foreign alternative to the Japanese cars and people were willing to put up with crap to get a good deal on one. But if you want to hang with the adults in the room, swap chairs with VW and sweat the details and have your cars hold up a bit better. Now I'm going to outside for a minute and yell at clouds.

    • See 3 previous
    • Theflyersfan Theflyersfan on Apr 13, 2022

      @Inside Looking Out: Ahhh...but I've studied "Interstellar." I'm actually floating behind some bookshelves and messing with gravity and seconds hands and piles of dust. And the message I'm trying to send is that while some VWs have some quality issues, they still feel like cohesive units with steering, suspension, brakes, and everything else feeling like they are all on the same page. H/K, at least the rentals and loaners I've had, still seem to sell on features for money and to wave shiny objects in front of people in the hopes they will buy (see their overdone front lighting elements as Exhibit A) instead of having all of those above systems seem like they are on the same page. So many reviews have the word "BUT" when it comes to the driving experience.

  • Ajla The market for sedans is weaker than it once was but I think some of you are way overstating the situation and I disagree that the sales numbers show sedans are some niche thing that full line manufacturers should ignore. There are still a sizeable amount of sales. This isn't sports car volume. So far this year the Camry and Civic are selling in the top 10, with the Corolla in 11 and the Accord, Sentra, and Model 3 in the top 20. And sedan volume is off it's nadir from a few years ago with many showing decent growth over the last two years, growth that is outpacing utilities. Cancelling all sedans now seems more of an error than back when Ford did it.
  • Duties The U.S . would have enough energy to satisfy our needs and export energy if JoeBama hadn’t singlehandedly shut down U.S. energy exploration and production. Furthermore, at current rates of consumption, the U.S. has over two centuries of crude oil, https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/exclusive-current-rates-consumption-us-has-more-two-centuries-oil-report.Imagine we lived in a world where all cars were EV's. And then along comes a new invention: the Internal Combustion Engine.Think how well they would sell. A vehicle HALF the weight, HALF the price that would cause only a quarter of the damage to the road. A vehicle that could be refueled in 1/10th the time, with a range of 4 times the distance in all weather conditions. One that does not rely on the environmentally damaging use of non-renewable rare earth elements to power it, and uses far less steel and other materials. A vehicle that could carry and tow far heavier loads. And is less likely to explode in your garage in the middle of the night and burn down your house with you in it. And ran on an energy source that is readily extracted with hundreds of years known supply.Just think how excited people would be for such technology. It would sell like hot cakes, with no tax credits! Whaddaya think? I'd buy one.
  • 3SpeedAutomatic I just road in a rental Malibu this past week. Interior was a bit plasticity, but, well built.Only issue was how “low” the seat was in relation to the ground. I had to crawl “down” into the seat. Also, windscreen was at 65 degree angle which invited multiple reflections. Just to hack off the EPA, how about a boxy design like Hyundai is doing with some of its SUVs. 🚙 Raise the seat one or two inches and raise the roof line accordingly. Would be a hit with the Uber and Lyft crowd as well as some taxi service.🚗 🚗🚗
  • Dartdude Having the queen of nothing as the head of Dodge is a recipe for disaster. She hasn't done anything with Chrysler for 4 years, May as well fold up Chrysler and Dodge.
  • Pau65792686 I think there is a need for more sedans. Some people would rather drive a car over SUV’s or CUV’s. If Honda and Toyota can do it why not American brands. We need more affordable sedans.
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