The Kia Telluride is one of the most important vehicles the Korean automaker sells in America, so it really needs to stick the landing when it launches the second-generation crossover at the 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show. However, that’s still about a month away, and the automotive world is impatient, which is why we’re getting a couple of teaser images to hold us over until then.
What we’ve got here are two shady images of a front three-quarter and top-down view of the 2027 (yes, 2027) Telluride. There’s a lot that is left to the imagination, but we’re still able to get the idea that the new ‘Ride is a bit boxier than it was before, and it’ll fit in neatly with the rest of Kia’s design language. It’s certainly related to the excellent Hyundai Plaisade, that’s for sure. Kia says the Telluride is the latest form of its “Opposites United” design language that “embraces the contrast between nature and humanity.” I don’t know what the hell that means, but I do love marketing language, don’t you?
What we can see is vertical amber LED lights — a trademark of the current Telluride. Similar to the Palisade, the Telluride also features a very broad hood and upright grille. It gives the car a rather imposing look, especially if it’s in your rearview mirror. From the top-down view, we aren’t able to see much other than the dual sunroofs and slight tapering toward the rear of the crossover. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the L460 Range Rover, and I’m sure that’s not by accident.
While we aren’t given a look at the rear of the car, Kia says its beltline rises subtly to intersect with a D-pillar that raks forward. The car will also feature black inserts at the top of the pillar to make the flat roofline look like it’s floating on top of the windows… sort of like a Range Rover.
Knowing the unknown
Of course, there are no official specs for the 2027 Telluride just yet, but it doesn’t take much of a brain genius to make some educated guesses. In August, I drove the second-generation Hyundai Palisade, which is sure to be this car’s mechanical twin. That means we can expect the Telluide to have two powertrain options: a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 that puts out 287 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque and a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid that’ll make a combined 329 hp and 339 lb-ft of torque. I’ll be driving that car very soon. Both are available with front- or all wheel-drive.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the second-generation Telluride got a bit bigger than the old car. The new Palisade is about 2.5 inches bigger than the old one, and its wheelbase grew by about 2.7 inches. It would be quite the surprise if the Telluride didn’t follow that trend. Oh, and when it comes to price, the new Palisade starts $41,035, including destination, so you can expect the Telluride to start somewhere in that vicinity.
Through September of this year, Kia has sold 92,498 Tellurides, and since it went on sale back in 2019, the automaker has moved a total of 646,096 Tellurides, outselling the previous year every year. It can’t mess this up, and if these teaser images are anything to go by, it won’t.
