- Kia’s Product Planning chief attracts a transparent line between the 2027 Telluride and the EV9, explaining their future in Kia’s lineup.
- His reply exposes a fact that almost all EV headlines are presently ignoring about what American three row SUV patrons truly need proper now.
- Understanding the place Kia stands on this query provides buyers a clearer image of the three row SUV market than most automotive protection is presently offering.
Image your self standing in a Kia dealership someday this spring. On one facet of the showroom flooring sits the 2027 Telluride, daring and boxy, powered by a turbocharged hybrid system. On the opposite facet sits the EV9, Kia’s flagship three row electrical SUV, quiet and futuristic and spectacular in a totally totally different manner. Similar model. Similar dealership. Similar variety of rows. And you’re standing there pondering: why does Kia want each of those?
That’s truly one of the vital vital questions within the midsize SUV section proper now. And I received a direct reply to it from the particular person at Kia America whose job it’s to know.
On the 2027 Kia Telluride media drive occasion in Santa Barbara, California, I sat down with Sang Lee, Product Planning Nationwide Supervisor at Kia America, throughout a break between drives. The dialog had already lined the V6 retirement within the new Telluride and the engineering behind the brand new turbocharged engine. However one query stored pulling at me. It’s the query beneath all the opposite questions on this automobile. The one which shapes how a purchaser ought to truly take into consideration the Telluride’s place available in the market going ahead.
So I requested it.
Armen Hareyan: Will the Telluride finally turn into absolutely electrical, or will Kia hold it because the hybrid gasoline various to the EV9? What do you suppose?
Sang Lee: “So, I am unable to communicate an excessive amount of concerning the future for confidential causes… However we have already got a 3 row EV SUV within the EV9. Proper now, the EV9 and the Telluride are complementary.
“Not each client needs an EV, some customers, you realize, want a gasoline powered automobile. So we’ve each. Plenty of folks want a automobile of this dimension with three rows.”
One Phrase That Tells You Every part
Return and browse Lee’s reply yet one more time. Previous the half about confidentiality. Previous the reference to the EV9. Give attention to the phrase he selected to explain the connection between these two automobiles.
“Complementary.”
Not transitional. Not momentary. Not “the Telluride is a bridge till patrons are prepared for the EV9.” Complementary. As in: each automobiles are supposed to exist, serve totally different folks, and keep.
That single phrase carries extra strategic weight than a full press launch. It tells you Kia will not be working a secret countdown clock on the Telluride’s gasoline powertrain. It tells you the corporate will not be quietly shepherding patrons from one automobile to the opposite. It tells you that Kia’s product workforce seemed on the precise information on American three row SUV patrons and concluded that two genuinely totally different teams of individuals stroll into their dealerships, and people two teams deserve two genuinely totally different solutions.
That could be a more durable place to carry than it sounds. There may be huge strain on each legacy automaker proper now to telegraph an all electrical future as loudly and as shortly as doable. Saying “we’ve a gasoline powered SUV and we’re holding it” takes a type of confidence in your personal buyer information that not each model presently has.
The Viewers the EV9 Can not Attain
Right here is the a part of the three row EV dialog that tends to get glossed over. The Kia EV9 is a outstanding piece of engineering. Torque Information tracked its improvement intently, and our early protection of Kia’s flagship electrical SUV that was designed to assist redefine what a 3 row electrical automobile could possibly be made clear that Kia was genuinely critical about constructing one thing aggressive and ahead pondering. The EV9 earned that repute.
However outstanding engineering doesn’t routinely translate into the correct automobile for each household purchasing on this section. Contemplate the client who lives two hours exterior a significant metropolis and fees considerations are actual. Or the household that tows a camper 4 occasions a 12 months and can’t all the time predict the place a quick charger might be once they want one. Or the client on a tighter price range for whom the EV9’s value level places it out of attain even earlier than the query of an EV is smart. These usually are not edge circumstances. These are tens of millions of American households.
Torque Information has reported on how the Kia EV9 carried out throughout a 1,482 mile actual world street journey, and the outcomes have been genuinely spectacular. However even essentially the most enthusiastic EV street trippers will let you know that lengthy distance electrical journey requires a stage of planning and adaptability that merely doesn’t apply to a gasoline or hybrid automobile. For a household loading three youngsters and a canine into an SUV at six within the morning and pointing it towards a twelve hour drive, that planning requirement will not be a minor inconvenience. It’s a actual issue within the buy determination.
The Telluride doesn’t ask that household to vary how they journey. It meets them the place they already are. And in response to Lee, Kia has no intention of taking that choice away from them.
By the best way, I test-drove the 2027 hybrid Telluride in California final week, and listed here are my impressions. It is a lovely drive from the Torque Information YouTube channel, which I uploaded this morning.
What Kia Is Truly Betting On
Once you step again from the person automobiles and have a look at what Kia is doing on the portfolio stage, a transparent strategic image emerges. Kia will not be selecting a facet within the gasoline versus electrical debate. It’s constructing automobiles for either side of that debate concurrently, at a top quality stage excessive sufficient to compete with the most effective choices in every class.
This isn’t a brand new playbook. Toyota constructed its repute on precisely this sort of parallel technique with hybrid and gasoline automobiles working facet by facet for many years earlier than full electrification grew to become a critical dialog. Torque Information lined how the Kia EV9’s rising gross sales numbers started outpacing Telluride projections in sure markets in particular gross sales information, which feels like a sign that the EV is successful internally. However learn that information fastidiously and what it truly reveals is a model that’s efficiently increasing into a brand new buyer base relatively than cannibalizing an current one. The Telluride purchaser and the EV9 purchaser are largely not the identical particular person making the identical determination. They’re two totally different folks making two totally different selections, and Kia is positioned to win each of them.
The 2027 Telluride’s platform funding reinforces this level. Kia engineered this technology to assist a turbocharged 4 cylinder, a full hybrid system, and a possible plug in hybrid down the street. As Torque Information famous after we have been analyzing what a future electrified Telluride may seem like earlier than the hybrid model was formally confirmed, the hybrid path permits Kia to carry electrification to Telluride patrons at a tempo and value level that really suits their lives, relatively than forcing a know-how shift earlier than the infrastructure catches up.
What the Broader Three Row SUV Market Tells Us
Look throughout the three row section proper now and you will notice each main competitor grappling with the identical query Kia is answering with this two automobile strategy. Our detailed spec comparability of the 2027 Toyota Highlander EV and the 2026 Kia EV9 reveals simply how crowded and aggressive the electrical three row house is changing into. Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, and shortly others are all bringing critical electrical three row merchandise to market. That competitors is actual and it’s intensifying.
However concurrently, the Honda Pilot nonetheless sells strongly with a naturally aspirated V6. The Toyota Highlander hybrid continues to maneuver in large numbers. The Ford Explorer stays the most effective promoting three row SUVs in America with no absolutely electrical model driving the majority of that quantity. The information throughout the section tells the identical story Lee informed me in Santa Barbara: lots of people want three rows and they don’t seem to be all prepared for electrical. Pretending in any other case doesn’t serve patrons. It simply makes for a cleaner press narrative.
What You Ought to Take Away From This as a Shopper
In case you have been pushing aside a Telluride buy since you have been fearful it may be discontinued or phased into an EV inside a number of years, Lee’s reply ought to offer you real readability. Kia is investing on this automobile’s future as a gasoline and hybrid platform. That’s not a guess. It’s seen within the engineering selections, the platform structure, and the specific product technique Lee described.
In case you are on the EV facet of the fence and the EV9 is looking your identify, the Telluride’s continued existence doesn’t take something away from that call both. The EV9 will not be a comfort prize for patrons who can not have a Telluride. It’s a flagship product that Kia is equally dedicated to growing and bettering.
Each automobiles have an actual future. The one query is which one matches the life you’re truly residing proper now.
A Thought Price Carrying Past the Showroom
There’s a tendency in moments of speedy change to imagine that the most recent factor routinely invalidates what got here earlier than it. We see it in know-how, in tradition, and more and more in transportation. However essentially the most sturdy selections, whether or not in enterprise, household life, or a automobile buy, have a tendency to come back from an sincere evaluation of what you really want relatively than what the present second says it’s best to need.
Sang Lee didn’t inform me the Telluride is endlessly. He informed me it’s right here now, it’s actual, and it serves individuals who need to be served. That type of sincere, buyer first pondering is price greater than any pattern forecast.
In case you are presently cross purchasing the 2027 Telluride and the EV9, what’s the single greatest issue pushing you towards one over the opposite, and has something in Kia’s two automobile technique modified how you’re fascinated by that call?
And for these of you who’ve already owned each a gasoline powered three row SUV and an EV of any variety, what did actual world day by day life train you about which powertrain truly suits a household higher, and would you return?
Share your private expertise within the feedback part beneath. The dialog taking place down there may be all the time extra helpful than something taking place in a press launch.
Photographs by Armen Hareyan
About The Writer
Armen Hareyan is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Torque Information and an automotive journalist with over 15 years of expertise writing automotive critiques and trade information. Now based mostly within the Charlotte area (Indian Land, SC, he based Torque Information in 2010, which since then has been publishing professional information and evaluation concerning the automotive trade. He might be reached at Torque Information on X, Linkedin, and Youtube. Armen holds three Masters Levels, together with an MBA, and has turn into one of many recognized voices within the trade, specializing within the panorama of electrical automobiles and real-world tales of precise automotive homeowners. Armen focuses on offering readers with clear, data-backed evaluation bridging the hole of complicated engineering and automotive purchaser practicality. Armen incessantly participates in automotive occasions all through the USA, nationwide and native automotive reveals and personally test-drives new automobiles each week. Armen has additionally been revealed as an automotive professional in publications just like the Transit Tomorrow, discussing how will autonomous automobiles reshape the provision chain, and rising applied sciences in automobile upkeep.
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