- Second-generation Telluride turns into Kia’s flagship gas-powered SUV, setting a brand new benchmark for the model’s design and ambition
- Telluride blends Kia’s Opposites United design philosophy with its personal signature design DNA
- World debut set for 2025 Los Angeles Auto Present
As we speak, Kia turned the web page to the subsequent chapter of its iconic design narrative with an unique have a look at the reimagined 2027 Kia Telluride. Since its debut six years in the past, the Telluride midsize SUV has grow to be a defining success for the model, lauded for its stability of refined luxurious and rugged functionality. This deft mixture helped Telluride redefine household journey with inspirational model, resort-level consolation and an unmatched on-road expertise.
The problem for the second-generation Telluride wasn’t to reinvent, however to evolve. For Kia’s design staff, the objective was clear: protect the essence and design DNA that made the unique such a standout in its phase, whereas elevating its presence and class. This wasn’t a clean slate. They have been constructing on a legacy.
The result’s an all-new Telluride that’s larger, bolder, and nonetheless proudly boxy. Now 2.3 inches longer total, with a wheelbase stretched by practically three inches and a peak improve of 1 inch, it’s a assured evolution that stays true to its roots whereas embracing a extra fashionable edge. Guided by Kia’s international Opposites United design philosophy, the Telluride blends power with magnificence, toughness with sophistication, and innovation with restraint. It makes the assertion that sequels can unabashedly transcend the unique.
The all-new 2027 Telluride will make its official world debut later this month on the Los Angeles Auto Present with a large breadth of trim ranges together with the X-Professional trim. The second-generation SUV is predicted to reach in showrooms in the course of the first quarter of 2026.
Surprising Pairings with the Opposites United Philosophy
Since 2021, Kia’s Opposites United philosophy has been the tenet for the model’s design language. In Telluride, this method involves life by the interaction of contrasts the place sharp angles meet easy curves and rugged sturdiness blends with refined sophistication.
“With Telluride, it was a matter of being tailor-made and restrained – dare I say, anti-design,” mentioned Tom Kearns, VP and Senior Chief Designer, Kia Design Middle America. “With that method, it was about capturing power and luxurious, custom and modernness, right into a single expression. That is what Opposites United enabled us to do.”
Exterior Design – Dreamer’s Companion
Impressed by the untamed fantastic thing about its namesake Colorado city, the Telluride’s chiseled exterior design captures the spirit of the Rocky Mountains, with each angle and floor crafted to convey power, safety, and confidence. The entrance finish units an unmistakable tone: daring, sturdy, and prepared for something. A broad hood with clear, straight strains establishes a robust stance, whereas vertical headlamps body the high-gloss grille, giving the SUV an assertive but subtle face. Precision grille patterns and superior lighting signatures create a high-tech, futuristic impression that feels at residence on metropolis streets because it does at a mountain lodge.
Fluid physique contours lend a chic form to the facet profile, whereas aggressively outlined triangular creases within the fenders resemble the chiseled aspects of a diamond. Upward-flowing character strains give the impression of lifting the automobile, emphasizing the SUV’s proud, athletic stance. Floating wheel cladding provides refinement whereas additionally insulating towards the weather, and the tapered roofline contributes dynamic circulate whereas preserving inside room. Breaking conference, sculpted notches within the wheel wells are a wise and deliberate interruption – a assured design element that catches the attention and is poised to grow to be one other signature of the Telluride’s identification. Flush door handles, as supplied on the Kia EV6 and EV9 fashions, lend to a clear and fashionable look.
On the rear, a rising beltline meets broad fender surfaces to provide the automobile a planted, highly effective presence, whereas the sculpted bumper suggests the SUV’s trail-ready narrative.
X Issue
The Telluride X-Professional embraces a darker, extra commanding character. Staying true to the design language of Kia’s X-series, these variants put on blacked-out wheel arches, facet mirrors, beltline trim, and D-pillars. Raised roof rails reinforce an adventurous profile, prepared to hold the gear that takes you off the grid. Up entrance, a daring mesh-type grille is paired with a squared-off decrease black bumper, delivering a glance that feels equal components tactical and aggressive. The X-Professional pushes past the aesthetic with all-terrain tires and 9.1 inches of floor clearance, desirous to go the place the pavement ends. And for these moments when type actually meets perform, the X-Professional provides commonplace entrance and rear restoration hooks, a refined element that tells a narrative of readiness for no matter lies forward.
Artwork of Illumination
Whereas sculpted strains and daring proportions set the inspiration of the brand new Telluride, its distinctive lighting brings it to life.
“The unique Telluride has these immediately recognizable vertical bar rear lights. Within the second technology, we strengthened this robust gentle signature by making use of it to the entrance as nicely,” mentioned Kurt Kahl, Chief Designer, Kia Design Middle America. “The dual LED vertical strips that body the grille and sharpen the Telluride’s face characteristic Kia’s Star Map lighting graphic. The amber-hued DRL lighting returns with this sleeker, extra fashionable expression. Their crisp geometry not solely modernizes the SUV but additionally gives a beacon-like high quality, recalling path markers that information the way in which by altering terrain. On the rear, the rear lights undertake an architectural character. Physique colour separates the dual gentle bars, accentuating their graphic readability. Total, the entrance and back lights seem flush and exact, evoking the high-tech illumination of a digital show display screen. The lighting signature developed, however the essence stayed. It’s nonetheless geometric, vertical, clear and unmistakably Telluride.”
Distinctive to the Telluride X-Professional, the brand new Floor Lighting characteristic enhances each type and performance. Mushy gentle tasks from the rearview mirrors, beneath the rear doorways, and from the rear bumper, illuminating the encircling space of the automobile. Extra lighting from the raised tailgate assists with duties like tire adjustments or cargo entry in low-light circumstances. It’s a design element that goes past aesthetics, providing real-world utility whereas accentuating the SUV’s commanding silhouette. When the entrance doorways open, puddle lamps illuminate ‘Telluride’ on the bottom beneath. Additional defining the Telluride’s daring identification are wheels (out there in 18- , 20- and 21-inches) with contrasting finishes and D-shaped patterns that create a stability of sophistication and power. For the X collection, the blacked-out wheels have thicker spokes to undertaking confidence and functionality.
Inside – A Tech Sanctuary
Inside the brand new Telluride, design turns into expertise. Impressed by the imaginative and prescient of a boundless sanctuary, the place city residing meets the pure world, the cabin invitations passengers into an area that feels each expansive and intimate.
A large, horizontal format conveys a way of grandeur, whereas a daring wraparound design provides a way of enclosure. Flowing surfaces echo pure contours, whereas wood-like textures add heat and an natural really feel. Actual metallic accents emphasize precision and width, whereas sturdy seize handles sign rugged intent.
Refined lighting beneath the middle console casts a smooth glow that enhances calm and reinforces the cabin’s premium really feel. Within the rear, the passenger console transforms right into a purposeful desk whereas out there mesh headrests within the first and second rows mix a contemporary look with on a regular basis consolation. Even utility is redefined, with the reconfigurable cargo space that includes a folding baggage desk with built-in ruler markings and a detachable partition, a nod to out of doors journey that merges type with perform.
Because of its elevated total size and peak, the 2027 Telluride provides improved inside packaging with enhanced entry for simpler entry and exit into the second and third rows. Taller dimensions additionally contribute to elevated headroom (as much as half an inch extra in fashions geared up with sunroofs) enhancing consolation with out compromising the Telluride’s daring proportions.
On the core of the inside’s Shade, Supplies and End (CMF) story is a single idea: Grandioso. Outlined by a powerful but restrained magnificence, the cabin attracts from the world of luxurious interiors with wealthy hues and tactile particulars. Colorways like Deep Navy with Tuscan Umber create a daring duality, whereas an all-new Blackberry – a wealthy purple hue –paired with Sand Beige delivers a shocking concord that’s subtle, daring, and distinctly flagship. For the X fashions, the inside colour palette turns into extra grounded with all-black, deep khaki, or saddle brown tones that really feel each sturdy and refined. Texture performs a key function, with seating surfaces detailed in a wide range of embossed strains, diagonal prospers, and V-shaped motifs that add depth.
The identical consideration to paint and end extends to the Telluride’s exterior, the place new paint choices like Black Jade Inexperienced and Terrain Brown (out there in each shiny and matte finishes) be part of a broader palette of ten colours. Every shade displays the Telluride’s confidence and flexibility: daring sufficient for the path, refined sufficient for the showroom.
