There’s a new Kia Telluride around the corner, but don’t expect to see it in Australian showrooms. The Telluride is Kia’s flagship combustion-powered SUV, entering production in 2019 as a cousin to the Hyundai Palisade. “That’s where Palisade has a little bit of an advantage: Palisade is built in Korea, and Hyundai Australia benefits with that factory in Korea that they can get right-hand drive,” Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero told CarExpert.
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“I can’t say if there’s any other plans to look at other factories at the moment. My understanding is it’s still out of the Georgia factory in the United States, and that being the case, [it’s] very, very difficult [to get here].” Kia Manufacturing Georgia produces not only the Telluride but also the Sorento and Sportage SUVs, and will soon build the EV9 , too.
Kia Australia, however, sources the EV9, Sorento and Sportage from Korea; it has never sourced any vehicles from the Georgia plant, which opened back in 2009. Not only has the plant never produced right-hand drive vehicles for our market, it doesn’t even build the Telluride for the Korean domestic market. It does, however, export the Telluride to markets like Canada and the Middle East.
Kia also opted not to produce the large crossover in Korea, leaving the body-on-frame Mohave to serve as its fla.