Is the Kia Telluride American made?

Given consumers' ravenous appetite for them, it's little surprise that Kia is introducing a larger, more upmarket SUV in the Telluride as the newest entry in its lineup. But the automaker turned to classic SUVs of yesteryear as influences for the intentionally boxy and very American design that it hopes will translate with consumers.

Dubbed a midsize by Kia, the Telluride will slot above the entry-level, compact Sorento as the flagship of the Korean automaker's utility-vehicle lineup. Michael Cole, Kia's North America chief operating officer, said the midsize segment is forecast to grow from 1.6 million units sold in the U.S. in 2018 to 1.8 million in five years. "This was somewhere we needed to be," he said.

It's also the first Kia designed specifically for the U.S. market, with its off-road features like on-demand electronic all-wheel drive transferring torque between the front and rear wheels and its strong, stiff body, further emphasized by its unveiling in Detroit on a landscaped "torque track" assembled in surplus space on the Cobo show floor. It'll also be built at Kia's plant in West Point, Ga. "It's very much a U.S.-targeted vehicle," Cole said. "We will have some export. But the message is, made in America, made for America, it's a U.S.-centric car."

Designers at Kia's design center in Irvine, Calif. "wanted to get back to a traditional SUV styling," Chief Designer Tom Kearns said. "So many EVs and SUVs these days are trying to look sporty and more car-like, more sedan-like. We didn't want to go with that approach."

Kearns said his design team members referenced old-school SUVs like the Ford Bronco, old Land Rovers and the original Chevrolet Blazer when creating the Telluride, Kia's largest SUV yet.

"It's not retro, but we like the genuine feel and look, the purity of old-school SUVs with the long hoods, little bit more upright windshield, not a lot of glass angles, tumblehome a little more upright, just feels more purposeful and genuine to us," he said.

"Our goal is very clean, very simple, not a lot of ornamentation, just a pure, nice form that's hopefully conveying a clean, functional appearance."

Inside, the designers took largely the same approach, with a clean console that emphasizes horizontality and width, matte-finished wood and simulated brushed metal accents and big grab handles flanking the shifter that emphasize the vehicle's sense of adventure. It'll be available in a seven-seat variant, with second-row captain's chairs, or as an eight-seater with a second-row bench.

Kearns said the interior was deliberately kept clean and modern. "We were trying to make it look sophisticated at the same time. But not overly styled and not overly decorated. Very pure and minimalistic approach to luxury."

Speaking of that word, while Kia hasn't announced pricing, look for the Telluride to be priced a good bit above the Sorento, which starts at $27,335 including destination, when it goes on sale in late March or April — especially given the raft of available safety technologies that will be firsts for a Kia SUV.

Related Video:

ATLANTA, Ga. (CW69 News at 10/CNN) -- Hyundai's South Korean sister brand, Kia, has been trying for years to be seen as more than just a maker of inexpensive cars for buyers on a budget.

Table of Contents Show

Are Kia Tellurides made in the USA?
Where is 2022 Kia Telluride built?
Who is Telluride made by?
Which Kia's are made in the USA?

Success has come gradually, but has now been capped off in the form a three-row crossover SUV named after Colorado ski town. Kia's award-winning Telluride is selling so fast that its West Point, Georgia, factory can't make them fast enough.

The factory is about an hour southwest of Atlanta.

Kia dealers have, on average, a 15-day supply of Tellurides on their lots, according to data from Cox Automotive. In real terms, that means that these SUVs are going out almost as fast as they come in. By contrast, GMC dealers have an average 76-day supply of the Acadia and Toyota dealers have an average 51-day supply of the Highlander. Both are competitors to the Telluride.

Ben Burton, general manager at Parkside Kia in Knoxville, Tennessee, said he already has a buyer lined up for each Telluride he expects to get from now through September.

"As soon as I get a VIN number, people are like 'OK, that's the one I want,' he said. "They haven't seen the car, they haven't touched the car, they haven't smelled the car and they're contracted on the car and they're ready to go."

Demand for the SUV was helped, Burton said, by a heart-tugging Super Bowl ad last January featuring a young boy talking about his community of West Point, Georgia. "We hope to be known for what we do," he says. "What we build."

Also helping has been a string of awards for the Telluride. Among the most prominent were the MotorTrend SUV of the Year award last November and the North American SUV of the Year Award in January.

The Telluride excelled in virtually every way, said Mark Rechtin, editor-in-chief at MotorTrend, from design to ride and handling and interior functionality.

"It was almost a unanimous decision to make it SUV of the Year," he said. "They nailed it."

Pandemic troubles

The big, roomy Telluride was very much an American project. It was designed at Kia's Irvine, California, design studio with the goal of creating a spacious SUV that would appeal to Americans, said Kia spokesman James Bell. Much of the development testing was done at Kia's test track in Mojave, California.

Beyond its own attributes, the Telluride happens to fall into a market segment that's doing relatively well at the moment. Auto sales are down due to the coronavirus, but midsize SUVs are among the sort of vehicles that have been doing best, according to data from Kelley Blue Book. (Pickups and small crossovers are doing even better.)

Telluride production started in February, 2019, but the factory shut down for the month of April, 2020, due to concerns about coronavirus and because of parts supply disruptions caused by the pandemic. The factory began ramping up production again starting in early May, and is now running three shifts nearly around the clock producing Tellurides, smaller Sorento SUVs and Kia's new K5 sedan.

But even at that pace, production can't keep up.

As a result, some dealers are charging more than the sticker price for Tellurides, something that rarely happens in the auto industry. Usually customers negotiate discounts from dealers. In this case, dealers are telling customers: If they want a Telluride, they need to pay more.

On average, Kia Tellurides sell for 3% over the manufacturer's suggested retail price, according to data from TrueCar, an auto pricing website. Toyota Highlanders are selling for 7% below MSRP and Ford Explorers 8% below. Even the similarly-sized Hyundai Palisade, which shares much of its engineering with the Telluride, sells for slightly below the manufacturer's suggested retail price, or MSRP.

The differences between the Palisade and Telluride are so slight that customers' preference for the Kia mostly comes down to styling, said Rick Case. He owns a chain of car dealerships including several Hyundai dealers and two Kia dealers, including one in Gwinnett County.

Case insists his dealers never charge above sticker as a matter of policy. "It's too short-lived and too long remembered," he said of the profit taking practice.

Making things even more profitable for Kia and its dealers, the Tellurides customers want most aren't the base model but more luxurious trim levels with more options and higher starting prices.

Sticker price for the base model Telluride LX starts at about $32,000. Prices for the SX, the top trim level, start at $10,000 more. That includes features like 20-inch wheels, two sunroofs, a high-end 10-speaker stereo, more chrome on the outside and more leather inside.

"The ones that we were testing were in the $46,000 to $48,000 price band and we were looking at each other and saying, 'This is nicer than a Mercedes,'" said MotorTrend's Rechtin.

Gradual changes

Not too many years ago, Kia's brand image could be summed up in a single word: cheap.

That's been changing over the years as the Kias have begun looking more stylish.

Kia's global head of design, Peter Schreyer, previously worked at Audi. Kias also usually provide a sharper driving feel than than competitors, such as Toyota and Nissan. Cars like the Kia Stinger compete credibly against German sports sedans, at least in terms of performance and available features, if not refinement.

The brand is also earning a reputation for quality. Kia finished at the very top among mass market auto brands in J.D. Power & Assoc. Initial Quality survey for each of the past six years.

That's a big change from Kia's early days in the US market, said Burton, who has worked with the company for nearly 20 years.

"We used to take bets to see how soon somebody would return in a Sportage or a Spectra with a 'Check Engine' light on," he said.

Those days are long gone, he said, and now people are waiting their turn to buy SUVs costing as much as $50,000.

"The vehicles, went from truly a throwaway car where you'd buy it, you run the wheels off of it then you toss it," he said. "Now people are buying these things because it's, in some cases, a luxury automobile."

Are Kia Tellurides made in the USA?

Named after the town of Telluride, Colorado, the Telluride is the largest vehicle Kia has manufactured in the United States. In 2020, the Telluride was named the 2020 World Car of the Year as well as Motor Trend's SUV of the year.

Where is 2022 Kia Telluride built?

The Kia Telluride is assembled in West Point, Georgia, at the Kia West Point Assembly Plant. It's the only Kia manufacturing plant in the U.S. The Kia West Point Assembly Plant runs 24 hours a day and produces 340,000 vehicles a year. The Telluride first hit the scene in 2019 as a 2020 model year.