Kia’s new Telluride three-row SUV is insanely popular right now. We knew it would be—it’s so good, and we named it our SUV of the Year—and based on reader interest and the fact that it’s flying off dealer lots like cows in tornadoes, that’s unlikely to change in the near term. In fact, Kia is so excited about its sales performance that internally its employees refer to the Telluride as the “Sell-u-ride.” At least, according to James Bell, Kia’s director of corporate communications, who shared the amusing nickname at the recent launch of the two-sizes-smaller Seltos.
Yes, it is pronounced “sell-you-ride,” in a riff on the Tell-you-ride’s name. But Telluride sales are no joke. After launching in 2019, the SUV has burst into 2020 like the Kool-Aid man through a wall, with 4,919 of the handsome people movers sold in January. The Telluride sold 5,080 in March 2019, its first full month of sales, meaning it hasn’t lost much, if any, sales steam in nearly a year. Units are only sticking around on dealer lots for seven to nine days, according Bell. In total, Kia moved 58,604 examples of the Telluride last year, a figure sure to improve this year with a full 12 months of sales.
Popularity doesn’t necessarily mean sales dominance. Kia is small, remember, relative to the big dogs, and long-established mainstream three-row competitors such as the Ford Explorer handily outsell the Kia. Ford offloaded 187,061 Explorers in 2019, and the newest model made its debut around the same time as the 2020 Telluride. Since Ford offers its sales figures on a quarterly, not monthly, basis, we don’t yet know how many Explorers made their way out of showrooms in January. Toyota moved even more Highlanders recently, with 17,009 sold this January and 239,437 throughout 2019. Lower-volume rival Volkswagen sold 81,508 examples of the Atlas last year. Like Ford, VW doesn’t report monthly figures.
Even if Kia doesn’t sell as many Tellurides as its competitors in the segment, the SUV’s sales comprise a whopping 12.2 percent of the brand’s total 40,355 sales so far in 2020. Perhaps the addition of an off-road-ish X-Line trim—like that on the front-drive Soul hatchback—could persuade even more buyers to take one home. And unlike Ford or Toyota, Kia can only build so many Tellurides. It recently committed to upping annual production to 100,000 units to meet demand.
