Kia’s new Forte might have just made its debut at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show, but the Korean automaker is also working on another, totally different, project as well.
This project is the production version of the Telluride Concept that debuted a couple of years ago in Motor City, as confirmed to GoAuto on the sidelines of the Detroit Show by the brand’s President and Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, who simply said: “yeah, we are working on that car, actually”, when asked about it.
The Telluride (production name unconfirmed) will sit at the top of the firm’s SUV range, above the Sorento, and it will be offered in North America and other markets, according to Kia Europe’s Chief Designer, Gregory Guillaume.
“I could imagine that there are other markets that would be interested in taking it… apart from America, so there could be other markets that are interested. For example, the one we used to have before the Mohave, it was pretty popular in Russia and those countries.”
However, “Europe doesn’t make much sense”, Guillaume said, adding that “it is a more difficult segment for us. We are pretty good with Sorento with large SUV in Europe”, and right-hand drive markets such as Australia are currently under the question mark. It also remains unknown when it will be launched or where it will be manufactured.
The concept displayed by Kia in 2016 was underpinned by the same architecture as the Sorento, but it had a larger footprint, a boxy exterior design and a minimalistic cabin. It also had a plug-in hybrid powertrain that combined a 3.5-liter V6 gasoline engine and an electric motor for a total of 400 horsepower, which might be one of the options available for the production version.
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