Kia South Africa makes it official: Telluride out, facelift Sorento in

Its local market reveal an unknown entity since debuting in facelift guise almost a year ago, Kia South Africa has now confirmed availability of the reworked Sorento from the third quarter of this year.

Wait starts

Incorporating styling not only from the bigger Telluride, but also the all-electric EV9 in the shape of the LED headlights, the Sorento also sports a redesigned interior derived from the latter, but in certain areas, also from the Sportage.

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While powered by a range of powertrains comprising plug-in hybrids as well as conventional petrol options, South Africa-bound derivatives are set to continue with the existing 2.2 CRDI turbodiesel that develops 148kW/440Nm.

Paired to an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox with a choice of front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive, seating will again be provided for seven with boot space set to range from 187-litres with all three rows up, to 2 100-litres with the second and third rows down.

Telluride conundrum

Fully revealed months before the global onset of the pandemic four years ago, Kia’s confirmation of the facelift Sorento to The Citizen at the launch of the facelift Seltos Cape Town last month also involved the possibility of the Telluride being offered following the emergence of a report last year in Australia alleging it becoming a world model in 2025.

“Telluride is strictly in this point of time out of the Georgia factory in the US. And that’s the difficulty,” Kia Australia’s Head of Product Planning, Roland Rivero, told carsguide.com.au when asked about the likelihood of the current generation being fitted with the steering gear on the right.

“Georgia is already at capacity satisfying the North American market including Canada, and to ask for development for right-hand-drive – and we’ve put our hand up for it because it is a great product – is (not possible) … so, there’s currently no Telluride development for Australia”.

South Africa will consider it but…

Similarly, Kia South Africa’s General Manager for Marketing, Christo Valentyn, said that while a right-hand-drive product would always be investigated for local market consumption, ensuring buyer sense remains the key determining factor as to whether it would be put-up for sale.

“People have a tolerance in terms of what they are willing pay for things. We would consider it, but there are still no plans for right-hand-drive,” Valentyn said.

“There are miniscule amounts exported to the Middle East, because demand in the States makes up for it. To consider [right-hand-drive], they will have to move production to a different facility or augment existing production at a different facility to accommodate right-hand-drive and left-hand-drive. So, at present, there no plans [for a right-hand-drive Telluride]”.

As such, the Sorento will remain the Kia South Africa’s flagship SUV for now with exact specification to be announced once an official date of reveal is released.

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