Kia’s bet on the second-generation Telluride is getting outside validation. Newsweek readers named the 2027 Telluride one of the Best New SUVs in the publication’s 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards, a consumer-voted honor determined through a four-week public polling period covering quality, performance, and ownership experience.
The award lands at a moment when the numbers behind the Telluride are hard to argue with. February 2026 sales reached 13,198 units, up from 9,599 units in February 2025, a 37 percent year-over-year gain that led every other model in the Kia lineup. In 2024, Kia moved 115,504 Tellurides against Nissan’s 80,915 Pathfinders, a gap that speaks to how thoroughly the three-row segment shifted after the first-generation Telluride arrived.
The second generation earns its “all-new” designation with changes across most of the vehicle. Styling is bolder, the interior is more spacious and more refined, driver assistance and connected technology systems have been updated, and, most significantly, Kia is now offering an available turbo-hybrid powertrain. The hybrid option can return up to 36 MPG, a figure that matters in a segment where fuel economy has historically been a concession buyers made in exchange for three-row practicality. Kia also skipped the 2026 model year entirely, jumping straight from the outgoing 2025 model to the 2027, a signal that the generational change was substantial enough to justify a clean break rather than a mid-cycle refresh with a new badge.
The Telluride is assembled in the United States from U.S. and globally sourced parts, a detail that carries weight in the current market environment.
The competitive landscape is tightening. The Toyota Grand Highlander has been gaining sales momentum, and a recently revised Ford Expedition has posted year-to-date sales gains of over 47 percent, pulling buyers at the larger end of the family-SUV spectrum. Kia’s answer has been to push refinement and powertrain efficiency rather than chase pure size, a strategy the Newsweek award suggests is connecting with buyers. The Telluride has also appeared on Car and Driver’s 10Best Trucks and SUVs list six consecutive years, which predates the second generation entirely and reflects how much credibility the nameplate has accumulated since launch.
Kia vice president of marketing Russell Wager framed the award in terms of raised expectations: “The first-gen Telluride set a new benchmark in the three-row SUV segment, and our goal with the 2027 model was to raise that benchmark once again.” Pricing and full powertrain specifications for the 2027 model have not been disclosed beyond the hybrid fuel economy figure.
Six straight years on Car and Driver’s 10Best list, a 37 percent sales surge, and now a consumer-voted award for the redesign. The Telluride has stopped being a surprise and started being an expectation, which is a harder standard to keep meeting.
Source: Kia. Images courtesy of Kia.
