Kia’s Prado rival still coming

Hyundai has the Palisade, Toyota has the Prado and Kia… is still considering its options for Australia’s lucrative full-size seven-seat SUV segment.

There were hopes for the US-built Kia Telluride, the twin of the Hyundai Palisade, which is bigger than Kia Australia’s current flagship SUV, the Sorento.

But after ruling out the Telluride for Oz, Kia still has at least two opportunities to try and steal market share from the dominant Toyota Prado.

Kia is studying a conventional large off-road SUV with a combustion engine, a version of which has also been under development by sister brand Hyundai over the last couple of years.

The all-new eight-seat off-road SUV would likely leverage the same ladder-frame platform as Kia’s upcoming pick-up truck and could be offered with six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines.

“Globally if they do develop anything along those lines that would work for us in RHD and pass our ADRs, we would strongly look at it,” said Kia Australia’s head of product planning, Roland Rivero.

“We would need a global decision on it though, which is very difficult to develop something just for Australia. If there was a global vehicle or platform, say EV9, that could be something we would look into,” he explained.

The Kia EV9, a concept version of which has already been revealed (pictured), is definitely the right size to become the brand’s new flagship SUV, albeit a battery-powered one.

Riding on a 3100mm wheelbase and measuring 4930mm long, 2055mm wide and 1790mm tall, the new EV would be wider and have a longer wheelbase than the current Prado (4995mm long, 1885mm wide, 1880mm tall, 2790mm wheelbase), but it wouldn’t be as long or as tall.

Based on the same global EV platform architecture (E-GMP) as the award-winning Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6, the Kia EV9 would be offered with a twin-motor 4x4 powertrain and a range of around 480km depending on the model.

It’s understood the Kia EV9 is near the top of Kia Australia’s wish-list, but the product planning boss wouldn’t confirm when the production version is due – nor if or when it’ll be offered in Australia.

However, given the Korean car brand has pledged to offer 11 EVs by 2025, the Kia EV9 is likely to be one of them.

Some of the unique features of the Kia EV9 include retractable roof rails that can be raised or lowered, solar panels on the bonnet and a super-wide 27-inch central infotainment screen.

Kia Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith recently forecast EVs will comprise 50 per cent of all new vehicles sold in Australia by 2030 – up from the 30 per cent he predicted last year – meaning the brand will need more battery-electric products to reach this goal.

But while a hard-core ladder-frame large SUV is still on the table for Kia, Meredith said the eight-seat Kia Telluride – which is offered on with petrol engines in the US – has now been completely deleted from Kia Australia’s Toyota-challenging product offensive.

“To be honest we’re not considering it,” he said. “The reason for that is Carnival has done an exceptional job for us. I believe we’d be doing business with ourselves if we bought Telluride in.

“I don’t think there’d be a huge amount of incremental business coming out of it. Carnival we treat as a GUV now and it’s done a marvellous job for us,” said Meredith.

Whatever eventuates over the next few years, one thing is certain: Kia’s SUV portfolio is going to grow.

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