Kia’s 2027 Seltos Borrows Telluride Style, but the Best Engine Costs More

Kia’s redesigned 2027 Seltos wears the Telluride’s tall face on a body that starts at $26,485. SlashGear drove the new subcompact SUV at Kia’s launch event, testing both available engines across a lineup that now spans five trims.

Only the priciest of those five comes with the turbo engine that actually makes the redesign feel earned. Reaching it means paying more than 40% above that starting price, and the hybrid that might resolve the tradeoff will not get a price tag until later this year.

A Shrunken Telluride, on Purpose

Kia stretched the Seltos’s wheelbase, widened its stance and raised its roofline for 2027, borrowing design language from its three-row flagship. Kia’s own announcement describes the result as wrapped in an authentic Telluride-inspired SUV design.

The extra size shows up inside. Kia’s own figures put the new model about 0.5 inches taller in headroom, front and rear, than the outgoing Seltos, with an added inch of rear legroom. Cargo room grew too, from 26.6 cubic feet behind the rear seats to 27.8, and from 62.8 cubic feet with the second row folded to 64.2.

Kia’s SUV range now stretches from the Seltos up through the three-row EV9, which is fighting its own battle against rising costs and rival SUVs, up to the Telluride at the top. The Seltos nameplate itself isn’t new. It arrived in the U.S. in 2020 as a 2021 model and won Kelley Blue Book’s Best New Model award that year, a detail worth remembering given how much the price has moved since.

147 Horsepower Standard, 190 Only if You Pay Up

Under the new sheet metal sits the same powertrain lineup as before. The standard engine is a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 147 horsepower and 132 lb-ft of torque, paired with a CVT. The optional engine is a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder good for 190 horsepower and 195 lb-ft, paired with an 8-speed automatic and, on the 190 hp engine’s available all-wheel-drive system, a torque-vectoring setup Kia builds only for the turbo cars.

SlashGear’s reviewer, Travis Langness, described flat-footed acceleration in the turbo car as adequate at best. Compact, price-conscious SUVs like the Seltos aren’t built for quickness, and this one doesn’t break that pattern. The 8-speed shifted smoothly in slow traffic, though he noted a driver should leave extra room before attempting a highway pass.

Ride quality was the bigger surprise. Over broken pavement the Seltos felt unbothered, and it stayed quiet at highway speed. On a winding mountain road, steering was underwhelming and the brakes merely adequate, signs the Seltos still prioritizes comfort over any sporting pretense. EPA ratings for the gas Seltos range from 24 mpg city and 30 highway up to 28 and 33, depending on trim and drivetrain.

The Turbo Engine Costs 40% More Than the Base Trim

Here is where the redesign’s generosity runs into a wall. The turbo engine, the torque-vectoring AWD and the tallest ground clearance in the lineup, 8.1 inches, are bolted exclusively to the top trim.

SlashGear’s test vehicle, an X-Line SX with the optional Prestige package, carried an MSRP of $37,250. That package adds heated and ventilated front seats, an 8-speaker Harman Kardon stereo, a 360-degree camera and navigation-based adaptive cruise control, nice equipment, but it also tacks roughly 40% onto the LX’s starting price. Langness’s own conclusion was blunt: for the best value, stick with a mid-range trim or skip the Prestige package altogether.

When Will the Kia Seltos Hybrid Actually Arrive?

Kia has not set a firm date. The company has confirmed only that the Seltos Hybrid lands closer to its on-sale window late in 2026, with pricing announced separately at that time. The gas Seltos is already on dealer lots, but the version most likely to fix the engine tradeoff is still months away from a window sticker.

• What we know: Kia has confirmed the hybrid arrives by the end of 2026, with pricing to follow closer to launch.
• What we know: In Korea, where the hybrid is already on sale, it pairs a 1.6-liter engine with an electric motor for a combined 141 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque, and roughly 46 mpg on a converted estimate, well above the outgoing gas model’s 25 mpg combined EPA rating.
• What we know: In Canada, Kia has outlined five hybrid trims and features like Vehicle-to-Load power output and a Smart Regenerative Braking System that adjusts to traffic and navigation data.
• What’s unconfirmed: U.S. hybrid pricing and how many trims it will actually span.
• What’s unconfirmed: Whether U.S. fuel economy will land closer to Korea’s converted figure or Canada’s projected 5.7 to 6.03 L/100 km range.
• What’s unconfirmed: Whether the hybrid will ever reach the X-Line SX, or stay limited to lower trims the way the turbo currently excludes them.

Where the Seltos’s Value Actually Lives

The entry-level LX isn’t stripped down. Standard equipment includes the 12.3-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, lane keep assist, a driver attention monitor, front and rear parking sensors and adaptive cruise control.

• S trim adds 18-inch wheels, blind spot collision warning, rear cross-traffic warning, a wireless phone charger and a power driver seat.
• EX trim layers on SynTex seating, heated front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, a rear air vent and an available panoramic sunroof.
• X-Line S adds rugged exterior styling and standard AWD, still without the turbo engine.

Interior storage backs up the pitch: large door pockets, a roomy center console and USB ports front and rear for multiple devices. Langness came away impressed enough to sum up the exterior transformation in one line.

If you squint, it really does look like someone stuck a Telluride in a microwave and shrunk it down a bit.

Langness wrote that in his verdict on the redesigned Seltos after driving it at Kia’s press launch. It’s a fitting image for a car that borrows its big sibling’s face without asking buyers to pay flagship money, as long as they stop one or two trims short of the top.

Trax, CX-30 and Kona Crowd the Same Price Band

The Seltos doesn’t compete in a vacuum. SlashGear’s own comparison points to the Mazda CX-30 as the sportiest rival, thanks to an available turbo powertrain that livens up the driving experience, and to the Chevy Trax as the budget pick of 2026.

Unlike the Seltos, Mazda spreads its available turbo across several CX-30 trims rather than reserving it for one. That makes the Seltos something of an outlier in its own price band: closer to segment-cheapest on paper, yet the most restrictive about which buyers get to feel the redesign’s sportier side.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the Kia Seltos X-Line S and X-Line SX trims?

The X-Line S comes with standard all-wheel drive and rugged styling cues but keeps the base 147 horsepower engine. The X-Line SX is the only trim with the 190 horsepower turbo engine, plus 19-inch black wheels and 8.1 inches of ground clearance, the tallest in the lineup.

Is all-wheel drive standard on the 2027 Kia Seltos?

No. AWD costs an extra $1,700 on the LX, S and EX trims. It comes standard only on the X-Line S and X-Line SX, and the turbocharged X-Line SX uses a more advanced torque-vectoring AWD system rather than the setup on the other trims.

When will Kia announce 2027 Seltos Hybrid pricing?

Kia has said only that pricing arrives closer to the hybrid’s on-sale date later in 2026. Kia has already outlined five hybrid trims for the Canadian market, which hints the U.S. lineup could stretch beyond a single hybrid option, though nothing is confirmed for American buyers yet.

How much pricier is the 2027 Seltos than the outgoing model?

The base LX rose $1,200 to $26,485. The EX jumped the most, up $1,900 to $29,885, while the range-topping X-Line SX climbed $1,300 to $34,285 before any options are added.

Does the Kia Seltos share a platform with any other SUV?

Yes. It shares its underpinnings with the Hyundai Kona, a corporate sibling under the same parent group. Despite that family tie, the Seltos undercuts the 2026 Kona’s starting price by roughly $615.