Kia Motors Corporation has grabbed the coveted ‘World Car of the Year’ award for its large SUV, the Kia Telluride. The World Car Awards is decided by an independent international jury panel consisting of 86 highly experienced automotive journalists from 24 countries across the globe. Kia Telluride has not only won the WCOTY but the SUV has also been honoured with North American Utility Vehicle of the Year and MotorTrend SUV of the Year awards among others.
The Kia Telluride was rewarded the WCOTY for the car’s practicality as well as its design features. On the exterior, the Kia Telluride comes with a boxy vertical fascia on the front as well as the rear. The large SUV features the signature chrome encrusted Kia Tiger-nose grille with Kia badging in the centre, ‘Telluride’ moniker boldly displayed in chrome above the grille on the large ridged bonnet, chrome inserts on the air intakes that flank the bumper, silver-finished skid plate and air dam integrated rectangular fog lamps. The Telluride comes with LED headlights in a vertical orientation with perimeter LED DRL in amber.
On the side and rear, the Kia Telluride features rounded wheel arches with black cladding, rock guards on the lower parts of the doors, chrome cladding on the door, body-coloured door handles, chrome window lining, turn signal integrated ORVMs, silver roof rails and 18-inch alloy wheels with the optional 20-inch alloys on the top-spec trim. The rear of the SUV features an integrated roof spoiler, silver skid plate on the rear bumper, chrome exhaust tips, Kia and Telluride branding in chrome and vertically oriented LED tail lamps.
On the interiors, the Telluride comes with the option between 7-seats and 8-seats and the SUV features a multi-layered dashboard with satinised chrome trim, 7-inch TFT LCD instruments console, control mounted steering wheel, ambient lighting, leather seat trim, dual-zone airconditioning, rear HVAC, 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, embedded telematics, wireless phone charging etc.
The Kia Telluride is powered by a 3.8-litre V-6-Cylinder Gasoline Direct injection DOHC engine with Dual CVVT that produces 291 hp of power and 355 Nm of torque matched to a torque converter type 8-speed automatic transmission and Front-Wheel Drive with an option of Active on-demand All-Wheel Drive. The Kia Telluride is 5,001mm in length, 1,988mm in width, 1,750mm in height comes with a wheelbase of 2,900mm and a ground clearance of 203mm.
The Kia Telluride also comes with a plethora of safety features as a standard part of the pack which includes multiple airbags, roll-over sensor, side-impact sensor, ABS, ESC, Trailer Stability Assist (TSA), Torque Vectoring Corner Control (TVCC), VSM, Electronic Parking Brake (EPB), TMPS, Child seat restraint system etc.
Apart from the Telluride, Kia has also won the World Urban Car award for the Kia Soul EV electric crossover.