Kia has been planning the launch of the new, second-generation Telluride SUV for some time. In fact quite a lot of time. The automaker didn’t offer a 2026 Telluride vintage at all as it worked on bringing to market a new generation. That new edition of the SUV was first unveiled back in November 2025, but we’re in early September 2026 and it has yet to see the light of day. And it has now been delayed, just as it was about to make its debut.
Citing a “logistical delay” with the new iteration of the three-row midsized SUV, Kia Canada PR & Communications Manager Jennifer Szmilko sent out an email yesterday announcing that a Canadian first drive event for the 2027 Telluride planned for later this month has been called off. No new timeline for the model’s debut was provided.
A logistical delay can mean a number of things, from complications in getting actual vehicles delivered to the drive event in time, to last-minute technical issues that need to be resolved. Or it could have something to do with the current Canada-U.S. trade stand-off.
The spectre of counter-tariffs
It’s worth keeping in mind that the Telluride SUV is assembled by Kia at its plant in Georgia, in the United States. That will make it subject to Canadian counter-tariffs that just happen to be scheduled to take effect this month.
It’s thus possible the model will suffer the same fate as Subaru’s Ascent, also Made in the USA and not currently offered in Canada due to high counter-tariffs that make the slow-selling model not economical to import here.
Or, the automaker might be pushing the pause button to take a close look at the figures and see if its best option isn’t to follow the strategy employed by Nissan with its Pathfinder. In that case, Nissan is importing into Canada only the top-grade trims of the SUV from the U.S. where it’s assembled.
Kia itself sells only the hybrid and PHEV variants of its Sorento SUV in Canada, since those versions are assembled in South Korea and not subject to counter-tariffs, unlike the gas-only model, built in the U.S. and left out of the Canadian lineup.