Kia is celebrating the first 2027 Telluride Hybrid because it signals how central this SUV has become to the brand’s North American strategy. The West Point plant is the only place in the world that builds the Telluride, and the United States is its main market. Kia Georgia’s president and CEO Stuart Countess even joked that West Point is turning into the Telluride factory, since the site now produces multiple Kia models but the Telluride keeps taking a bigger share of output. Today, about 55 percent of vehicles leaving the plant are Tellurides. As production ramps up, Countess expects the share to grow even more with the second generation model and the addition of the hybrid. Kia also says that, at the moment, roughly 55 to 58 percent of Tellurides coming off the line are hybrids as the facility scales up.

The Telluride story explains why Kia is acting so confident. When the first generation launched in 2019, Kia hoped for 60,000 sales a year. Instead, annual sales climbed to around 120,000, and the Telluride often outsold its close rival, the Hyundai Palisade. Countess described demand as unusually steady, saying he has rarely seen a vehicle stay this popular for this long. That kind of momentum is a big reason Kia believes a hybrid version will push interest even higher.

Kia is setting a new annual sales target of 180,000 for the 2027 Telluride, according to Kia North America CEO Sean Yoon, and the powertrain lineup is a big part of that plan. The plant started building the all new 2027 model in January 2026 with a 2.5 liter turbocharged inline four engine rated at 274 horsepower and 311 lb ft of torque, paired with an eight speed automatic transmission. That setup replaces the previous V6. The hybrid version pairs the 2.5 liter engine with two electric motors and a six speed automatic transmission, for a combined 329 horsepower and 339 lb ft of torque. In plain terms, Kia is offering two clear paths: a turbo gas model for familiar driving feel and a hybrid that adds extra punch and efficiency focused appeal.

Kia’s manufacturing setup in West Point is built for variety, and that helps explain how the hybrid arrived without a messy overhaul. The plant builds five different vehicles on the same line, including combustion models, hybrids, and fully electric vehicles. It runs three shifts with about 3,200 employees, operating five days a week around the clock, adding weekend overtime when needed. Kia says the factory is running at full capacity, producing about 68 vehicles per hour and roughly 350,000 vehicles per year, with each vehicle taking close to 22 hours to build. Kia also planned the Telluride hybrid option from the start, so it only needed specific workstations on the main line rather than separate sub lines.