Kia Calls High-Selling Telluride ‘Sell-U-Ride’

Kia seems to be on cloud nine at the moment, thanks to the success of the 2020 Telluride on the market—enough to poke fun on the model’s nameplate and call it the “Sell-u-Ride”.

The three-row SUV is insanely popular in the United States right now mainly because it delivers its promised performance and perhaps more. The new model is selling like hotcakes at dealerships and Kia is happy as evidenced by its employees being playful with the name. At least, according to the automaker’s Director of Corporate Communications James Bell.

Bell was the one who shared the car’s internal nickname with online publication Automobilemag during the recent launch of the new Seltos.

And the nickname is worth its salt considering the SUV has sold a total of 4,919 units in January alone. This is just a few units short of the 5,080 total that rolled out of the assembly in March 2019, a full month after the Telluride went on sale. Moreover, units are only staying at dealerships for around 7 to 9 days, according to Bell.

In total, the Korean automaker has sold 58,604 units of the Telluride in 2019 and is still expected to sell more this year as it approaches its 12th month on the market.

The model’s popularity, however, does not translate to segment dominance as the brand is still behind more established brands in the United States such as the Ford Explorer. In 2019, Ford sold 187,061 units of the Explorer, which debuted around the same time the Telluride did.

The same goes for the Toyota Highlander, which sold 17,009 vehicles in January and a total of 239,437 throughout 2019. Volkswagen also isn’t out of the picture, selling 81,508 units of the Atlas last year.

But even if Kia does not manage to outsell its competitors, the company still has something to celebrate for as the Telluride comprises 12.19% of the brand’s 2020 sales so far.