KIA Reveals What It Will Do With The Gasoline Telluride If The Hybrid Becomes The Most Popular Version, And The Years They Need

• KIA's Product Planning chief says phasing out the gasoline Telluride in favor of the hybrid is "certainly possible", pointing to what Toyota already did with the Camry and RAV4 as the clearest road map.
• He revealed the exact conditions KIA needs before committing to a full powertrain transition, and the answer involves more than just sales numbers.
• His comments about the next generation of buyers and charging infrastructure reveal where the Telluride is headed and what it means for the decision you are making right now.

You may walk into a KIA dealership three or four years from now to shop for a Telluride, and the salesperson tells you the gasoline only version is no longer available. The hybrid is the only option. Would that surprise you? Would it bother you? Or would you, like millions of Toyota buyers before you, simply shrug and sign the paperwork?

That scenario is not hypothetical. It is exactly the kind of future that KIA's own product planning team is thinking through right now. And when I sat down with Sang Lee, Product Planning National Manager at KIA America, during the 2027 KIA Telluride media drive event in Santa Barbara, California last week, I asked him the question that I think every current and prospective Telluride owner deserves to hear answered directly.

With over 15 years of automotive reporting experience, I have sat across from a fair number of product planner at a lot of press events. Most of them give you careful, diplomatic answers that tell you very little. Lee was different. He told me something specific, something traceable, and something that has real implications for the decision you are making at the dealership today.

Here is exactly how our exchange went.

Armen Hareyan: If the hybrid Telluride becomes the most popular version, could KIA phase out the gasoline version entirely?

Sang Lee: "That is certainly possible. Hybrid is becoming core. If you look at some OEMs like in the Camrys or the new RAV4 you only have a choice of hybrid. And because the hybrid does not force the consumer to change the behavior it's a natural transition."

Armen Hareyan: How many years of data do you need in order to say, "ok we are now transitioning from a gas version of a particular model to a hybrid version?"

Sang Lee: "Sure. With the EV transition even if the behavior part is solved, you have to provide the infrastructure, which is coming, but not there yet. The youth today are so used to plugging in things. They are aware of battery charges, they are growing up with this reality. So when they become of age to purchase a vehicle the behavioral adaptation will be much easier. But, the infrastructure part has to be solved."

This Answer Is More Important Than It Sounds

Read Lee's first answer again. Carefully.

He did not say the gasoline Telluride is going away next year. He did not put a number on a timeline. But he did something more significant than either of those things. He pointed to Toyota, and specifically to what Toyota already did with two of its most popular vehicles, as the model KIA is watching and potentially following.

The Toyota Camry and the RAV4 are not fringe vehicles. They are two of the best selling cars in America, vehicles with enormous and loyal owner bases, and both of them have now gone hybrid only. As Torque News covered in depth, Toyota's transition to a hybrid only RAV4 for the 2026 model year eliminated the gasoline only powertrain entirely after years of watching hybrid sales climb steadily past gasoline sales until the data made the decision obvious. That transition did not feel abrupt to most buyers because Toyota had spent years making the hybrid version so capable, so affordable, and so easy to live with that the switch felt like a natural next step rather than an unwanted change.

Lee is telling you that KIA is watching that exact playbook. And the 2027 Telluride Hybrid is the first chapter of KIA's own version of it.

Why the Hybrid Is Such a Natural Transition Compared to an EV

Here is the part of Lee's answer that I want every buyer on the fence about the hybrid to sit with.

He said the hybrid does not force the consumer to change behavior. That is the whole thing right there. That sentence explains why hybrid adoption tends to move faster than EV adoption, and why automakers who offer a genuinely good hybrid version of a popular model tend to see it cannibalize the gasoline version faster than anyone initially predicts.

Think about what a hybrid actually asks of you. You still fill up with gasoline at the same stations you have always used. You do not need to find a charger. You do not need to think about range. You do not need to install anything at your house. The fuel economy improves, the performance improves in many cases, and the driving experience changes in ways that most owners find pleasant rather than disruptive. It is, as Lee put it, a natural transition.

Torque News has documented this exact pattern over the years across multiple models. When Toyota's RAV4 Hybrid began outselling the gasoline RAV4, it was not because Toyota forced buyers into it. It was because the RAV4 Hybrid offered genuinely better performance and dramatically better fuel economy that made the gasoline only version feel increasingly hard to justify once buyers drove both back to back. The hybrid won on merit. KIA is betting the same thing happens with the Telluride.

The Infrastructure Question That Changes the Entire EV Conversation

Now let's talk about Lee's second answer, because this is where he said something unusual for a product planning executive at a mainstream automaker, and it is something you do not hear often enough from people in his position.

He acknowledged openly that EV infrastructure is not there yet. Not everywhere. Not for every buyer. And he did it without being dismissive of electric vehicles or the direction the industry is heading. He simply stated a fact that anyone who has tried to road trip in an EV outside of major metro corridors already knows from personal experience.

But here is what I found genuinely interesting about how he framed the solution. He did not say the infrastructure problem would be solved by automakers or by government mandates or by charging network expansion alone. He pointed to something more fundamental, the next generation of buyers.

The teenagers and young adults who grew up with smartphones, tablets, and electric everything are not afraid of charging. They are not wired with the same behavioral resistance that older buyers carry. They check battery percentages as naturally as they check the weather. When they start buying cars, the psychological barrier to EV ownership will be dramatically lower than it is for buyers who grew up filling up at a gas station every week for thirty years.

This is not a small insight. It is a prediction about a generational market shift that every automaker is quietly factoring into their ten and fifteen year product plans, and Lee just said it out loud.

What This Means If You Are Buying a Telluride Right Now

Here is the practical translation of everything Lee told me, and this is what I want you to carry out of this article and into your next dealership conversation.

If you are buying a 2027 Telluride today, you are almost certainly choosing between the gasoline turbo four cylinder version and the hybrid. That decision matters more than it might seem on the surface because it is not just a fuel economy question. It is a question about how long each version of this vehicle will remain a mainstream, fully supported choice in KIA's lineup.

Based on what Lee said, the gasoline version is not going away tomorrow. KIA needs real world data across multiple model years before they make a transition decision of this magnitude. You are not buying a vehicle that is about to become a rare curiosity. But you are also buying a vehicle where the trajectory of the product line is pointing clearly toward electrification, starting with the hybrid as the bridge.

The hybrid version, in that context, is not just the more fuel efficient choice. It is the version of the Telluride that is most aligned with where KIA's product strategy is going. Torque News covered how Toyota's soaring demand for hybrid models validated the Japanese automaker's long term bet on electrified powertrains over a full and sudden EV transition when RAV4 Hybrid inventory ran critically short because demand outpaced production. KIA is watching those numbers carefully. The 2027 Telluride Hybrid is KIA's equivalent opening move.

It is also worth noting that the hybrid transition is not a new idea in KIA's own lineup. Earlier experiments and observations about what a hybrid Telluride might look like, which Torque News covered years before the 2027 generation was announced, were already pointing in this direction. Our earlier analysis examining whether KIA would eventually electrify the Telluride lineup and what form that electrification might take concluded that a hybrid was the most logical first step, and Lee's current comments confirm that the company's internal thinking arrived at the same place.

The Toyota Grand Highlander Connection Worth Knowing

Lee specifically named the Camry and the RAV4 as his reference points, but there is a third Toyota comparison that is worth adding to this conversation. When Toyota introduced the Grand Highlander with a hybrid powertrain to go after the Telluride and Palisade directly, it set off a chain reaction that Torque News documented closely. Our coverage of how Toyota's Grand Highlander hybrid entry may have accelerated the push toward hybrid versions of the KIA Telluride and Hyundai Palisade turned out to be prescient. The competitive pressure Toyota applied with that move is part of what you are seeing now in the 2027 Telluride's hybrid powertrain. KIA did not just decide to offer a hybrid because it seemed like a good idea. Competitive market data pushed the timeline forward.

A Thought About Patience, Decisions, and the People Who Come After Us

There is a lesson in what Sang Lee said about the next generation of buyers that goes beyond cars entirely. He did not dismiss the infrastructure challenge. He did not pretend it was solved. He simply looked ahead and identified who will solve it, young people who are growing up with different habits, different comfort levels, and different expectations. That is a patient and somewhat selfless way of thinking about a problem. Not every challenge has to be solved for the generation currently in the room. Some challenges get solved by the people coming after us, and the wisest thing we can do is set up the conditions for that to happen rather than demanding the future arrive on our schedule.

As a buyer today, the most valuable thing you can do is make the decision that fits your life right now, honestly and without pressure from trends you are not ready for. If the hybrid fits your driving habits, your budget, and your expectations, it is the right choice. If the gasoline version fits your needs better today, that is also a legitimate choice. KIA is still building both. The data will eventually make the decision for the brand. You should make your decision based on what makes the most sense for your family, not on what a product planning timeline might look like three years from now.

Now It Is Your Turn

If the gasoline Telluride was phased out in the next few years in favor of the hybrid only, as Toyota did with the Camry and RAV4, would that change your purchase decision today or push you to buy the gasoline version sooner rather than later while it is still available?

And for those of you who have already made the switch from a gasoline SUV to a hybrid of any brand, how long did it take before the hybrid stopped feeling like a compromise and started feeling like the obvious choice you should have made years earlier?

Share your personal experience in the comments section below. What you have actually lived through behind the wheel matters more than any product planning projection.

Images by Armen Hareyan

About The Author

Armen Hareyan is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Torque News and an automotive journalist with over 15 years of experience writing car reviews and industry news. Now based in the Charlotte region (Indian Land, SC, he founded Torque News in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News on X, Linkedin, Facebook, and Youtube. Armen holds three Masters Degrees, including an MBA, and has become one of the known voices in the industry, specializing in the landscape of electric vehicles and real-world stories of actual car owners. Armen focuses on providing readers with transparent, data-backed analysis bridging the gap of complex engineering and car buyer practicality. Armen frequently participates in automotive events throughout the United States, national and local car reveals and personally test-drives new vehicles every week. Armen has also been published as an automotive expert in publications like the Transit Tomorrow, discussing how will autonomous vehicles reshape the supply chain, and emerging technologies in vehicle maintenance.