Kia Seltos 2026 review: International first drive

The small SUV market is getting busy. Plenty of aggressively affordable models are here, arriving, or soon to land thanks to the boom in China’s international new car market.

Cars like the Kia Seltos can’t win on price alone anymore, as may have been the case in the past.

It’s a good thing, then, that Kia has a new Seltos with some fresh tricks like a hybrid system for Australia and an interior that wouldn't look out of place in much more expensive Kias.

Add CarsGuide as a preferred source in Google Search

Add CarsGuide as a preferred source in Google Search

This car isn’t due in Australia for some time - around October should be the launch - but an international preview in South Korea gave us a pretty solid look at what we can expect from Kia’s new small SUV.

We don’t know quite how much the Seltos will cost just yet, but we have some clues.

Given the last-gen Seltos pricing and the market positioning of the very closely related Hyundai Kona, we expect the Seltos to start in the high $30,000 region, before on-road costs.

Chances are its line-up will look a lot like the previous Seltos range, with a few options ranging from a relatively basic ‘S’ to the fully-specified GT-Line.

Specifications and features are also yet to be determined. The cars available to us during the test were likely representative of GT-Line cars that will arrive in Australia, with panoramic sunroofs, heated and vented seats, adjustable interior ambient lighting, synthetic leather upholstery and a large screen display.

The three-part screen unit consists of 12.3-inch screens - one touchscreen for multimedia and one for the driver display - either side of a 5.0-inch touchscreen for climate controls. As is often the case with this section of the screen arrangement in Kias, it’s out of sight behind the steering wheel when you’re in a driving position.

If you’ve been in a recently designed Kia like the EV3 or EV5, the interior design and layout will look familiar. There are still physical buttons and controls for important functions, as well as shortcuts to key sections in the multimedia menus, but the overall layout is relatively tidy.

The driving position works well, visibility is good thanks to decently-sized windscreen and windows, and the seats are comfortable enough for a full day of driving.

The second row is spacious enough for an adult on a decent drive, Kia says there’s another 20mm of legroom because the Seltos is now slightly bigger than the previous generation - 45mm longer with a 60mm longer wheelbase.

There’s also 536 litres of boot space, and in Australia under that will be a spare wheel. This means we won’t have vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability, but it seems the sensible trade-off for Australia if only one of the two is up for grabs.

In Australia, the drivetrain will be a hybrid-assisted 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine mated to a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

We’re expecting a front-wheel drive version with outputs to be approximately 113kw/265Nm, plus an all-wheel drive with 131kW, though its rear wheels will be powered by an electric motor and not mechanically connected to the front wheels.

The hybrid version will be it for Australia, with the brand forgoing petrol-only variants. This means more efficiency to be expected from the new Seltos, and while Kia hasn’t provided indicative fuel economy expectations for this variant, the Korean test drive provided some insight.

While not a perfect indication of the efficiency we can expect in Australia (given South Korea’s roads are flatter, straighter and slower for the most part), our test averaged between 4.8L/100km and 6.1L/100km. Tyre pressures were a few kilopascals higher than you’d expect them to be on an average Australian commute, by the way.

We’re going to wait until later this year for a more definitive judgement on the Seltos, but first signs are impressive.

Of course, a local Australian tune is already in the works thanks to Kia Australia’s Chief Engineer for Ride and Handling, Graeme Gambold, but the starting point built to suit the Korean market is a good basis.

It’s soft and can get wafty on uneven surfaces, but generally easy to control in dynamic cornering without sacrificing comfort on long stretches of old roads.

We can expect a firmer tune for better input response here in Australia, with the aim of reduced body roll and more accurate steering.

The drivetrain, aside from its efficiency, is also a big plus for the Seltos, though its regenerative braking caused a couple of unexpected minor lurches during braking.

While not entirely lacking urgency, keen drivers might be disappointed by the outputs, especially in front-drive.

The nature of Korea’s highways and roads meant we were only able to get a matter of minutes rather than hours of twisty-road dynamic driving in, but given Kia Australia’s history of decent suspension work, there’s reason to expect the new Seltos will handle well once it lands in Australia.