Kia Seltos 2024 News

The first spy pictures of the second generation Kia Seltos have been shared after a prototype was snapped testing in South Korea. The images, snapped by HealerTV on YouTube, show a heavily camouflaged small SUV that looks to follow Kia’s current design direction. Earlier reports from Korean newspaper ETNews along with online outlet TheKoreanCarBlog confirm that the next-gen Seltos will launch with a petrol electric hybrid to help it fend off the Toyota Corolla Cross and Nissan Qashai. Labeled 'SP3 Proto', according to TheKoreanCarBlog, the next Seltos will be unveiled in the second half of 2025 before going into production in August at Kia’s factory in Gwangju.It is expected to use petrol power alone along with a hybrid system, likely lifted straight from the latest Hyundai Kona and i30 Sedan. That means a 1.6-litre petrol four-cylinder combined with a gearbox mounted motor for 106kW and 3.9L/100km efficiency rating is on the cards. It is not clear whether the Seltos’ arrival will affect Kia’s strategy with the Niro, which is around the same size as the Seltos and currently sold in both hybrid and pure electric configurations. Kia is reportedly looking to develop an electric all-wheel drive system to help the Seltos thrive in Europe. It sounds initially like a similar set-up to the Corolla Cross with a separate electric motor driving the rear axle but no details are available yet. Visually, it’s hard to tell what the Seltos will look like in such deep camouflage. The proportions look to remain faithful to the current boxy Seltos, rather than a sleek fastback design. Additionally, we can see some of the headlight details which look very similar to those adopted by the facelifted Kia Sorento along with the upcoming EV3 electric car. The Seltos arrived in Australia in October 2019 and scored a deep facelift in November 2022. It is currently Kia’s fifth best-selling model behind Sportage, Cerato, Carnival and Sorento.Seltos sales have slipped this year, down 22 per cent on the same period last year, while hybrid rivals such as the GWM Haval Jolion, Hyundai Kona, Corolla Cross have surged in popularity. 

There have been rumours since the Kia Seltos small SUV’s launch about a hybrid powertrain.  At the facelift’s release in November 2022, we were told to expect a hybrid in the next-generation car, which could be approaching quite quickly.

New reports from South Korea suggest the next-generation Kia Seltos small SUV will be offered with a hybrid powertrain.

The next Kia Seltos is set to arrive with a hybrid variant, borrowing tech from its Hyundai Kona cousin to join the larger Sorento SUV in Kia’s electrification game, according to reports from South Korea.The Korea Economic Daily says Hyundai Motor Group, which also owns Kia and the luxury brand Genesis, is shifting focus more heavily to hybrid cars to account for increasing sales of electrified cars and an apparent slow down in the popularity of new electric cars.Along with expecting a series of hybrid cars for the Genesis brand to bolster its range and appeal to those “hesitant to switch to all-electric vehicles”, The Korea Economic Daily (KED) reports Kia will add a Seltos Hybrid small SUV to the line-up next year, along with mentions of a new Santa Fe Hybrid and a Palisade Hybrid from sibling brand Hyundai.The Seltos, Kia’s cousin to the Hyundai Kona, is based on the same platform as the previous-gen Kona, so a new Seltos could adopt the same platform as the current Kona which was launched in 2023 with a Kona Hybrid available from the start.The move follows shifting buying habits when it comes to electrification, with hybrid cars increasing in popularity and the surge of electric car sales slowing.Hyundai Motor reports, “for the full year 2023, 695,382 electrified models were sold in the global market, up 37.2 per cent year over year, including 268,785 EVs and 373,941 hybrids”.But KED notes that Hyundai’s percentage of hybrid sales compared to its total is rising - reaching 10.6 per cent in Q4 2023, versus 7.1 per cent in Q4 2022 - while BEVs are down from 5.7 per cent to 5.3 per cent in the same periods.More hybrid models from Kia would better place it to take on market leader Toyota (in Australia and globally), which is outspoken in its push for more hybrid cars rather than full battery electric cars.“As the transition to electric vehicles is unexpectedly delayed, hybrid cars have taken the lead in the global car market,” an industry official told The Korea Economic Daily.“Now the key to survival becomes when they will launch hybrid cars with a competitive line-up,” they added.Kia’s line-up of electrified vehicles in Australia currently consists of the Niro small SUV in hybrid or EV, Sorento large SUV in hybrid or plug-in hybrid, and the electric EV6 and EV9.Hyundai, on the other hand, has hybrid or electric versions of five models across a broader range of sizes and prices - from the i30 Hybrid at $33,000 before on-road costs to the incoming Ioniq 5 N sports EV, set to cost $111,000.