Kia America sold 80,008 vehicles in October, the best October in the brand’s history and 16% above the previous record for the month. The Telluride three-row SUV accounted for 14,009 of them, which left it 3,968 units short of the Sportage, the model Kia has long counted on as its top seller.
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A year earlier the picture was lopsided. In October 2025 the Sportage outsold the Telluride by 7,486 units, so the monthly gap has shrunk by nearly half in twelve months. The Sportage still posted a best-ever October of its own at 17,977, which makes the narrowing a story of the Telluride climbing faster than the compact crossover, with the Sportage holding its ground in absolute terms.
Concentration is part of the story. The five models that set best-ever October totals, the Sportage, Telluride, K4, Seltos and Carnival, sold 59,180 units between them, about 74% of the brand’s 80,008. Within that group the Sportage carried roughly 22% of Kia’s total volume and the Telluride roughly 18%, so a shift of a few thousand units between the two moves the internal ranking without moving the record total much at all. Kia’s sales machine leans on a short list of utility vehicles and a minivan, and October showed all five of them peaking in the same month.
Sportage 17,977, Telluride 14,009: the monthly arithmetic
Autoblog senior editor Karl Furlong, who reported the October figures on November 3, notes that the Telluride is a second-generation model that also set a best-ever October, while the Sportage is nearing the end of its product cycle. Furlong predicts the Telluride could overtake the Sportage as Kia’s top seller within a few months, even though the three-row SUV costs thousands of dollars more than the two-row Sportage. Buyers can browse the current 2027 Telluride and 2027 Sportage lineups side by side to see where that price gap comes from.
Kia’s other volume models also set October records: the K4 compact (listed as Forte in some tallies) reached 11,391, the Seltos 8,052 and the Carnival minivan 7,751.
The price ladder explains why the order matters to Kia. Furlong points out that the Telluride sits well above the Sportage on sticker price, which means every unit that moves from one column to the other brings the brand a larger vehicle sale. That is analysis from Autoblog rather than a figure Kia has published, and the October numbers do not break out revenue or transaction prices for either model, so the size of any gain per unit is not something the available data can settle.
EV9 doubling, a new EV3 and a hybrid jump
The biggest year-over-year gain came from the electric EV9, which sold 1,406 units in October, up 111%. The smaller EV3, on sale since the previous quarter, added 976 in October and 1,496 year to date. Hybrid sales rose 114%, and Kia reported records for hybrids and for electrified vehicles as a group. Autoblog noted that total U.S. EV sales are down roughly 30% this year, so Kia’s electric gains run against the market. Autoblog’s review of the 2026 EV3 frames the car as an affordable long-range option, which fits the early volume.
Three-row buyers can now choose between the gasoline Telluride and the electric EV9 in the same showroom, and October put 15,415 of them into one or the other.
Scale keeps the electric story in perspective. The EV9 and EV3 together sold 2,382 vehicles in October, roughly 3% of Kia’s monthly total, which means the record was built overwhelmingly on gasoline SUVs and sedans with hybrids as the faster-growing add-on. A 114% jump in hybrid sales and a 111% jump for the EV9 both describe growth from a smaller base than the Sportage and Telluride, and both can be true while the top-line volume still comes from the familiar models at the top of the chart.
Six record months and the fourth-quarter outlook
Eric Watson, vice president of sales operations at Kia America, said six consecutive record months have the brand accelerating toward a fourth straight annual sales record, and he expressed confidence that the pace will carry through the fourth quarter and well into 2027. The run began in the spring; Autoblog covered Kia’s August 2026 record as one of the earlier entries in the streak. Kia also outsold Hyundai for the third month of 2026, per Autoblog’s roundup.
Context from the wider market: Automotive News, as relayed by Autoblog, found automakers reporting October results saw an overall 8.6% increase, so Kia’s 16% gain more than doubled the rate of the field.
The open question is timing. The gap fell by 3,518 units in a year, and Furlong’s forecast of a takeover within a few months rests on that trend line rather than on any Kia statement. Nothing published so far from Kia says which of the two will finish the year on top, and November’s sales report will be the next test of whether the Telluride keeps closing in.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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