Compared: 2023 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2023 Kia Telluride

While they have different faces, these midsize SUVs are more like identical twins than fraternal ones.

Beth Nichols | 

Apr 4, 2023 | 3 min read

Hyundai | Kia

The 2023 Hyundai Palisade and 2023 Kia Telluride are corporate siblings, derived from the same parent company, packing the same 291-hp 3.8-liter V6, and targeting the same buyers. For the past two years, the Telluride has outsold the Palisade, by some 7,000 units in 2021 and 17,000 in 2022. We suspect much of that has to do with styling, as there’s little else to differentiate the two.

Hyundai

2023 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2023 Kia Telluride: About Equal in Price

The difference in price between these two crossovers is negligible, with both the Palisade and the Telluride starting at just over $37,000. Hyundai charges $1,900 extra for all-wheel drive, while Kia demands an even $2,000.

Kia

2023 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2023 Kia Telluride: One Offers a Few Extra Features

The Palisade offers a couple features — namely, heating for the third row and the brand’s Ergo-Motion massaging driver’s seat — that have yet to make it into the Telluride, but otherwise, what you find on Hyundai’s order form is what you’ll see on Kia’s. Each ute boasts a comprehensive safety suite, with standard automatic high-beams, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, and front and rear collision-avoidance tech. In their base trims, both midsizers provide eight seats, but the Palisade’s come wrapped in cloth while the Telluride’s sport leatherette. Captain’s chairs and leather upholstery are available in higher trim levels of both lineups.

Hyundai

With the Hyundai, choosing the one-up-from-base SEL model opens the door to a lot of desirable equipment, such as heated and ventilated seats for the first two rows, a Harman/Kardon audio system, an in-car intercom, wireless device charging, a surround-view camera, and a heated steering wheel, but you’ll need to select the $5,000 Premium package to get most of it. Still, that’ll set you back about $45,000, whereas Kia reserves several of those features for the $52,000 SX Prestige trim or better. That said, the latter provides additional amenities, such as leather seats and a head-up display, so the edge in price will really come down to your list of must-haves.

Kia

If you’re interested in doing some light overlanding with your ute, you’ll be interested to know that both automakers have introduced ostensibly ruggedized versions of these vehicles. We say ostensibly because the Palisade’s XRT trim is little more than an appearance package, trading the ute’s chrome bits for black trim and increasing the amount of body cladding. The X-Line and X-Pro models in the Telluride lineup, though, offer meager but measurable enhancements in the name of off-roading, including higher ground clearance, better approach and departure angles, and upgraded traction-control settings.

Kia

2023 Hyundai Palisade vs. 2023 Kia Telluride: Fuel Economy

Given the mechanical similarities between the two models, it should come as no surprise that the Palisade and Telluride achieve more or less the same results on the EPA’s combined fuel-economy cycle. With front-wheel drive, the Kia scores 23 mpg, besting the Hyundai by one. When all four wheels are in play, both vehicles manage 21 mpg. And that 3.8-liter V6 requires nothing finer than regular gasoline.

All vehicle pricing includes MSRP plus destination charges (set at the time of publication) and will be rounded to the nearest thousand.

Beth Nichols

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Beth Nichols stumbled into automotive journalism and found her footing, jumping between a few car magazines before going freelance. Her head, once full of useless facts about literature and art history, now holds useless facts about vehicles. She edits, checks, and occasionally creates content for Capital One, and though she understands it’s customary to write a bio in the third person, I don’t like it.