463K Kia Tellurides Recalled Over Seat Fire Risk
Kia America is asking owners of nearly 463,000 Telluride SUVs to park outside and away from buildings after the automaker discovered that a previous fire-related fix didn't fully solve the problem.
The recall, announced this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, replaces one Kia first issued back in 2024. It covers 462,869 Tellurides from the 2020 through 2024 model years, built between January 9, 2019, and May 29, 2024.
What's actually wrong
The issue centers on the front power seat motor. If the seat's slide knob or side cover gets bumped or hit with enough force, the switch underneath can become dislodged or damaged. That can cause the motor to keep running long after it should have stopped, and eventually overheat.
Kia already tried to fix this exact problem in 2024. But according to recall documents, some owners who got that earlier repair still reported fires starting underneath the passenger seat. Kia looked into it and found what it called "sporadic dealer workmanship issues," meaning some of the original repairs weren't done correctly. That prompted the company to open a new recall rather than just patching the old one.
Between October 2024 and April 2026, Kia's safety office tracked 18 incidents involving either small seat fires or melted seat motors. The good news is that no injuries or crashes have been linked to any of them so far.
What Kia is telling owners to do
Until the repair is done, Kia and NHTSA want affected owners to park outside and away from other vehicles and structures, both while the car is parked and, notably, even while it's being driven, since the agency says the risk isn't limited to sitting still.
Dealers will install an electronic fuse assembly designed to cut power to the seat motor automatically if the switch ever gets knocked out of alignment again. That fix is expected to roll out in early August, and owner notification letters are set to go out starting August 13.
The repair is free. Owners who want to check sooner rather than waiting for a letter can look up their vehicle using its 17-digit VIN through Kia's recall lookup tool or NHTSA's own recall site. Kia's customer service line for questions is 800-333-4542, and the recall's internal reference number is SC316.
Not Kia's first rodeo with this kind of warning
This marks at least the third time in recent years that Kia has issued a park outside recall, a designation reserved for defects considered serious enough that regulators want vehicles kept clear of homes and other cars in the meantime. Kia America, based in Irvine, California, is the U.S. arm of the South Korean automaker.
For a vehicle as popular as the Telluride, which has been one of Kia's best-selling models since its debut, a recall touching nearly half a million units is significant, even if the automaker estimates only a small fraction actually have the defect. Owners who've already had seat-related repairs done under the original 2024 recall are not automatically excluded, so it's worth double-checking VIN status either way.
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