The Kia Seltos will receive a midlife facelift next year with the updated small SUV set to be released in Australia in the second half of 2022.
Kia’s popular Seltos sits between the Stonic and Sportage SUVs in the Korean carmaker’s lineup and competes with the likes of the MG ZS, Hyundai Kona, Toyota C-HR, Mitsubishi ASX and Mazda CX-30.
“[The] Seltos will receive an upgrade (facelift) next year. I can only narrow down the timing to the second half of 2022,” Kia’s media and corporate communications manager Alyson MacDonald told Chasing Cars.
The Kia Seltos won’t look like this for long, a refreshed one is in development.
Seltos facelift likely to borrow Sportage’s new face
There is a strong chance Kia could overhaul the exterior design of the Seltos, which will have been on the market in Australia for three years by the time the facelifted version arrives in about 12 months’ time.
While Kia’s facelifts are often subtle, the updated Seltos may come in for a much bigger update with the possibility it will adopt Kia’s new “opposites united” design language.
Already seen on the bigger Sportage midsize SUV, set to launch in Australia next month, and the forthcoming Kia EV6 electric car, “opposites united” incorporates a far more dramatic front end than the Seltos’s more restrained “tiger nose” design treatment.
The 2022 Kia Sportage is not far away and will likely inspire the design of the future Seltos.
Should Kia adopt “opposites united” for the Seltos, expect to see major changes to the headlights, which should adopt an all-LED array for the first time, as well as the grille, diffuser and bonnet sculpting.
A bump in power might also be on the agenda, along with improved safety tech such as active blind spot monitoring, lane follow assist and safe exit warning.
Cyclist detection might also make its debut for the first time – a system usually kept for higher spec levels in the model range.
On the inside, the Seltos could see the implementation of a digital instrument cluster to help make things modern.
Seltos remains a sales hit in Australia
Kia sold 5654 Seltos small SUV’s in 2020 and has already bettered those figures for 2021, selling 6323 units up to August 2021.
The 2021 Kia Seltos has been a sales hit in Australia.
The Seltos did however fall behind some of its main competitors, with the MG ZS selling 12,579 cars so far in 2021 and Hyundai selling 9459 of its popular Kona model.
The Kia Seltos is the second best-selling car that the company offers in Australia, sitting behind the Cerato hatchback.
