2027 Kia Seltos Hybrid Priced for Australia From $39,990 Drive-Away, In Showrooms This Month

Image credit: Kia Australia

If you have been waiting for Kia to show its hand on the next Seltos, that wait is over. Kia Australia has opened orders on the all-new, hybrid-only small SUV at $39,990 drive-away for the entry S, with the flagship GT-Line e-AWD sitting at $55,490 drive-away. First cars reach dealer floors in October 2026. The sting in the tail is that the base price is up roughly $4,670 on the outgoing petrol S, because Kia has dropped every non-hybrid engine. The sweetener is that the new car undercuts the entry grade of its two biggest hybrid rivals, the Hyundai Kona Hybrid and the Toyota Corolla Cross, when you line them up on before-on-road costs. For buyers who were almost ready on a petrol Seltos, that is a tougher conversation. For anyone already cross-shopping hybrid small SUVs, Kia has put itself back in the frame.

Pricing: Six Grades, Drive-Away Flat Across the Range

Kia has gone with national drive-away pricing on launch, which saves you doing math by postcode. The S opens the line at $39,990, with the S Safety Pack adding $2,500 for the full set of radar-based driver assistance features that unlock a target five-star ANCAP result on paper. Sport, Sport+ and GT-Line step the line up to a cap of $55,490 drive-away for the e-AWD flagship.

The drive-away rise over the outgoing S petrol lands at about $4,670. That is the real-world cost of swapping an atmo 2.0-litre for a petrol-electric hybrid system that will spend half its daily commute on battery alone. Fleet buyers writing to a flat drive-away number will feel the hit on the S the most. The upside: the hybrid is the only powertrain on the order sheet, so there is no cheap petrol trim to walk away from.

Powertrain: Kia's First e-AWD Hybrid at the Top

Every Seltos sold here uses a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, an electric motor sandwiched between the engine and a six-speed dual-clutch automatic, and a lithium-ion traction battery. On front-drive grades, system power is 113kW and 265Nm. On the GT-Line e-AWD, Kia adds a second electric motor on the rear axle, lifting combined system power to around 133kW under local figures. That rear motor is also the thing that gives the top Seltos its all-wheel drive capability, so there is no mechanical driveshaft to the rear axle. It is the first Kia sold here with that setup on a hybrid.

One number Kia Australia has not yet locked in on the official specification sheet is combined fuel economy. Overseas versions of the same drivetrain quote near 4 L/100km on cycles that are not the Australian one, and Kia's local figure will land once the local approvals come through. We will not publish it until Kia Australia prints it.

Dimensions and Boot: Bigger Than It Looks on Paper

For context, the new Seltos is 170mm longer and 30mm wider than a Toyota Corolla Cross, with a 50mm longer wheelbase. The 536-litre boot is a meaningful 100-ish litres up on the Corolla Cross FWD petrol and roughly 70 litres up on a Hyundai Kona Hybrid, which is one of the places this class usually leaves you wanting. If a stroller plus a weekly shop is the real-world test, this is the Seltos most of us would actually use.

Equipment: Dual 12.3-inch Screens, Head-Up Display, 19-inch Wheels at the Top

Standard across the range is the twin-screen dashboard layout, with dual 12.3-inch displays sitting on a shared panel and a 5-inch digital climate strip between them. Over-the-air updates are supported, as is Kia's connected services app. The S Safety Pack unlocks Kia's upgraded Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist with pedestrian, cyclist and junction detection, Blind Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist, Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist and the Highway Driving Assist 2 lane-centring system that was previously limited to higher Kia trims.

The GT-Line adds 19-inch alloys, a projector-type head-up display, Remote Smart Parking Assist (the exterior remote parking function unique to the hybrid), a surround-view monitor, front parking sensors and Kia's AI assistant with voice control. GT-Line e-AWD gets the same equipment list, with the second rear motor as the only mechanical difference. Full equipment lists per grade will go on Kia Australia's site through October, and we will keep this piece aligned to those as they land.

Image credit: Kia Australia

Safety

ANCAP has not yet rated the new Seltos. Kia Australia has flagged a split outcome under the current testing protocols: a four-star rating on the entry S grade, with the five-star result reserved for the Safety Pack onwards. The practical read is that the Safety Pack is not just a convenience upgrade. It carries the additional radar hardware and the camera-based driver assistance package that drives the active safety score. If a five-star rating matters to you, the cheapest way in is the S Safety Pack at $42,490 drive-away. We will update this page as soon as ANCAP publishes an official result and will not quote a star rating in the meantime.

How It Compares

At $39,990 drive-away, the entry Seltos S Hybrid is one of the cheapest ways into a hybrid small SUV from a brand with a dealer in every capital city. On CarSorted's own data, the comparable Hyundai Kona Hybrid standard range opens at around $36,500 before on-road costs, which usually settles between $42,000 and $44,000 drive-away depending on state. The Toyota Corolla Cross GX Hybrid FWD opens at $37,440 before on-road costs, which Toyota Australia quotes at $42,159 drive-away in New South Wales. On like-for-like drive-away pricing, the Seltos S opens the segment, undercutting both by about $2,000 to $4,000.

The GT-Line e-AWD at $55,490 drive-away is a different conversation. That number is above where the Corolla Cross Atmos AWD lands at around $56,272 drive-away, and above the Kona Hybrid Premium N Line. You are paying for the e-AWD traction and the full equipment load, and in that bracket the Seltos cross-shops against a Corolla Cross GR Sport AWD Hybrid, a Nissan Qashqai e-Power Ti and the sharper Chinese plug-in hybrid rivals that keep landing with longer electric ranges on a bigger battery.

If what you want is a hybrid small SUV in CarSorted's own database with a boot big enough to swallow a weekly shop and a buggy, the Seltos sits above the Kona Hybrid and the Corolla Cross on cargo volume, and it is now the cheapest of the three on entry drive-away pricing. See the live, side-by-side rows via our compare tool or jump straight into the Seltos listing.

Warranty, Servicing and Running Costs

Kia's seven-year unlimited-kilometre warranty carries across to the new Seltos. The high-voltage hybrid traction battery is covered for seven years or 150,000km, matching the warranty on Kia's existing hybrid line-up. Capped-price servicing details for the new model will be published alongside the first retail delivery. For a buyer coming out of a petrol Seltos, the real running-cost swing is at the pump: on the same drive and the same route, a hybrid of this size will typically save around 2 to 3 L/100km over the outgoing 2.0-litre atmo petrol, which on 15,000km a year and current fuel prices is in the order of $800 to $1,200 a year of fuel saved. That is the number that eats into the $4,670 price-up on the S over time.

What This Means For Buyers

If you are a solo commuter or a two-person household, the S Safety Pack at $42,490 drive-away is the pick. You get the full active safety suite that drives the five-star ANCAP target, the dual 12.3-inch screens and the same hybrid drivetrain as every other front-drive grade in the range. There is no reason, on paper, to pay the extra $4,500 for a Sport+ unless you want the bigger wheels and the trim upgrades.

If you have kids in the car, your real cross-shop is this new Seltos vs the Corolla Cross GXL AWD Hybrid at $44,190 before on-roads and the Kona Hybrid Premium. The Seltos wins on boot volume and on drive-away sticker. The Corolla Cross wins on service network depth and resale. The Kona wins on charisma. All three are fine cars. The Seltos just moved from an outsider on badge trust to the cheapest to put on a driveway.

If you want a hybrid small SUV with proper all-wheel drive for ski-field weekends and the occasional dirt road, the GT-Line e-AWD at $55,490 drive-away is Kia's new play. It is the only hybrid in this class offering electrified AWD on a 1.6-litre engine. Just know you are in Nissan Qashqai e-Power Ti territory on pricing, and ask yourself whether the AWD will actually turn on more than three days a year. If the answer is no, keep the money and buy the FWD GT-Line at $52,990 or go down a grade.

For everyone else, the headline is simple. Kia has stopped selling a petrol Seltos, lifted the base price by $4,670 on drive-away, and in exchange delivered a car that costs less to run, has a bigger boot, keeps the seven-year warranty and opens the hybrid small SUV segment at a sharper number than Toyota or Hyundai can match today. That is a trade most buyers can live with.

Explore the new Kia Seltos listing on CarSorted, or run a side-by-side on our compare page. Our full Best Hybrid Cars 2026 and Most Fuel-Efficient Cars 2026 guides also carry the Seltos running-cost maths against the segment.