Kia is recalling 462,869 Telluride SUVs for a front power-seat fire risk the automaker already tried — and failed — to fix once before.

Per NHTSA’s recall filing, the new campaign covers model-year 2020-2024 Tellurides and addresses the same defect behind a 2024 recall of similar SUVs: if the front power seat’s slide cover or switch knob gets struck or damaged, the switch can become dislodged or misaligned, causing the seat motor to keep running continuously until it overheats. NHTSA’s filing notes that an improperly completed repair from the earlier 2024 recall can itself cause the same overheating.

Key Points

• 462,869 Tellurides recalled — the second recall for essentially the same seat-fire defect.
• Seven confirmed seat fires and 11 cases of seat motors melting have been logged, according to NHTSA’s filing.
• The failure mode: a struck or damaged seat switch keeps the motor running until it overheats.
• Kia’s original 2024 fix didn’t resolve the issue for every affected vehicle — and a botched repair from that recall is itself listed as a possible cause of new fires, as Fox Business reported.

What’s Affected

• 2020-2024 Kia Telluride SUVs with front power seats
• Includes vehicles previously covered by Kia’s 2024 seat-fire recall
• Owners can verify their VIN through NHTSA’s recall lookup tool once searchable VINs go live

This time, the remedy is different: dealers will install an electronic fuse assembly designed to cut power to the seat motor automatically if the switch is ever dislodged or damaged, rather than relying on the switch itself to behave correctly. That’s a structurally different fix than the 2024 repair, which is presumably why NHTSA and Kia are confident this pass will actually hold.

What Owners Should Do

• Park outside and away from other vehicles and structures until the new repair is completed — NHTSA’s advisory applies whether the Telluride is parked or being driven.
• Watch for a notification letter; Kia’s mailing was expected to begin August 13, 2026.
• Contact Kia customer service at 800-333-4542 or the NHTSA hotline at 888-327-4236 with questions.
• If you already had the 2024 seat-fire repair done, don’t assume you’re covered — bring the vehicle back in for the new fuse-assembly fix.

A second recall for a defect Kia already claimed to have addressed is the kind of detail that erodes trust in “recall completed” stickers generally. It’s also a reminder that a completed recall repair isn’t necessarily the end of the story — owners of any vehicle with a past fire-related fix are within their rights to keep an eye on NHTSA’s database for updates, rather than assuming one round of dealer service closes the book for good.