Kia debuts Sportage plug-in hybrid

Thursday, 10 February 2022

The all-new Kia Sportage has been revealed.

Kia has revealed the Sportage PHEV in America, and funnily enough, it seems to be a shrunken Sorento PHEV.

It uses the same 1.6-litre turbo-four petrol engine with an additional electric motor as the Sorento, there producing a combined 195kW/350Nm. The electricals are fed by a 13.8kWh battery, holding enough juice for around 51km, while transmission duties are dealt with by a six-speed dual clutch.

Kia is yet to confirm exact outputs for the Sportage, but we’d expect them to be somewhat similar. That should make the Sportage a bit quicker, as it’s smaller and lighter.

The Kia Sportage PHEV has been detailed overseas, and the mechanicals are familiar.

American buyers will only be able to get the PHEV goodness in X-Line and X-Line Prestige form. We get the X-Line here as our range-topper, so we would expect the PHEV to be available in that trim here as well.

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It’s the same here as you’ll find in the Sorento PHEV as well as Hyundai’s Tucson PHEV.

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The Sorento is available in AWD EX and AWD Premium guises, so there is a chance Kia could offer the PHEV powertrain on a lesser trim level, but it’s unlikely.

Last we heard, the mechanically similar Tucson PHEV was due here early this year, so buyers in this market will likely be serviced by Hyundai first, unless, of course, they’re prepared to wait for the Kia.

A regular hybrid Sportage is also on the cards, but there aren’t any details there just yet.

With regard to safety, the Sportage PHEV will get Kia’s full active safety suite, like all other Sportage models. This includes navigation-based active cruise control that can adjust the speed of the SUV in anticipation of upcoming corners.

Other tech like blind-spot collision avoidance, a blind-spot view monitor, and autonomous emergency braking are all standard.