New Kia Sportage, test 230 HP AWD full hybrid engine

The Kia Sportage it is a car that over the years has been able to win the preferences of many people in a very important category of the market, that of medium-sized SUVs and crossovers. And that is around 4.50 meters in length. And it is also a model that has acted a bit as a standard-bearer – more generally – for Korean cars, making them appreciate strengths such as the richness of the equipment, the solidity of construction, the good relationship between price and contents or, again, warranty coverage superior to the competition in terms of years and kilometers.

The protagonist of this first test between Milan and the Aosta Valley is a generation completely new of Sportage, now in its fifth series. Here’s how it’s done and how it goes.

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Exteriors | Interior | Guide | Curiosity | Prices

Exteriors

Be it a Kia Sportage completely renewed you can already guess from the bodywork, redesigned in a more lively style than the previous model.

On the front, the designers have worked extensively with the shapes of the headlights, which on the sides create geometries that intersect with each other, freeing up space for the large grille of the grille, surmounted by a horizontal slit that defines the engine hood and leaves space for the Kia logo.

The surfaces of the side are worked to alternate concave and convex parts, with evident ribs and an upward trend of the belt line. Which, at the level of lines, is linked to the tapered design of the rear lights, connected to each other by a thin horizontal band almost drowned in the tailgate.

Interior

In the passenger compartment, you can immediately notice the two curved screens of over 12 inches that connect instrumentation and infotainment. Just below, in the center of the dashboard, is another surface touch (taken from the electric Kia EV6) which can control air conditioning, but also give access to shortcuts to call up the menus of the navigator, the audio system (Harman Kardon on the car under test) or other settings.

The GT Line Plus trim of this specimen – the richest – has soft-touch upholstery in the upper part of the interior, which are generally characterized by a frequent alternation of different, well-matched materials.

This is the case, for example, with door panels. Or the seats, which in this setting are more enveloping. And then it should be emphasized the attention to the ergonomics of the storage compartments in the center console, with refined details such as the lighting of the power sockets.

Guide

The presentation test drive of the new Kia Sportage took place between Milan and the Aosta Valley, with the first part of the route on the motorway, where I first wanted to sit on the rear bench, to realize the availability of space and comfort in a trip. In video find my comment about it, while here I pass directly to the main sensations I noticed while driving.

On longer journeys the Sportage is a relaxing car in terms of suspension absorption and noise level. But also because the calibration of the ADAS safety assistants, such as the active lane maintainer and the lateral blind spot warning system, are well studied.

The latter, in particular, also has the function of replicating the view of the rear cameras in the instrumentation, inserting the direction indicators.

When the curves begin, then, after a few kilometers, you can appreciate the possibility of changing gears manually, as on other cars full hybrid usually it can’t be done. Unlike plug-in hybrids. Shifting could actually be faster, but being able to manage the shifting has more fun in dynamic driving or downhill, when you also appreciate the calibration of the brake pedal. Which is well calibrated in also managing the energy regeneration to recharge the battery of the hybrid module, which has a capacity of about 1.5 kWh.

The 230 HP of total power of the 4-cylinder 1.6 petrol pipe combined with the electric motor are grounded by a progressive all-wheel drive system in managing the torque, as opposed to the steering response, which could instead be more linear. Better to choose the Sport mode, which improves the feeling in the trajectories. In addition, on the new Sportage, you can also choose between the “sand”, “mud” and “snow” programs for the management of the four-wheel drive.

At night, then, the LED matrix headlights are really very effective in selectively shedding light on the road to the maximum of their luminous capacity, with a precise logic in turning off and on the various sectors so as not to dazzle other vehicles. And finally, in this first test made of motorway, mountain climbs and descents, the average consumption was about 10 liters / 100 km, equal to a distance of 10 km / liter.

Curiosity

The stylistic language of the new Kia Sportage wants to mark a clear change, but this does not mean that the “shape” has come at the expense of functionality. A detail that sums up well the approach that the Kia designers and technicians have adopted are the headrests of the front seats: the back is shaped to be able to hang even a jacket, while having an aesthetically long-lasting profile.

Same thing for the USB Type C sockets dedicated to rear passengers (who among other things enjoy the three-zone climate control, standard on all Sportages), since they are elegantly hidden in the front seat backrests. By combining form and function.

Prices

For the commercial launch, the price list of the Kia Sportage it starts just under 30 thousand euros, up to almost 45 thousand euros.

In addition to the version full hybrid at the moment there are also two engines mild hybrid: un 1.6 turbo petrol front-wheel drive with 150 HP, also available with manual or dual clutch transmission; and a 1.6 turbo diesel – always mild hybrid – with 136 HP, which in addition to the double-clutch gearbox also offers the all-wheel drive variant.

There are four versions (Business, Style, GT_Line, GT Line plus), while as per tradition for the Kia brand the warranty is 7 years or 150,000 km.