BUY, LEASE OR FINANCE A KIA SPORTAGE FROM OSV - https://bit.ly/3zXWdfn

Kia's Sportage asks more searching questions of its family SUV rivals in this more dynamic-looking fifth-generation form. There's a more up-market look and feel, more electrified engine technology - more of everything really. Well, except full-electric power and real off-road ability anyway.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00​​​​ Introduction
00:32 Background
03:38 Driving Experience
17:31 Design & Build
34:18 Market & Model Range
52:55 Cost of Ownership
01:07:01 Summary

Background

Kia's Sportage is one of the most prolifically-selling cars South Korea has ever brought us. Europe likes this model line very much, which is why Europe has been given its own bespoke version of this car in this fifth generation guise. In place of the long wheelbase version sold in other world markets, our continent gets a shorter, sportier-looking version of the MK5 design which apparently has been tuned for our roads as well as for our preference in the size of our Qashqai-class family SUVs.

It's certainly the most daringly-styled Sportage yet, both inside and out, with much borrowed from Kia's all-electric EV6, a similarly sized model which relieves the brand of the need to provide a full-battery version of this crossover. Mind you, it's possible to have just about anything else electrified beneath the bonnet, thanks to engineering shared across the board with this car's competitor and close cousin, the Hyundai Tucson. Let's take a look.

Driving Experience

So: choose your flavour of hybrid; mild, full or plug-in. All three forms are available here, based around the same 1.6 litre T-GDI petrol engine. Diesel power is still available via the usual 1.6-litre CRDi unit. There's no full-Electric version because this car's showroom stablemate, the EV6, fills that role says Kia. Because the brand's European division had to create a shorter Sportage design for their continent, they took the opportunity to more closely tailor ride and handling for the needs of European drivers. The previous model was distinctly unmemorable to drive, but this one should be better. Weight distribution has been better optimised around the stiffer new N3 platform and there's a new electronic control suspension continuous damping set-up available.

The mainstream engine options start with two conventional 1.6-litre units mated to front wheel drive, a T-GDi petrol powerplant with 148bhp and a CRDi diesel with 113bhp. Avoid base trim and you'll be offered the option of 7-speed DCT auto transmission with both these engines for £1,700 more, which automatically upgrades you to Kia's 48V mild hybrid tech and, with the diesel unit, boosts power to 134bhp.

The two top 'proper' Hybrid petrol models only come with an auto. The full-Hybrid HEV Sportage variant delivers the 1.6 T-GDI engine with a 44.2kW electric motor and a 1.49kWh battery delivering a total output of 226bhp. The top PHEV Plug-in variant uses the same engine paired to a 66.9kW electric motor powered by 13.8kWh battery to give a total output of 261bhp and an electric driving range of around 35 miles.

Design and Build

Like the all-electric EV6, this MK5 Sportage has been designed under Kia's 'Opposite United' ethos. Which you could guess from a glance at the visual elements the two models share - the boomerang-style headlights, swollen rear arches, the concave tailgate shaping and the prominent spoiler. Europe gets a short wheelbase version of this model - and won't be offered the longer version of this design available to other world markets, both variants sitting on the same N3 platform that undergirds this car's close cousin, the identically engineered Hyundai Tucson.

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