Is Kia's 2023 Sportage Plug-In Hybrid The Pragmatic Pluggable? Or An EV Abomination?

I've said it before and I'll say it again plug-in hybrids are probably the most misunderstood drivetrain available in America if I were gonna buy a new 2023 Sportage today the plug-in hybrid is absolutely the model that I would get but I completely understand why you might want to save seven thousand dollars and just get the regular hybrid instead in this video we're going to talk about the plug-in hybrid how it compares to the regular hybrid and of course the elephant in the room which is the RAV4 Prime now one of the big reasons you might want to get a plug-in hybrid over an EV I think is easily explained by this Sportage right here we have 8.3 inches of ground clearance far more than you'd find in any EV for this price tag and then there's the price tag itself at 38 690 this is decidedly more expensive than a comparable hybrid model of Sportage at 31 190 but way way less expensive than the Kia ev6 which won't have the off-road capability that interestingly we find in this Sportage when it comes to design Kia is certainly not going for for the Russian nesting doll approach the Sportage looks nothing like the Telluride and I think that's a bad thing I have never cared for this particular front end look my opinion has softened a little bit on it but it is definitely polarizing now at the same time I have met a reasonable number of people over the last few months that think this is absolutely fantastic looking and maybe that's what Kia was going for something that elicits emotion both positive and negative some people really love it some people really hate it but I haven't met too many people that think it's boring that certainly is not this design we have this very distinctive Boomerang LED strip right there LED turn signals LED headlights up front LED fog lights down here these a little bit difficult to see but these modules are actually just blanks the top one has the parking sensor the mid one has the fog light the bottom one is a blank and then it's a little asymmetric with the radar sensor offset on the front end historically the Sportage has been on the small side of the segment that is absolutely not the case anymore this is now 183.5 inches long long definitely making it big for a compact crossover if you want to compare this against a RAV4 you'll find four inches more leg room inside and nearly 40 cubic feet of cargo capacity in the back in the non-hybrid version if you get the plug-in hybrid that cargo area does drop a bit but it's still more than you'll find in the RAV4 Prime and considerably more cargo area and a squarer cargo area than you'll find in the average Eevee whether we're talking Tesla Model y Ford Mustang Mach e or Kia's own ev6 and versus those compact EV crossovers like the ev6 we get a much wider box back here that's a really really important distinction this area of the body is considerably narrower in the ev6 making it an awful lot more difficult to put adults and bigger Cargo in the back then we have the ground clearance 8.3 inches of clearance in here which is pretty close to some of the top end Subarus so a lot more ground clearance even in this plug-in hybrid than you'll find in EVS outside out of a very select few the clean design Outback is definitely less controversial than the front the position the rear wiper up here under the spoiler to give it a cleaner appearance also have really nice clean surfacing right here on the rear tail lamp modules these are full LEDs including the turn signals something that we don't find even on the new Honda Pilot which is considerably more expensive than this at the bottom of the bumper we don't find Visible exhaust tips but we do find a slightly more tricky to clean area the bumpiness going on here at the bottom of the bumper that does look a little trickier to clean but not quite as much as some of the separate elements that we've seen in some of the competition going in for a closer look you'll notice how low the hatch is on the rear we have a very low cargo lift in height but on the other hand we don't have a spare tire under the floor that's one of the things you have to give up for that they put the backup light right there in the middle not everyone seems to be a fan of Kia's hybrid and plug-in hybrid systems these systems are shared with Hyundai so you'll find the exact same hybrid and plug-in hybrid system under the hood of the Sportage the Sorrento the Santa Fe and the Tucson it's based around a 1.6 liter turbocharged engine a traditional 6-speed automatic transmission and two motor generator units a lot of reviews out there have been pretty negative about the way this hybrid system functions or its performance or combinations thereof I suspect that some of that has to do with not understanding the mission of plug-in hybrids this one specifically and some of the peculiarities about how this design differs from what we find in the RAV4 Prime so let's take a deep dive into the drivetrain because the more you know about this system the better you'll be able to make up your own mind about whether it's right for you or whether you should get something else over here on this side of the engine bay we have a 1.6 liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine it produces 177 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque in its own right that torque figure is important because if you are in a situation in the hybrid or the plug-in hybrid where you don't have any battery power left say you're climbing up a really steep grade you will have more torque out of this turbocharged engine than any other the naturally aspirated hybrids that there are in America right now on this side we have a 90 horsepower electric motor that produces 224 pound-feet of torque in its own right when everything is working together you get 261 horsepower 258 pound-feet of torque maximum again when the battery is depleted though you're down to 177 195. also on this side with the engine is a second motor generator unit it's a 17 and a half horsepower motor good for 32 pound-feet of torque the purpose of that motor is just to start and stop the engine and to generate power for the hybrid system so there are going to be situations where it's a Serial hybrid the engine is generating power with that smaller motor generator unit sending it over to the bigger motor although it's pretty rare in this hybrid system it's mainly going to happen when things are warming up when you're really starting off in a very slow crawl and it needs some extra torque over here it can operate in that serial hybrid mode most of the time it's going to be a parallel hybrid through the six-speed traditi additional automatic and it is a traditional automatic not a dual clutch transmission like we see in the Kia Nero and that's the cause of some confusion I have seen even in some of the major magazine Publications about this hybrid system it is not a dual clutch or a DCT or a twin clutch none of that it is a traditional six-speed automatic transmission it does have a motor generator unit and a clutch pack effectively between the engine and transmission so that way it can drive electric only but it's not a dual clutch that's a very different kind of transmission shifts here are very much like the regular automatic version of the Sportage when this transmission is Shifting it's going to feel very much like the regular version of the Sportage For Better or For Worse depending on how you feel about a regular automatic the battery pack that's in the rear it's a 13.8 kilowatt hour unit it's connected to a 7.2 kilowatt charger that charge door is in the rear as well and it'll take about two hours to charge at 240 volts so this is a pretty quick charging plug-in hybrid a little bit faster than the RAV4 Prime everything together is good for 34 electric miles 430 miles total 35 miles per gallon once the battery is depleted that's about three miles per gallon less than we find in the RAV4 but this has a mechanical all-wheel drive systems that's very very different than what we find in the RAV4 that has an electric motor in the rear the electric motor generator units up front and those motor generator units in the RAV4 act like a CVT so it's going to have a bit more of a CVT or EV like feel and it's not going to have the same kind of connection between the front and rear axles that we find in this which is why I'm filming this video where I am this is a mile down an off-road Trail here so this is the kind of vehicle that will have consistent feel on-road mild off-road and in winter weather compared to the regular Sportage it has a lock mode where you can command more power to the rear axle No Electronic lockers on the rear axle or anything like that and this one just has regular all-season tires on it but this is going to feel very normal very sure-footed in winter weather or adverse weather or mild off-roading condition missions because the electric motor is always driving this vehicle forward through the six-speed automatic it's never going to feel quite like an EV even when it is in EV mode it's going to shift more like a gasoline vehicle and if you dig deeper in the throttle it's always going to turn the gasoline engine on there is no mode to exclude the 1.6 liter turbo from the vehicle's Locomotion we do find such a mode in the RAV4 Prime I've never been a big fan of that however because say you're in that mode and you suddenly decide you want more oomph you have to press a button then you have to floor it that takes a bit of time I'm not saying accelerating out of a problem is a thing because it absolutely is not but sometimes you might want to pass someone and you forget you're in that mode or you're at the stoplight races you really need that exit and maybe you need to have a little bit more pep than the 90 horsepower electric motor on board will give you with this one with Volvo's plug-in hybrids BMWs plug-in hybrids Etc you just dig deeper in the throttle and you get the maximum system power output in the RAV4 if you're in that mode you don't which is why I generally don't use that mode when I'm in the RAV4 Prime remember that plug-in hybrids are not about gasoline elimination if that's what you want to do then you want a full electric vehicle I have always chuckled to myself when I hear plug-in hybrid owners that brag how they never use gasoline and then I think to myself well then why did you buy a gasoline engine you should have just bought an EV at any rate let's move on going a little out of order let's talk about the cargo area this is definitely wider and boxier than the average EV but it is a little smaller than the hybrid version of the Sportage because that battery pack is located underneath the floor not in the rear portion but up there by that rear seat area that's why the rear seats move around just a little bit now one important thing to keep in mind no spare tire happens in this and you will find spare tires in the rest of the Sportage lineup that's just a reality because of the bigger battery also the cargo area drops versus the regular Sportage but it performs exactly the same in my roller bag test because 24 inch rollerback eggs don't fit under the floor what is under the floor well I'm glad you asked let's take a look under here we have a place where you can put your evse we have a huge foam divider that takes up a lot of room and then we have a badly located 7.2 kilowatt onboard charger and the 12 volt battery Kia really could have just jammed those to one side or the other maybe even put one of these in the side of the rear cargo area and given us either room for a spare or additional cargo room hopefully that's something they can improve upon in a Next Generation I would love to see a change to that layout front seat Comfort is largely the same as the rest of the Sportage lineup I'm driving the top end trim of plug-in hybrid so we have a power driver seat with two-way lumbar two position memory over there and a manual tilt telescopic steering column I do wish the top trim had four-way lumbar that's something that KIA seems to give in some models and take away in others without too much Rhyme or Reason I also wish that the steering column came out just a little bit further because of the position of the battery which is a little bit under the cargo area and a little bit under the rear seats the rear seat geometry changes for the plug-in hybrid model and that results in a loss of some leg room remember that legroom is not just the distance of the rear seat back to the front seat back it also has to do with the height of the seat bottom cushion off the ground because it's a calculated measurement from basically your hip point over to where a knee would be and then down there to the floor so this does result in a slightly different rear seat than the regular Sportage but you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference because of the way things have been jiggled around we do have a very slight hump in the middle and considerably more leg room than you'll find in the average in this crossover definitely more than we find in the RAV4 and RAV4 Prime even though this vehicle has lost some leg room versus the RAV4 Prime with this front seat all the way back in its tracks you can see I still have a lot we also have a surprising amount of recline for the rear seats it's a 60 40 split design I can put them in a very reclined position that's actually pretty comfortable because the recline mechanism is nice and low on the seats unlike some or I could put them in a decidedly uncomfortable very upright position to Square Off the cargo area but even in this position I still have about three quarters of an inch of Headroom left so Headroom back here is definitely very generous and even in this model there's still plenty of room for rear-facing child seats as we look around the interior keep in mind this is essentially the very top end trim of Sportage we have a pretty large panoramic moon roof over the front and second rows key has been all in on some unusual headrest designs lately these do not go forward and backward like some of Kia's newest Vehicles again they are just two-way adjustable but they do have a jacket holder on the back that I find strangely handy even though I think the look is a little peculiar these don't have that sort of bell-shaped look that we find in the ev6 though moving down from there we have attractive upholstery in this model it's perforated in the center of the back cushion and the bottom cushion because these seats are both heated and ventilated heated and ventilated seats definitely have an impact on energy consumption whether you're operating in hybrid mode or in EV mode but we do need to talk a little bit about the climate control I'll save that for just a second later here moving on over to the front doors we have a decent percentage of soft touch materials I think he has done a better job with this interior honestly than we see in the RAV4 or the new CRV more soft touch materials more attractive materials going on even though I don't care for the exterior design I think the interior is done really well it's definitely very stylish we have well done imitation wood trim on this interior if I zoom in over on the door that's definitely a love it or hate it design though personally I think it's just fine that imitation wood trim runs right across the dashboard just under these very stylish air vents here these kind of remind me a little bit of the Kia Sorento again on the inside key is not going for a Russian nesting doll theme with all their vehicles but this definitely has some of the styling touches out of the more recent Kias with this big dual screen setup in the middle of the dashboard and the climate controls down there but first let's talk about what's going on up here the dashboard has the effect of a stitch Dash but it is in fact a soft touch injection molded dashboard with some after stitching to dress it up moving down here we have a just over 12 inch infotainment system running the same basic software that we find in other modern Kias this is their latest software package but it still does not give us Wireless carplay or Wireless Android auto on the large format screen that's something that we've been waiting for a while from Kia but we just don't have yet now down here we have the big thing that I dislike in some Modern Kias it's the touch screen setup that combines climate controls and infotainment controls in the same button Bank you can see I have to use this button to swap between infotainment buttons so those direct access buttons to various things on the infotainment system or the climate control now the reason I have the climbing control off is because one other thing that's somewhat controversial about this vehicle if I turn this on you'll notice that right now the engine has just started and that's because in order to heat the cabin the engine has to run it's using waste heat from the engine now it's not just sitting there idling it is going to be charging the battery you can see that charging icon right there but this doesn't have any other way of heating the cabin and it certainly doesn't offer a heat pump some folks are offended by this if you want to stay in electric only mode and it's cold outside all you have left really is the heated seats and the heated steering wheel down there but keep in mind this is an exercise in gasoline mitigation not gasoline replacement so your mileage will vary and your opinions are going to vary there as well we have a wireless charging mat down here 12 volt power port USB input for the system and then a USB charge only Port the usb-c port does not work with the interface there engine start stop button a rotary style shifter here I don't mind this one as much as the ones that we see in Fords because you toggle back and forth between drive and reverse there and park is the button in the middle so in multi you know three-point stops four point turns Etc you can easily go from reverse to drive I find that a lot less of a problem than some of the other rotary shifters down here we have Hill descent Control auto brake hold the EV hybrid mode toggle again if it's in EV mode it will turn on the gasoline engine for heating the cabin this is the drive mode selector we have ecosport support smart and snow no off-road mode although we do have the ability to command more of a lock to the center coupling this is not a complete lock of the center coupling like we find in the Maverick Tremor but it is pretty aggressive for a small crossover on this side we have two large cup holders and they have these rings that you can rotate around right like that to use this storage area for something larger and it becomes all one piece with this larger portion down here so you put some large tablet smartphones things like that balanced in there or you can pop those rings out and use them as cup holders we have a softly padded Center armrest and then inside there a reasonably sized storage area but it's too shallow to carry a half gallon of milk in case you're wondering this is what the key looks like the buttons are on the side this is something we first saw in the Kia Stinger lock unlock hatch button Etc they're all right there and then on the face where I think it's actually easier to press buttons than on the side I find that a little bit awkward we have the remote start button and then the forward and backward parking assist buttons because this has the SmartPak system basically borrowed out of Hyundai products this LCD is the same size as the infotainment system and it shares the plastic bezel with it giving it a one-piece look across the dashboard very much like we find in some Mercedes models there are four different themes for this display there's that one there's that one there's theme C and then there's the dynamic theme which gives you a sort of a I guess a prairie like look I guess here so I'm not sure what to call that really and then we get a digital speedometer and digital tachometer this one gives you a little bit less information although I do think it's quite attractive now this display is not as customizable as those large Mercedes LCDs because really the only area that will give you any kind of readouts is right here in the middle that's where you find your pretty typical trip computer readout status of the plug-in hybrid system Etc moving out from there we find a three spokes steering wheel with the latest Kia logo it has sort of a split bottom spoke there paddle shifters on the back you'll find the controls for the infotainment system over here on the left Volume Up Down track forward backward there's a favorite button also a voice command button and then the controls for the adaptive cruise control and Kia's aggressive Lane centering program over here on the right the paddles on the back of the steering wheel are just shift paddles even in this plug-in hybrid model you'll see we have gear one right there if I pull this other paddle we'll have gear 2. in something like the Nero plug-in hybrid these will double as regenerative braking adjustment paddles very much like they operate in a Kia ev6 but here in the Sportage they are simply shift pedals I'll apologize in advance I have somehow been calling the RAV4 prime a Prius Prime if there's any confusion in this drive section where I'm talking about a Prius Prime just know that I mean RAV4 Prime I've been tripping over that all day long out on the road the first thing we need to talk about is the fact that the Sportage is not as sporty as it has been in the past specifically the previous generation models that had two liter turbocharged engine under the hood this over 260 horsepower plug-in hybrid is the fastest model but it's not as fast as those two liter turbos were and it's not as fast as the Prius Prime either this one went 0-60 in 6.9 seconds that's definitely slower than the Prius Prime which is about a second and a half faster than this now in this video I'm going to talk about the performance numbers of this vehicle I'll talk about some of the myths and myth busting that needs to be done around the plug-in hybrid some cold hard truths and then of course we're going to take it off-road because that is one of the interesting twists with the Sportage plug-in hybrid in my braking test to stop from 60 miles an hour back to zero in 126 feet that's actually a decent amount shorter than the RAV4 Prime even though it was a little on the damp side when I tested this particular model when talking about breaking distance keep in mind that the base version of the Prius Prime plug-in is going to take a little bit longer because it does have skinnier tires than the top-end version we last tested I think that the different braking system in this vehicle is responsible for the shorter distance Toyota's had some troubles really dialing in their Blended braking system transitions between regenerative and friction braking are not as smooth or as seamless as we find in this vehicle a little bit more on that in just a moment and the result is that this takes less time time to start from 60 miles an hour to zero in a panic stopping situation also the tire compound is definitely different here even though these two vehicles weigh about the same now commentary on the regenerative braking system this system of course has a six-speed automatic transmission Between the Wheels and the electric motors so as you're accelerating or as you're braking you're going to feel that transmission shifting some people might really hate that some people might not it's just a fact of the matter with this vehicle if you don't like it get something else if you can live with it this is going to be a solid option unlike Kia's Nero this vehicle uses a traditional six-speed automatic not a dual clutch transmission I have seen some misreporting on that this is not a twin clutch this is not a dual clutch this is a regular six-speed automatic transmission and as a result the shifts are a little slower than in the recently redesigned Kia Nero and you will most notice that in uphill kind of situations where you're in electric only mode that there's a bit of a delay as the vehicle is changing gears some people really dislike that because in EV mode they want it to feel just like a Tesla but this is not that kind of vehicle this is a regular hybrid that happens to have a bigger battery and of course the plug now when it it comes to the handling score I'm going to give this a B plus the Sportage has been pretty sporty in the past but this generation has become a lot bigger and a lot softer a bit more focused on Creature Comforts efficiency that big back seat Etc so I actually rate the handling ability just a notch below the Prius Prime in terms of feel this does have a solid sorted feel to it but definitely a lot heavier than the regular versions of the Sportage you will certainly notice the difference between this and the hybrid model and the base version of the Sportage it's going to feel a lot lighter especially in the rear so if you're really trying to hustle this out on your favorite winding Mountain Road the rear end will definitely feel a little on the heavy side as a result it may feel a little bit better balanced than the regular Sportage but you can definitely feel the suspension really taking up the bumps and the the Dives in the road as you're kind of going around a corner like that this definitely has a solid solid heavy feel to it if you want something that feels lighter you're going to have to take a look at the regular hybrid or the non-hybridized versions of the Sportage now on the other hand the right quality is excellent I think the extra weight helps that out there's a reasonable amount of suspension travel everything is too nicely so this soaks up large and small imperfections pretty darn well I've changed the angles of the camera so you can see a little bit better what's going on on off-road trails like this now we have that lock mode for the all-wheel drive system but it's not as aggressive of a lock as you'd find in say the Maverick trimmer so in tight Maneuvers like that it's not going to feel binding like you can in a traditional four-wheel drive system or that Maverick because it is very very aggressive at the center clutch lock up that is a little bit different than we've seen in other Kias that have had a lock button before now as you can see on this particular Trail the size of the Sportage I think is definitely an asset this is still relatively compact for Trails like this we're going to go ahead and just run over some of this brush there making sure not to pinstripe the vehicle or anything like that and then in a moment here we're going to start going uphill but before we do again this all-wheel drive system exactly the same as the regular Sportage model so the way this feels when your engine braking on a trail like this the way it feels when you're going up when you're going across a loose surface ice snow Etc it's going to feel basically the same and that's really handy out on a Surface like this where I just have all season tires so I'm really going to be depending a lot on the performance of this all-wheel drive system now at the moment I have the vehicle in its auto mode I'm just going to go ahead and put this in electric mode because there is plenty of torque out of this electric motor 90 horsepower over 200 pound-feet of torque this is the kind of plug-in hybrid that you absolutely could take on a trail like this and it's going to feel pretty darn good again with 8.3 inches of ground clearance this is considerably more ground clearance than we have in a Mustang Machi or anything along those lines and because of the mechanical connection between the differentials this is going to feel a lot more like a regular RAV4 than the RAV4 Prime now I'm not going to go uphill there because I'm not entirely clear if this system would do it but you can see we did get one wheel up there in the air the system had absolutely no problem doesn't have problem with the deeper ruts on this particular Trail here although you can hear that I seem to have wedged a twig somewhere there under the vehicle and obviously we don't have the kind of skid plates that you'd find in a more aggressive off-roaded vehicle Etc on a trail like this where traction is definitely limited especially since I now have some mud Caked Up in the tires the feel is definitely different than a RAV4 Prime in a RAV4 Prime if I were insist to floor it here I wouldn't get that rear end steering around a little bit like I just did there because this has a lot of power to the rear instead I would get a lot of front wheel spin and that is the big thing you'll notice in the RAV4 and RAV4 Prime on an icy surface you'll get a decent amount of front wheel spin you have to dig deeper into the throttle really spin up those front tires for the system to send power to the rear because it's a separate system it's an electric motor in the back and it has to see that that loss of traction that's slipping up front before it's going to send more power to the rear and especially in the regular hybrid because the engine is what's generating the power it has to be spinning in order to send that power to the rear axle we don't have that same problem in here because it can just close the clutch pack send power to the rear although clearly not as capable as a Grand Cherokee 4 by E the theory of operation for this system is not far off we have a traditional transmission the exact same all-wheel drive system that we find in the regular model it just happens to be driving through an electric motor it also is fairly quiet I measured 72 decibels at 50 miles an hour that's definitely good for the compact crossover segment it is just a hair louder than the RAV4 but it is a little bit quieter than the last CRV hybrid that we tested now let's talk about fuel economy and some of the weird things that I've seen written and in videos Etc on this hybrid system this is rated for 84 mpge 34 miles per gallon bind in some reviews I have seen folks saying well I didn't plug it in and I wasn't able to get the 84 mpge well the answer there is of course not because 84 mpge is the electric fuel efficiency of this vehicle according to the EPA this should be getting about two and a half miles per kilowatt hour but for some insane reason the EPA doesn't give you that in miles per kilowatt hour they give you an mpge score dum dum dum I do not understand that at all I think it's ridiculous when it comes to fuel economy I'm certainly going to give this an A but I think it does come in below the Prius Prime this won't get you as far on an electric charge and it's not as efficient when operating as an electric vehicle or as a hybrid vehicle as the Prius Prime but there are pros and cons to that this has a true mechanical all-wheel drive system we'll talk about that in a bit that makes the feel very very different than the Prius Prime we also have a much more powerful engine in real terms when this is operating as a hybrid vehicle so say you're going up the Continental Divide you're climbing the Sierra Nevada this has 177 horsepower 195 pound-feet of torque and a lot less loss between the engine and those Wheels when solely operating as a gasoline-powered vehicle than we find in the RAV4 prime or the Prius Prime the RAV4 Prime on the other hand it produces 177 horsepower from its engine but just 165 pound-feet of torque and a much less advantageous torque curve you will definitely notice the difference if you get both batteries depleted and you're climbing up longer grades now let's talk about the controversy regarding the drive modes with this plug-in hybrid system some folks are offended that even though this says it's an electric mode if I floor it we get hybrid mode the gasoline engine turned on I don't understand why people are that offended by it this is a plug-in hybrid its mission is not to be a full EV if you're the kind of person that's out there bragging well you know I drove a Chevy Volt and I only use two gallons of gasoline through its entire lifetime then why did you buy a Chevy Volt you should have bought an electric vehicle the entire point of a plug-in hybrid is this blending of Worlds it's reducing not eliminating your gasoline consumption if you want all 260 some odd horsepower 300 pound feet of torque you need the gasoline engine involved and that's as true for this as the RAV4 Prime in the RAV4 Prime if you want 300 horsepower the gasoline engine has to be on and you will definitely notice in the RAV4 Prime that even though it has a mode where it won't turn the gas engine on you can floor it in EV mode it is going to be very very slow some folks might stay dangerously slow I would just say it requires proper planning but I still don't understand that mode if I wanted an electric vehicle 100 of the time I should have bought an electric vehicle 100 of the time this is that blending of Worlds and I think it does that pretty well even with just 90 horsepower under the hood you can still climb mountain passes you can still travel at highway speeds you can even have a reasonable amount of fun out on a favorite winding Mountain Road like this and the all-wheel drive system operates exactly like it does when it's in hybrid mode the regular hybrid is an absolute no-brainer to me it's only twelve hundred dollars more than a regular Sportage it gives you better performance significantly better fuel economy with truly no compromises it even has the same mechanical all-wheel drive system that this plug-in hybrid has and the regular Sportage so it will feel exactly the same if you live in an area that gets a lot of snow and ice that's a common complaint with the RAV4 hybrid it may be okay in those conditions but it's not going to feel the same as the regular RAV4 and this will feel pretty much the same as the regular Sportage that model will save the average owner at the pump whether you're going to own it only for three years or whether you can extend that period out to seven years or ten years and really maximize the standard powertrain warranty on the vehicle the long powertrain warranty may be a consideration if you're a little on the fence as to whether you want a hybrid or not maybe you're worried about component longevity all Kias have a 10 year 100 000 mile powertrain warranty and that applies to the hybrid systems as well now that only applies to the first owner if you're buying one used you won't get that long powertrain warranty but it is more comprehensive in its coverage than the standard warranties and the extended hybrid warranties that we find on the competition now when it comes to the plug-in hybrid the math is a little trickier you basically just have to want the plug and you have to be willing to spend about seven thousand dollars more for it the average American is quite simply never going to consume seven thousand dollars more fuel in the regular hybrid than the plug-in hybrid so you just have to want the plug whether that's because you can access the carpool lane Solo in States like California or you just don't want to visit the gas station as often this model 38 690 is where it started and this is the top end trim I'll let you refer to the pricing chart on your screen versus the comparable hybrid model at thirty one thousand one ninety or I should say almost comparable because that's an ex trim and this starts in a different trim lineup in the Kia portfolio so pretty close it's about seven thousand five hundred dollars more in the before times before the federal tax credit changed this math might have made sense because it probably would have qualified for a 6500 perhaps a seven thousand dollar tax credit which would have made it about the same price as the hybrid and then I would have said it was an absolute no-brainer recommendation to get the plug-in hybrid if you could plug it in and that of course is part of this equation you have to want to plug it in you have to be able to plug it in but clearly you could plug this in a lot less than an ev6 and still be just fine and this is considerably less expensive than any version of the ev6 while simultaneously being roomier on the inside more practical to live with and more off-road capable than pretty much any EV crossover outside a select view something like the bz4x the soltera the rivians ETC obviously those are going to be more off-road capable and the Wrangler 4x8 and Grand Cherokee 4 by E they're more off-road capable as well but the vast majority of those they're also significantly more expensive even something inexpensive like a Subaru soltera still a lot more than this plug-in hybrid and it it's not going to get you 400 500 miles on a single gas tank plus charge and if you treat this gently you absolutely can go over 400 miles on the gas tank and the battery together on my average daily commute I wouldn't use any gasoline at all because unlike the Kia Niro this will complete my daily commute including going up and over a 2200 foot mountain pass with zero gasoline used at all now as I have said before then why would I buy a plug-in hybrid over an EV well I do live out here in the forest my house is actually just about a mile that way and sometimes I don't have electricity at home because it's raining and I live off grid and PG e is down so I can't connect to them either so sometimes it's nice to be able to run on the gas tank sometimes it's nice to be able to go on a road trip and not worry about where am I going to charge where am I going to fill up does my hotel have level 2 Charging is the DC fast charge station working Etc if you're on the fence you want to go electric but you're not ready to pull the plug completely then you want to take a look at something like this that is the entire Logic for a plug-in hybrid but again you have to want one you have to be able to plug it in as always be sure and sound off in the comment section let me know what you think about that find us over at facebook.com Instagram Twitter all those other social places and then keep in mind that our Facebook name has changed recently we are now facebook.com the autobuyer's guide because that is the direction that Alex on Autos is going sense there are going to be more people on Alex and Autos than just Alex so at any rate that is the new name this is the new car and this was hot on my list for possibly replacing our long-term ev6 but I think the decision has been made you will have to stay tuned and wait and see what that decision ended up being see all of you later [Music]

Channel: EV Buyers Guide

Views: 106,017

Keywords: Alex Dykes, Alex On Autos, Review, Detailed Review, Road test, Driven, Car, EV, Electric, EV6, PHEV, Plug In Hybrid, Sportage Plug In, sportage plug in hybrid, sportage phev 2023, Sportage review, 2023 Sportage, Sportage 2023, Kia Sportage

Id: lVga8L8UlPc

Length: 34min 11sec (2051 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2023