I drove the Kia Sportage PHEV for a week — and it’s the hybrid car most families should buy

[admin]

The Kia Sportage PHEV offers both gas and all-electric driving, which could make it the perfect hybrid vehicle for most families. I drove it for a week to find out.

I drove the Kia Sportage PHEV for a week — and it’s the hybrid car most families should buy : Read more

 

[Couvhusky]

I have a 2023 model that was one of the the first sold on the west coast. It has been the best car I've ever owned. I often goes 3 to 4 months between refueling. One thing about charging is the level 1 charger that comes with the car has voltage settings. If you adjust it to the maximum setting of 12, you can fully charge in 14 hours. I got a level 2 charger as recommended in the owners manual and can fully charge in less than 2 hours. The one downside of the car is the gas engine must run to provide heat. I still average around 100 mpg with routine charging during the winter months. During warmer weather, the gas engine is rarely used except on longer road trips.

 

[DoneWithKia]

Kia knows how to make nice looking cars but they don't know how to repair them. I own a 2017 Kia PHEV and will never buy anything from them again. The PHEV battery died and it took them 6 weeks to fix it because they simply didn't know what to do. They were working remotely with engineers, trying to figure it out. When they finally put the car back together and we picked it up, there were parts missing and things like the trunk light no longer work. Then, they threatened to not reimburse me for my rental unless I agreed to never speak about the experience. I didn't sign that agreement.

My neighbor went through a similar experience with a Kia EV and had to resort to an attorney to get things worked out. Kia eventually bought back that vehicle because they couldn't fix it properly.

 

[Guardslayers]

Just wanted to say the charge time is much faster. The charging cord that comes with the Sportage PHEV is set to the lowest setting by default. First few days with mine almost had me saying this isn't worth it. Did some Googling on it and found out you can increase the voltage and I get a 90% charge in a typical 8 hour workday on a level 1 charger after you set it correctly. Otherwise would highly recommend as well. Bought mine in July of this past year and driving it in Maine snow it drove like nothing was there. No pulling or skidding. Even tried to make it slide a bit just to see on an icy road and it corrected itself immediately in the snow setting. One downside in colder climates however is it does rely on gas to heat. Which will bring the mpg down. During the summer months I can drive all the way home 36 miles on less then .2 of a gallon. Winter it's about .8 still not bad. The switch between gas powered and electric is rather smooth. When it's in electric you don't hear a thing. Even in gas idling this is a quiet car. The features it comes with is quite nice as well. This car with its lane assist can almost drive itself. It has sensors as well to vibrate pedals or the steering wheel if you don't concentrate and will recommend taking a break on long drives. Some of these setting are customizable. The app as well is amazing. Start/stop charging your car, set timers, locate your car if stolen. Start car and set temps etc... With 2025 models coming out look for some good savings on last year's model as these are still very worthwhile. Throw in the 10 year 100k warranty best warranty you can get and it's a no brainer.