This time the Sportage has been engineered and tuned in a dedicated-European-market, short-wheelbase form for production at Kia’s Slovak factory at Zilina, and yet useful gains on five-seat occupant space versus its predecessor are still claimed. It gets a new and more upmarket interior typically packed with eye-catching digital technology, as well as Kia’s very latest active safety and driver assistance systems. And yet the value-motivated buyer hasn’t been forgotten about, with entry-level petrol and diesel versions of the car both coming to the market early next year for less than £28,000.
Kia brought left-hand-drive, German-market-specification examples of the all-new 1.6-litre hybrid version of the car to the UK to generate some first road test impressions. Except for running on winter tyres and adaptive dampers (neither of which will be available in the UK), they were a close match for the range-topping GT-Line S-trim Sportage models that will begin arriving in the UK early next year.
The Sportage certainly has an appealing driving environment. A flight console-aping duo of widescreen ultra-thin instrumentation and infotainment displays curves across in front of the driver (lower-grade cars will get conventional instruments and a smaller central display), and is bracketed by unusual fin-shaped air vents. You’ll notice the trapezoidal loop-shaped interior door release pulls too. This is an interior designed to catch the eye every bit as much as the exterior does, and it succeeds at that.
It’s also one replete with digital technology but not dominated by it. The ventilation controls are independent of the main touchscreen; a bit fiddly to use at first, but not lastingly so. The infotainment system could do with a physical input device. But the car’s fixtures and fittings feel solid, secure and robust throughout; although the car’s switchgear still feels unashamedly plasticky in places, and some of Kia’s decision-making on where to use soft-touch mouldings and where not to bother still baffles.
In terms of practical cabin space, the Sportage is class-competitive without being the most accommodating family car you might spend somewhere between £30,000 and £40,000 on. The back seats are adult-sized and comfortable even for six-foot occupants, and you could get three kids across them if you needed to. The boot matches or narrowly beats what you might find in a key rival like the Peugeot 3008 or Skoda Karoq. The hybrid version of the car has almost as much carrying capacity as any other, although the more powerful plug-in hybrid comprises more of it.
Keyword: Kia Sportage Review (2021) | Autocar