Apologies if I’m wrong but my kia dealer asked if I was after the hybrid and I specifically asked if it was a plug in which he confirmed. Maybe he was mistaken. I got the feeling the new sportage was still very new to the dealership when I was asking questions.
No worries. Maybe he thought that in the blurb “full hybrid” means “plugin hybrid”.
These are the available models, the Sportage Hybrid is the 231bhp FHEV version. The PHEV has specifically “plug in” in the name.
It’s the main reason why we ruled the Sportage (for now) out, since we “need” a plugin hybrid. And yeah, our salesman was less knowledgeable than me on the car, didn’t know half the spec etc. Kind of to be expected with brand new cars.
One thing to note, the first hybrid GT Line S we sat in was dead. Not sure what happened, but pressing the start button to get ignition did just nothing, completely dead. I would’ve said “maybe someone left ignition on for too long”, but even our three year old Ateca turns ignition off automatically when the engine doesn’t get started within minutes. The key was with the salesman, we did get it prior of getting in.
The second one (the demonstrator that we drove) was fine, though. Just thought that was kinda weird.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.