First Drive: 2022 Kia Sportage Review

The very first Kia Sportage hit UK shores in 1995. In today’s terms, its lifetime in the UK was a pretty long one, continuing on sale until 2003. But in those eight years, only 10,800 Sportages left Kia’s forecourts. At the time it was a left-field choice, the kind of car you frowned at. 

The launch year for the fifth-generation Sportage – 2022 – sees not only a very different world but a totally different Kia. For one thing, the products are not something to laugh at, or even to raise an eyebrow. Kia sold nearly 200,000 fourth-gen Sportages – an uplift of nearly 20-times over its initial ancestor. While the new world of Kia – aiming into a market above its perhaps lowly past – is being pushed by EVs, including my personal 2021 car of the year, the EV6, the rest of the range, Kia’s more day-to-day money-spinners, are following. This is a Sportage to terrify its traditional competitors and worry some who would in the past dismiss it.

There’s no denying the new Sportage is bold. The old one, the one which sold 200k units, was no bad looking thing, but its design could very easily be described as “safe”. Sportage V5 is not. For a start there’s the new DRL pattern, running in an arrow shape vertically through the grill, flanked to the outer edge by the diamond-shaped headlights. The grille is large, with a single blade of colour through the otherwise black void. Below are strong angular strakes, all part of the latest “digital tiger face” that is Kia’s new design language.

From the side it’s pure small SUV, but with some strong character lines, including a heavily cut shoulder running from arch to arch and chunky rear arches. The rear is perhaps its safest angle. There’s a boot-wide feature from light-to-light, carried over from the EV6, and some angular rear lights. The back surround on the rear plate runs the width of the car and perhaps feels like the lowest-rent part to the car, carried over with the diffuser-ish area from the old car. That is other than the rear reflectors which are positioned inside a pair of faux exhausts. Time to repeat our plea for faux-exhausts to just... stop.

At launch the Sportage comes with three engine options: a single 1.6-litre T-GDi petrol, either powering the Sportage alone, the other as a hybrid, and two 1.6-litre CRDi diesel options. A plug-in hybrid will follow.

We’ve driven the two petrol-engined cars. The base 1.6 is a four-cylinder engine with 115PS (84 kW) through the front wheels and either a manual gearbox or a mild-hybrid assisted seven-speed DCT and the full hybrid model, which is also available as two or four-wheel-drive and produces 229PS (168kW). 

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the two drivetrains is that the performance differences feel remarkably small. The 1.6-petrol is not setting the world alight, but with 200kg less to lug around (the petrol weighs 1,500kg to the AWD hybrid’s 1,700 and the FWD hybrids 1,650) the difference in acceleration feels lower than it actually is. Perhaps the key change is that the hybrid acts as torque-fill for the Sportage. Rev the pure petrol without changing down a gear and the Kia will barely react, whereas the hybrid will leap much more favourably into action with sudden power requests. 

The difference in fuel economy is also quite low, jumping from a reported WLTP of 41.5mpg for the petrol to 44.1 for the AWD hybrid. The pure numbers on performance also not massively different: 0-62mph in 9.9 seconds for the petrol, 8.0 for the hybrid. (As a comparison the DCT mild-hybrid has the worst figures for mpg at 40.4 and only pushes the 62 sprint to 9.4 seconds). A switch to the front-driven hybrid does make more of a difference, pushing the mpg up to 48.7 and 0-60 down to 7.7 seconds, but it’s really not enough compared to rival hybrid systems.

On the road, the Sportage feels relatively stiffly sprung, but the damping is good, soaking up the road chatter in most situations. On country roads that firmness means a reasonably quick response to inputs, without too much wallow or understeer even from the front-driven petrol. The steering feels barely connected to the road, like the old one, and every now and then that stiffer chassis means larger potholes will shatter through the cabin in a disconcerting manner. There was a small amount of torque steer from the FWD car, even though the petrol is only putting out 250Nm (184lb ft), but nothing concerning. While the hybrid is heavier it doesn’t feel it in the corners.

The Sportage has been sprinkled with a little EV6 magic for its fifth generation. There’s the same, massive, pair of screens that dominate the dash – both clocking in at a giant 12.3 inches. Rather than standing fully proud, the screens are flanked by arrow-feather-shaped air vents, meaning that despite their giant size the screens don’t feel like they’ve been plonked onto the dash. The centre console depends entirely on which spec Sportage you go for. If you have chosen the hybrid or the auto ‘boxed petrol it will be raised with a litany of buttons – including ones for the drive mode, heated seats etc. Opt for the manual and it sinks lower, containing just the gearstick while the buttons move to the lower centre of the dash.

The seats, electronically-adjusted in the front on anything above the base model, are comfortable and the wheel always adjusts for reach and rake. Even the tallest of drivers shouldn’t have a problem finding a comfortable position. The finer details are good too, with the nicely shaped door handles echoing the vents, and the choices of materials mostly good. It doesn’t take long to find scratchy plastics down the side, or especially around the manual gearstick, but the majority of the material choices have been of a high quality. Put the fourth and fifth-generation Sportage interiors next to each other and the difference is in many ways like looking into a different era.

The modern-day silver bullet in Kia’s magazine is the absolute showering of tech that each car takes. While the most basic Sportage (called, slightly confusingly, “2”) doesn’t get the full treatment, and loses the full screens, it still gets Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as standard.

We spent time in both “3” (the third in the lineup) and “GT-Line S” (top-spec) trims. At £30,495 on the road as a manual petrol, the 3 seems like a real bargain. Still coming with the full versions of the excellent screens, but adding climate control, electric mirrors, powered seats, cruise control, keyless entry, parking sensors, rear USB charging points, reversing camera, Sat-Nav, rain-sensing wipers and lights and even heated seats front and rear as standard. It’s hard to argue that you really need to make a step up. 

The GT-Line S in hybrid form will set you back £40,245 and most of the difference comes with the change in drivetrain. It does bring an upgrade to Harman Kardon premium sound system (excellent), 360-degree surround sensors as well as wireless phone charging, blind-spot monitoring, and a large list of safety tech, but unless you are very keen on the extra sonic quality and safety systems the step up feels almost unnecessary.

The front-wheel-drive manual Kia Sportage in “3” trim only just ticks over £30,000 as an on-the-road price. It has 591 litres of boot space with the seats up and 1,780 litres with the rear chairs folded down. It’s hard to argue with that price and kit list. With no massive change between the stats of the petrol and hybrid, the 1.6-petrol manual is the bargain. The alternative would be the front-driven hybrid, which would have enough of a boost to MPG to make up for the price difference – £8,600 – if you were looking for it.

To drive the Sportage is fine, nothing to write home about either on a B-road or on the motorway, but with no drawbacks to really mention over its competitors. The hybrid’s advantage is found largely in power delivery. It’s nothing strong, but acceleration is smoother. While you don’t expect to be wowed by a drive in a mid-size SUV, the EV6’s excellent dynamics may have given Kia a hard base to live up to.

Kia’s strong suit remains its tech specs, loading the Sportage with kit that works extremely well in a well-priced package. The problem is that Kia is not alone in lathering kit into a car and pricing strongly, and its engineering perhaps doesn’t feel quite up to some. Honda’s HR-V for example with an extremely clever hybrid system has no issue knocking out 50mpg. It means the argument that Kia is trying to step up is harder to make, Honda’s hybrid line-up now undercuts the Sportage reasonably significantly, and a Toyota Rav4 and Volkswagen Tiguan can be had for less.