Kia Sportage GT-Line Hybrid 2024 long-term review

If you’re on the hunt for a hybrid midsize SUV and the first dealership you go to happens to be Toyota (because of the popularity of the RAV4 Hybrid), you’re not alone.

Toyota sold a staggering 29,627 units of its midsize SUV in 2023. That’s more than half the seating capacity of the Sydney Cricket Ground, so quite a few Australians, then.

But now, the Kia Sportage, which sold over 15,000 units during the same year, comes with the choice of a hybrid option for the very first time.

When the opportunity came around to test out Kia’s Sportage Hybrid over the long-term, first and foremost, we really wanted to see if it was any match for the top-selling Toyota RAV4 in the real world. Is it as efficient? Is it comfortable? Is it a good daily drive?

Currently, the wait time for a new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is around six to nine months, however Kia Australia has told us that you can get your hands on a Sportage Hybrid in as little as three months from date of order. That in itself is worth considering.

Navigate this long-term Kia Sportage GT-Line Hybrid review

• • How we specified our long-term Kia Sportage GT-Line Hybrid
  • Month 1: First impressions and a look at the hybrid system beneath ‘Felipe’
  • Month 2: Felipe gets the full Aussie road trip workout
  • Month 3: The final verdict

Month 3: The final verdict

Kilometres this month: 2747km

Fuel economy: 5.94L/100km 

Running costs this month (fuel): $198.43

As my time with Felipe comes to a close, it’s unfortunately time to wrap up my thoughts on what has been a comfortable, effortless and very liveable vehicle ownership for me.

Most recently, I have been doing a lot of ute reviews. First, it was the Mazda BT-50, then a pair of GWM Cannon Alpha dual-cabs. After that, I went pretty much straight into a Nissan Navara.

Why am I mentioning utes, you may ask? Well, because I have found that every time I returned to Felipe from a big, heavy, and not particularly nice-riding ute, it felt welcoming and very refreshing.

Over the past three months, I have genuinely formed a bond with Felipe. Most surprisingly, I’ve had several moments of wanting to just go out and drive it, to try and get the lowest fuel economy or just explore the open roads in comfort.

I’ve driven countless SUVs over my time at Chasing Cars, but I’ve come away from the Sportage GT-Line Hybrid having put it on a list of cars I could actually live with and own personally.

As I hand back Felipe’s keys to Kia Australia, here’s a few things that went great, and a few misses from my time with Kia’s hybrid SUV.

The four greatest hits

Kia’s new Sportage Hybrid surprised me right out of the box with the following positive traits and characteristics:

Felipe rides and handles well. The Sportage has compliant and comfortable suspension, partially thanks to smaller 18-inch alloy wheels and pretty thick sidewall rubber.

The GT-Line I had the pleasure of piloting has a premium and very well-presented interior. Kia has thrown all the fruit at the cabin with quality finishes, sporty leather/suede seats and huge curved 12.3-inch screens.

It has, in my opinion, one of the most refined hybrid systems on the market. Kia’s 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine with electric motor is a pleasant drivetrain to use each and every day. It has plenty of punch, is amazingly quiet and the petrol engine kicks in with refinement you wouldn’t experience in a Toyota RAV4. It’s very nicely done.

Felipe doesn’t have annoying active-safety features. Kia has overdone safety in some of its other cars, including the Seltos small SUV, but the Sportage misses out on the annoying bonging and beeping, which I loved. It’s still jam packed with safety gear, but it’s not frustrating. And with one press of a steering-wheel button, the lane-keep can be disabled. Win win.

The four greatest misses

Felipe is only available in front-wheel drive. Unlike the newly released Hyundai Tucson Hybrid, Kia decided to go front-drive-only for its Sportage Hybrid. When you can get a Toyota RAV4 Cruiser Hybrid in all-wheel drive for around the same money, it makes the Toyota appear a little more tempting.

If you like going camping or adventuring, you may find that front-drive will only get you so far. It certainly won’t get you out of a boggy campsite or grassy field, for instance.

It’s not as efficient as I thought it would be. Kia quotes an amazing combined figure of just 4.9L/100km, however after we crunched the numbers, an average fuel figure of 5.9L/100km showed that the Sportage was some way off that. And while we certainly did a lot of highway kilometres where a hybrid system can be somewhat less efficient, we also did a lot of city commuting.

To put things into perspective, a Sportage with a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel has an official fuel efficiency number of 6.3L/100km, however we’ve attained a real world figure of about 5.7L/100km for the diesel in the past here at Chasing Cars – admittedly in a different testing environment.

It’s pretty expensive in GT-Line guise. Felipe comes in at $60,495 driveaway in New South Wales, which, as I’ve already mentioned, is more expensive than both turbo-petrol and turbo-diesel Sportages.

It’s also more expensive than the very similarly-specced Toyota RAV4 Hybrid in Cruiser trim that also gains an electrified all-wheel-drive system for $59,400 driveaway. Sure, there isn’t much in that, but I’d probably be leaning my money more towards the RAV4, or the new Hyundai Tucson Hybrid with all-wheel drive.

The last miss for the Kia Sportage Hybrid can be combined into two elements: seat comfort and cabin materials. Chasing Cars deputy editor Curt Dupriez found the seats to be pretty firm and uncomfortable on long commutes, and so did I during my long hauls up to the Sunshine Coast. The seat itself is well constructed, but it lacks some mid-back support.

And while most of the cabin materials are pretty decent, the use of piano-black plastic over the majority of the centre console wasn’t the best idea in my opinion. It scratches easily, shows smudge marks and dust, and just doesn’t look that impressive in 2024.

My final thoughts on the 2024 Kia Sportage GT-Line Hybrid

My friend Felipe has been a great companion over the last three months. Although it’s not the cheapest mid-size hybrid SUV, it punches above its weight with a refined hybrid system, impressive ride quality and a premium cabin experience – those 12.3-inch screens are wonderful, for instance.

And while it’s not quite as efficient as I was expecting, the Sportage makes up for things somewhat by being just a damn good daily drive. I’m by no means an SUV lover, yet I know full well that Australia is. Even though the Toyota RAV4 exists (and is hugely popular), the Sportage offers something different for very similar money.

The new challenger on the block would ultimately be the new Hyundai Tucson Hybrid with all-wheel drive and a touch more power under its bonnet, but we’ll have to wait and see about how it compares in the near-future.

Felipe has done so much right. An all-wheel-drive system and some tweaks to efficiency are all that’s left to make it reach very lofty heights.

Until next time, Felipe!

Month 2: Felipe gets the full Aussie road trip workout

Kilometres this month: 4096km

Fuel economy: 6.13L/100km

Running costs this month: $460.60

For Felipe’s second long-term report, I’ll be talking a lot about the long haul. Australians love a road trip. It’s a very big country, Terra Australis.

In fact, our very good friends at Budget Direct did a survey in 2022 and found that 88 percent of participants had driven a road trip before. The study also found that close to 40 percent of people travel over 10 hours on a road trip.

That makes a lot of sense as the major cities in Australia are a long way from one another. Brisbane to Sydney? That’s 936km via the Pacific Highway. Sydney to Melbourne? 876km via the M31 National Highway. Even Melbourne to Adelaide is a fairly significant 726km. And Adelaide to Perth? A staggering 2695km.

While I believe it’s still a little early to experience a completely stress-free, pure-electric vehicle road trip, a hybrid like trusty Felipe offers some of the benefits, but without the current charging headache.

As part of my commitments as an ambassador for driving wellness charity Drive Against Depression, I headed north to my hometown of Brisbane for our second-ever Queensland event.

Having just returned from Canberra the night before, to say I was a little tired on departure day would be a massive understatement. With a diet coke and a strong cappuccino in my belly, I began the 11-and-a-half hour drive to my parent’s apartment in Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast.

Every time I drive north, the first two hours I find are always the hardest, but Felipe turned out to be a remarkably comfortable companion. While deputy editor Curt Dupriez isn’t the biggest fan of the GT-Line’s seats, I found them to be pretty suitable for the long haul.

As the hours slowly passed by and I became bored with listening to my favourite Zak’s Tracks playlist on Spotify, I got myself well acquainted with Felipe, including the adaptive cruise control, which was uncomplicated to use and worked fairly seamlessly.

During the journey, I did note that the Sportage hybrid was certainly less efficient on the highway, much like a pure electric vehicle. First timers might be a little put off by this, but that’s just the nature of electric systems – they thrive off regenerative braking, which just doesn’t happen often enough on a flat 110km/h highway.

After crunching the numbers, Felipe sipped 6.13L/100km of fuel over 4096km, which is not so bad considering many of those kilometres were highway focused. However, that’s still some way off the official Kia claim of just 4.9L/100km combined, or 4.9L/100km for extra urban environments.

As I pull into the wonderfully sunny Sunshine Coast for a few days of post-Chasing Cars event rest, I feel I have bonded with Felipe more than I had expected. Being a single guy, I’ve always held my heart close to the small-car segment, but Felipe is actually an SUV I’d see myself owning.

I love how quiet, practical and spacious it is. I really like the way it looks and largely also how it drives. But the one sticking point for me is the question of: why would you consider buying one over a similarly-equipped diesel?

If you’re in the market for a fuel-efficient hybrid SUV, you’re probably doing so because you want to consume less fuel and therefore pay less for it at the bowser, but I’m not yet sure my Sportage Hybrid is fuel efficient enough to justify its extra spend.

Let’s see how Felipe goes for month three and whether or not I can get that 6.1L/100km figure any lower.

Month 1: First impressions and a look at the hybrid system beneath ‘Felipe’

Kilometres this month: 1410km

Fuel economy: 6.10L/100km

Running costs this month: $210.30

I’m heading south, out of the craziness that is Sydney city. I live only three kilometres from the CBD, so to get away is always incredibly refreshing.

I’ve been officially handed the keys to the new Sportage Hybrid, a car I’m nicknaming ‘Felipe’, for a few months. And today I’m heading way down south, with my Google Maps locked in to a small beach community by the name of Mollymook.

In the car I get, I click the start button and all is quiet. There is a soft whir of the electric systems firing to life. I configure my seat (which has a handy memory function), and I’m off.

First impressions are strong: this hybrid powertrain is amazingly quiet and subtle. The cabin feels very premium, with a lovely smattering of materials. Two 12.3-inch screens dominate the cabin and are set up in a curved fashion, which look very premium.

This example is a GT-Line, so the seats are leather upholstered and very comfortable. They’re also heated and ventilated, which could definitely come in handy during either super hot days, or for the coldest of nights.

Around town, the Sportage Hybrid is refined, has surprisingly nice ride quality and a powertrain that is smooth and powerful, all in one go. The transition between electric and combustion power is almost not noticeable at all, unlike other hybrid vehicles I have experienced in the past.

As far as first impressions go, the Sportage is ticking a lot of the boxes for me. The Sportage doesn’t even bong at you all the time on the move, unlike its little sibling, the Seltos, which is more annoying than you could ever imagine.

It’s not all perfect, though. After a few hours behind the wheel, I’m beginning to find some small shortfalls, like the infotainment screens sometimes taking a little longer than they should to boot up and the piano black centre console is prone to dust, fingerprints and scratches if you’re not careful.

As I arrive and take in the scenery at the gorgeous Mollymook, I get out my phone to find out a little more about what’s underneath this Sportage.

A lot like a Toyota hybrid system, this Sportage also utilises a series-parallel system. What this means is that this kind of system uses a power-split device, allowing drive to come from either the combustion engine or an electric motor.

Essentially, each powertrain or drive type can be ‘decoupled’, so at low speeds, the onboard electric motor takes the role of powering the wheels, but at higher speeds, the combustion provides drive, increasing efficiency.

Electric motors are great for low-down torque, so they come in handy for low-speed and takeoffs, while the combustion engine drives at higher speeds.

And the best part? You don’t have to plug it in when you get home, unlike a plug-in hybrid powertrain.

As I point the Sportage north and get back on the highway, I keep thinking about what a pleasant experience this has been.

I’m far from an SUV fanatic, but I can appreciate one that drives with sophistication, comfort and efficiency. Yes, this high-spec hybrid variant is over $60,000, which is certainly not an insignificant amount of coin.

As I roll back into my garage at home, I’ve just done 450km with ease. I’m looking forward to taking Felipe on a longer-distance road trip, so stay tuned for the next instalment of my Sportage long-term report.

How we specified our long-term Kia Sportage Hybrid

What’s the specs on the vehicle we have for our long-term test?

Well, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to my friend Felipe, or FEL-39N, a Snow White Pearl Kia Sportage GT-Line Hybrid, or better known and marketed by Kia simply as HEV.

As the high-spec variant (you can also get the Hybrid in a base SX guise), the Sportage GT-Line gains the following standard features:

• Dual 12.3-inch driver cluster and infotainment touchscreen
• Satellite navigation 
• Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto 
• Eight-speaker Harman Kardon sound system
• Dual-zone climate control
• Leather appointed steering wheel
• Leather/suede upholstered seat trim
• Eight-way power driver’s and front passenger seat 
• Panoramic sunroof
• USB-A and USB-C charge ports
• Wireless phone charger 
• Four cup holders and four bottle holders 
• Power tailgate 
• Alloy pedals 
• Ambient interior lighting 

It’s worth noting that Kia has specced the Hybrid variants in Australia with slightly smaller 18-inch alloy wheels and thick Nexen Roadian GTX rubber, whereas petrol and diesel GT-Lines get larger 19-inch alloys.

Before on-road costs, the Sportage currently costs $55,420. With the premium paint ($520), our test car comes out at a smidge over $61,000 driveaway (based on NSW 2000 postcode).

That’s pretty close to a 2024 Toyota RAV4 Edge Hybrid, which sits at about $63,000 driveaway.

But what’s the premium you will pay over a pure combustion model? Well, a GT-Line Petrol with all-wheel drive will cost buyers $5500 less than a hybrid, or $2500 less if you go a GT-Line diesel with all-wheel drive.

Under the bonnet of Felipe is a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that’s part of the Smartstream family, but also adds an electric motor that produces, on its own, 44kW and 264Nm.

Combined system outputs for the Sportage are 169kW/350Nm, all of which goes to the front-wheels exclusively.

This makes the new Sportage Hybrid the most powerful variant in the entire lineup, but isn’t quite as torque-rich as the Sportage turbo-diesel, which produces a maximum of 416Nm.

But there’s a catch: the Sportage Hybrid is only available in front-wheel drive. Meanwhile, Toyota offers the RAV4 hybrid for similar money but with all-wheel-drive grip.

So what’s the key selling point for our Sportage HEV? And is this Sportage close to the benchmark set by its Toyota hybrid rival?

Over the next three months, I’ll test the lot: fuel economy and hybrid efficiency, driver and passenger comfort, overall ride quality, performance of the hybrid system, practicality and, most importantly, day-to-day livability.

Kia claims that Felipe the hybrid is capable of using just 4.9L/100km combined and as low as 4.8L/100km in urban environments. Can we get close? Well, let’s dive in and find out!