Kia will no longer offer purely petrol and diesel engines in its Sportage range as the brand alters the line-up to be hybrid-only, a new report reveals.
The secret appears to have been leaked and picked up by Korean media outlet ET News which reports that the new sixth-generation of the mid-sized SUV will be offered solely with a hybrid system when it arrives in 2027.
“Kia has started the development project for the 6th generation completely changed model of the Sportage (project name NQ6),” the report reads.
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“The target date for the new car launch is the 3rd quarter of 2027.”
Two hybrid systems will be offered according to the report. A regular hybrid system (HEV) and also a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) system.
In Australia the Kia Sportage is currently in its fifth generation with a choice of four powertrains: a 2.0-litre petrol engine; a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine; a 2.0-turbo-diesel engine; and there’s the current hybrid which combines a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine with an electric motor.
ET News didn't have any other details to offer apart from the hybrid system being an all-new generation and able to deliver even more fuel efficiency with an electric driving range of up to 100 kilometres.
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CarsGuide has reached out to Kia Australia to confirm the details of the report and to verify if Australia will also have a Sportage line-up that is hybrid only. The company is yet to comment.
Streamlining the Sportage line-up to be hybrid-only would make a lot of sense. Over the past 12 months there has been a downturn globally in the uptake of electric vehicles and car companies are pushing their hybrid models even more. In 2024 Toyota Australia made almost all of its models available with hybrid systems only including the Sportage’s key rival, the popular RAV4.
Australia now appears to have a hybrid family SUV war on its hands with the Sportage going up against other hybrid rivals including Mitsubishi's Outlander, Hyundai's Tucson and Nissan's X-Trail.
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A contender which also looks to be strong is the new-gen Mazda CX-5 which will launch this year using a hybrid system shared with Toyota, and the next-generation Subaru Forester which will also use a Toyota-derived (but heavily tweaked) hybrid transmission.
The Sportage is the best-selling model for Kia in Australia. Last year sales of the mid-size SUV totalled 22,210 making it not only the most popular Kia but the tenth most popular vehicle in Australia for 2024. The results sounds good but it's less than half of the Toyota RAV4’s 58,718 sales for with the same year.
