2025 Kia Sportage Plug-in Hybrid

We made the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid a Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Award winner for its class. Twice. Once for 2023, the year it came out, and again for 2024. We like the almost-luxury appeal of the quiet and high-quality cabin, smooth ride quality, and unsurpassed warranties.

Kia has built a great package with this plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). It can travel for up to 34 miles using just battery power, so owners can run it as an electric SUV for much of the time, only leaning on the gasoline engine when necessary.

The gasoline-only 2025 Sportage and non-plug-in 2025 Sportage Hybrid each have their own review.

We’ve logged hundreds of hours driving and evaluating this generation of PHEV SUVs, including the Kia Sportage Plug-in Hybrid.

Both trims gain black exterior elements, including badges, plus a black satin finish to the alloy wheels.

The X-Line sells a little more than the X-Line Prestige, but we still recommend spending the extra, if finances allow, to gain more safety and luxury features. The Sportage Plug-in Hybrid comes in at a high point in the entire Sportage lineup. The regular hybrid kicks off just under $30K.

The Hyundai Tucson Plug-in Hybrid is a sister vehicle to this Kia, starting just below, while the Toyota RAV4 Prime begins a fraction above.

Before buying a new Sportage Plug-in Hybrid compact SUV, check the Kelley Blue Book Fair Purchase Price to know what you should really pay. Resale values are around average for the class. Recouping more money when selling a vehicle can mean a bigger down payment and lower monthly payments on the next one.

When we were testing contenders for this category of our Best Buy Awards, we kept coming back to the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid. Even to the point of looking at it across the parking lot occasionally and thinking: “Yeah, this is the one.” And that’s despite the Toyota RAV4 Prime having 302 horsepower against this Kia’s 261 horses, or that the Hyundai Tucson Plug-in Hybrid has the same drivetrain as its Sportage PHEV counterpart.

We like how the chassis seems to flow — comfortable yet controlled, smooth and settled. And this amount of muscle is ample. There’s plenty available when it’s time to overtake, grab a gap in traffic, or ascend that steep hill. We’ve found the Sportage PHEV easy to live with and appreciate its quiet cabin, while the transitions from electric to gasoline power hardly register with us at all — that’s not something we can say about every plug-in hybrid. One other little detail that also registered with us: The audio system reduces volume automatically when reverse gear is selected, so the driver’s concentration isn’t affected.

Fuel Economy

Factor in the 34 miles travelled using just the battery, the Sportage Plug-In Hybrid is capable of 84 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) in combined city/highway driving. When operating as a regular hybrid, it achieves 35 mpg combined; all-wheel-drive versions of the Sportage Hybrid (not plug-in) run to 38 mpg combined. To compare, the RAV4 Prime is rated at 42 miles in electric mode, 94 MPGe/38 mpg combined.

Although a member of the compact SUV class, the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid is heading toward midsize territory. The result is a spacious cabin that outdoes the Toyota RAV4 Prime. The collective opinion of our reviewers is that the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid’s interior melds luxury with sportiness and technology.

Plus a fair bit of ingenuity. For example, when not being used to hold drinks, the center console’s cupholder area can transform into a storage place for larger items. Then there’s the one control that can either adjust the audio volume or the cabin temperature, depending on which mode is selected. We applaud the idea and the intention of keeping things as tidy as possible, but we’d gladly accept dedicated controls for each function because we don’t want to think about those modes when we’re driving.

We have nothing but praise, though, for the swish unit that houses dual instrument cluster/infotainment displays, the 39.5 inches of rear legroom, and the 34.5 cubic feet of luggage space behind the rear seats. The other Sportage variants have more rear legroom and cargo space, admittedly, but they don’t have this PHEV’s larger battery. This is still objectively roomy and bigger than the RAV4 Prime.

It seems we’re in a golden age of compact SUV design. All that designed-by-committee stuff seems behind us, now that we have striking lookers like the current Kia Sportage lineup. In our imagination, that little euphoric buzz whenever we walk up to the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid and press the fob’s Unlock button would always be there. We mentioned that the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid is almost a midsize SUV. In reality, it’s about 3.5 inches longer than the Toyota RAV4 Prime.

Plug-in hybrid drivetrain
It isn’t just the fuel economy and lower emissions that makes a plug-in hybrid so interesting; it’s also the extra thrust from the electric side. And Kia covers it with a 10-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Dual displays
These 12.3-inch screens (one for the driver, one for the infotainment system) are set into a single panoramic unit and contribute to the cabin’s contemporary feel. They’re only standard in the top X-Line Prestige, though. The more affordable X-Line has the same size infotainment touchscreen, but a 12.2-inch LCD instrument cluster.

Drive Wise
This is the name of Kia’s set of driver aids. We’ve noticed how well things like adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance work in the Sportage PHEV, as they do across the company’s portfolio.

Powered tailgate
This standard item comes with programmable heights and can open automatically when it detects the key nearby.

Blind-Spot View Monitor
Included with the X-Line Prestige, this adds real-time video down either side of the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid (depending on which direction the turn signal is going), giving drivers a greater awareness of traffic when chasing lanes or turning. This is one of those features we really miss when it’s not around.

Harman Kardon audio
We’re always happy to see — and hear — a Harman Kardon system. They’re often found in BMW vehicles, so that’s how posh Kia can be. It’s standard in the top X-Line Prestige model.

A turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder gasoline engine joins two electric motors to create a total output of 261 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, making this plug-in hybrid the most powerful Sportage. Energy goes to a standard all-wheel-drive system through a 6-speed automatic transmission.

It takes two hours to give the battery a full recharge using a 240-volt supply.

5-Year/60,000-Mile Warranty

Kia offers unbeatable warranties. New-car coverage is five years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first (a typical warranty here is three years or 36,000 miles). The powertrain warranty lasts 10 years or 100,000 miles, much better than most competitors. The hybrid battery is also covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles.

Safety Ratings

This generation of Sportage (regardless of drivetrain) has been named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the institute’s second-highest accolade. Standard safety features in the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid SUV include forward collision warning with pedestrian/cyclist detection, blind-spot monitoring, and lane-keeping assistance.