2025 Kia Sportage facelift gets early reveal in Korea
The updated Sportage gets a new look and revised hybrid powertrain
We were expecting the new Kia Sportage to arrive this month, but not so soon. Thanks to its unveiling in Korea, we have an early look at the big-selling SUV, showcasing a new look for the exterior and interior, new technology and a fresh hybrid offering.
The fifth-generation Sportage arrived in 2021 and has been a regular fixture in the top 10 list of best-selling cars here in the UK. Kia is looking to make the Sportage even more appealing with this mid-life update, which it’ll need to be, with plenty of rivals including Hyundai’s sister model, the Tucson, plus the Ford Kuga, Volkswagen Tiguan, Renault Austral and Toyota RAV4.
While these pictures show a Korean-market car, we expect the UK model to look almost identical, aside from the Korean model's longer wheelbase. Up front there’s a new headlight design, which apes the ‘star map’ style we’ve seen on the Kia EV3, EV5 and even the Picanto city car. There’s also a new grille and bumper to go with additional foglights in the lower section.
Further changes can be seen down the side of the Sportage with new alloy wheels (in a choice of 17, 18 and 19-inch sizes), while the rear pillar is a different design to the UK market Sportage. The side skirt is new for the 2025 car, too, and at the rear there are fresh lights and a redesigned bumper.
The twin 12.3-inch curved screens on the dash are carried over from higher-specification versions of the outgoing Sportage, although the positioning of the air vents and overall dash design is much simpler. The familiar panel of dedicated controls for the climate control and radio are still located in the lower portion of the dash. The two-spoke steering wheel with the offset Kia logo is taken from the similarly sized all-electric EV3, and Kia has removed the piano black material from the centre console.
The company has also fiddled with the Sportage’s powertrain line-up for the 2025 model. There’s still an entry-level mild-hybrid, but it now has 178bhp rather than 157bhp and it comes with a six-speed automatic transmission sending power to all four wheels. Above this is an LPG offering that we assume won’t come to the UK, while topping the range is a 178bhp 1.6-litre full-hybrid model with front-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox.
The current Sportage is offered with 212bhp and 246bhp plug-in hybrid powertrains, and while there’s no word on these yet, we expect them to be carried over for the new car. Pricing hasn’t been discussed either, but expect a slight increase over the current Sportage’s starting price of £29,390.
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