Now entering its fourth-generation, the new Kia Sportage compact SUV builds comprehensively on the success of the outgoing model, offering an innovative and sophisticated package to buyers in an increasingly competitive market. The new-look interior features high quality materials and design integrity, as well as great practicality and a range of technologies to improve comfort, convenience, connectivity and safety. A range of new and updated engines and transmissions will result in enhanced efficiency and performance, while ride, handling and refinement are all improved.
For the first time, a new 'GT Line' specification is available to Sportage customers. Designed and engineered to appeal to those looking for a sportier driving experience from their Sportage, the GT Line specification delivers all the versatility of the standard Sportage while adding greater visual and dynamic appeal to those customers that desire it.
The fourth-generation Kia Sportage features a bold new look, with the vehicle's designers creating a sense of sporty and powerful energy from every angle. The design of the new Sportage has been led by Kia's European design studio in Frankfurt, Germany, with input from the brand's Namyang, Korea and Irvine, California design centres.
Echoing the contrast of smooth and sharp shapes found on some of the most iconic modern fighter jets, the Sportage creates visual harmony out of the tension between sharp, defined feature lines and smooth surfacing.
The attractive 'face' of the Sportage features the biggest change to the car's design over the outgoing model, with Kia's hallmark 'tiger-nose' grille and the car's headlamps separated for the new model. The headlamps are now positioned higher, sweeping back along the outer edges of the sharply-detailed bonnet. A lower, wider grille - enlarged to support greater engine cooling - adds more volume to the lower half of the Sportage's face. The result is a more imposing appearance and a more stable-looking stance, despite the new model retaining the same 1,855 mm width as its predecessor. GT Line models develop the exterior look further, featuring new 'ice-cube' LED fog lamps, inspired by those found on the high-powered cee'd GT, and aluminium-effect skid plates.
The range of gasoline engines is made up of a 1.6-litre GDI (gasoline direct injection) engine and the brand's latest 1.6-litre T-GDI power unit.
The GDI engine, producing 132 ps and 161 Nm torque, is carried over directly from the third-generation Sportage. With the car's numerous upgrades for the latest model - such as improved aerodynamic efficiency - and the adoption of Kia's ISG system, this engine promises lower emissions and fuel consumption.
The 'Gamma' 1.6-litre T-GDI engine is based on the same unit powering the Kia cee'd GT and pro_cee'd GT, offering greater and more emotive engine performance for keener drivers. Available exclusively on the Sportage GT Line, the 1.6-litre T-GDI engine boasts a range of upgrades to ensure it meets owners' demands for quicker accelerative response, greater fuel efficiency and easier access to engine torque. Producing 177 ps - and peak 265 Nm torque from 1,500-4,500 rpm - the T-GDI engine features a new single-scroll turbocharger with electronic wastegate actuator for quicker engine response and better economy under acceleration.
Further boosting efficiency, the 1.6-litre T-GDI engine receives a new high-energy ignition coil, higher-tumble intake ports, a low-friction timing chain and marginally higher compression ratio (from 9.5:0 in the cee'd GT to 10.0:0 in the new Sportage).
Diesel engines account for the lion's share of Sportage models sold in Europe, and the new model will continue to offer the 115 ps 1.7-litre CRDi engine - carried over from the third-generation model - and a significantly-upgraded 2.0-litre 'R' power unit, establishing a step forward in terms of fuel economy, performance and NVH over the outgoing Sportage and other C-SUV rivals.
The 2.0-litre turbodiesel is available with two power outputs - 136 ps with 373 Nm torque, and 184 ps with 400 Nm - with both benefiting from a 5 kg lighter engine block, up-to-date battery management system, continuously variable displacement oil pump - which senses and modifies oil pressure in real-time - and a new oil filter module.