And now they all fit – Kia Sorento Premium AWD Hybrid
The multi-award winning seven-seat Kia Sorento looks well set to take on some more silverware when it comes to the new PHEV model – Premium spec – for the Korean flagship.
Kia’s designers have made concerted attempts to bring the seven-seat Sorento into the tiger-nose grille family properly but this time, they’ve hit a home run.
At one point for example, the Sorento was touted as an exemplary towing vehicle. Today, while the Sorento is still a capable hauler, its forte is understated, efficient luxury people moving and while the conventionally-powered Sorento is good at this, the Plug-In Electric Hybrid (PHEV), is so much better.
The Kia Sorento PHEV uses what is known as a parallel hybrid drive combining a 66.9kW / 304Nm electric motor linked to a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol conventional engine with its 195kW / 350Nm output, sharing a 13.8-kilowatt hour lithium-ion polymer battery pack.
This enables Kia to claim a 1.6 litre per 100km fuel figure with 36 g/km CO2 output overall, splitting the figures through its purely electric mode and its turbo-petrol engine.
You’ll get close on 60km on pure electric (more than most would need) and a healthy 650km-plus on recycled dino-juice.
Charge time seemed to be on the order of 3.5 to 4 hours on a standard 10-amp house-plug, which means you don’t have to know every charging station around town, you just need to cultivate the ‘’switch off, charge up and lock’’ habit at the end of the working day.
Sorento has a total of four hybrid models starting at $63,990 and ending at $82,990 and two Plug-In hybrid versions: an EX AWD – the qualifying model for the Clean Car Rebate – and the AWD Premium tested, at $89,990.
Overall, Sorento has a 10-model range, providing buyers with plenty of options to suit their lifestyles.
Under its Premium spec’ level, the Kia Sorento has more kit onboard than we have space to write about it, but we would be remiss not to point out its 10.25” colour LED touchscreen.
This controls the 12 speaker Bose sound system and serves as the display for the included satellite navigation and around view monitor which supplements the reversing camera.
As far as safety goes, there are 26 safety features/systems onboard the Sorento, which well and truly wraps up the five-star ANCAP rating,
All seven seats are leather with seat heaters and coolers up front which also feature dual memory settings, while second row occupants get heated seats as well.
Rear most passengers get their own air conditioning controls and for ease of access to the back seats the centre row 60/40 seats flip forward with the tug of a lever from the back.
There are seven USB chargers throughout the Sorento, these almost taking the place of cupholders from 15 years ago, when you could never have enough of these. Sorento has plenty by the way.
Sorento runs a rotary dial 6-speed transmission allowing efficient application of the part-time-with- lock-mode, all-wheel-drive system.
There is also a combination Drive mode / Terrain mode selector switch, affording the ability for the Sorento to operate in on road Comfort, Eco, Sport or Smart modes and tackle off-road mud, snow or sandy terrains with just the twist of a selector knob.
The lowered centre of gravity, additional weight of a well-positioned battery pack (with seven-year /160,000km warranty) and the intelligent use of conservative 19-inch wheels, gives the Sorento is a smooth, stable and well-controlled drive which, while it may not be a sportscar, is certainly impressive at higher speeds and more spirited driving styles.
Kia Sorento is certainly a fantastic vehicle choice for early adopters.
Specifications:
BODY TYPE 5 door, 7 seat SUV
DRIVE All wheel/ 6-speed auto
ENGINE TYPE 4-cylinder, turbo petrol
ENGINE CAPACITY 1598cc
MAX POWER 169kW
MAX TORQUE 350Nm
L/100KM (COMBINED) 6.1
CO2 EMISSIONS 141 g/km
LOAD CAPACITY 608 to 1996 litres
ANCAP RATING 5 Star
PRICE $82,990
