Kia launches Sportage facelift to accelerate SUV boom

Kia Corp., South Korea’s No. 2 automaker, on Monday unveiled a facelift of its Sportage to boost the sport utility vehicle (SUV) craze in the country.

Kia introduced the new Sportage, an enhanced model of the compact SUV with updated styling, overhauled interior and better performance in Seoul.

“The new Sportage actively reflects customer feedback to improve its marketability and add new convenience features,” said a Kia official.

The affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co. has sold 7.7 million units of the Sportage since its launch in 1993.

The SUV was the No. 3 best-selling model in the first 10 months of the year, helping Kia claim the third spot on the country’s popular car list.

The new Sportage is available with three trims in South Korea – a 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline engine model with an eight-speed automatic transmission, a hybrid version and a 2.0-liter liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) engine model.

For the hybrid model, Kia improved its motor power while allowing the driver to control the regenerative brake with a paddle shifter.

DRIVING MONITORING SYSTEM

The new Sportage is Kia’s first model launched in South Korea equipped with a driver monitoring system.

The safety feature with a camera monitors a driver's behavior and warns or alerts him/her when he/she becomes distracted or drowsy long enough to lose situational awareness or full attention to the task of driving.

The SUV is also equipped with other safety functions such as a heads-up display, advanced highway driving assist and lane following assist, smart cruise control and forward collision-avoidance assist.

The enhanced model of the fifth-generation Sportage launched in 2021 has a new front fascia with restyled light-emitting diode (LED) headlights inspired by the flagship electric SUV EV9, revised bumpers and a new LED tail-light signature.

The new Sportage’s interior emphasizes a horizontal layout to maximize the vehicle’s spaciousness. It has a 12.3-inch panoramic curved display equipped with the connected car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC), Hyundai Motor Group’s new infotainment system.

Kia has also adopted a fingerprint authentication system for its console.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.