2024 Kia Sportage PHEV new owner

CharlieR said:

Hi Everyone, new poster from North Georgia. Im about to buy a 2024 Sportage phev and have been avidly reading this website to get more information on what i can expect. Been reading about some of you having issues with the 12v battery running out and car shutdown, that has me a bit worried.
I also have some questions on whether most of you use the ev mode until battery runs out or switch of it before it gets to that point.
This will be my first Kia, I am old so have driven many different car makers, starting with the Plymouth Cricket to my current Mazda CX5
Any advice on what to watch out or expect will be glady appreciate it.
thanks
CharlieR

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Hi Charlie, I’ve had my 2024 Sportage PHEV since mid-March. No battery problems at all. Most of my driving is relatively short trips 15-40 miles. I almost always just leave it on EV mode. It switches over seamlessly, so it’s no big deal when it runs out of battery power and moves to hybrid mode. The only time I bother trying to switch modes manually is when I have a longer highway trip with non-highway driving at the end. Then I try to save some battery to use off the highway. The beauty of the PHEV is that it works great in both modes, so it doesn’t really matter all that much. But I get a kick out of trying to optimize battery usage and try to get home with no excess battery left.

Sallyh said:

Hi Charlie, I’ve had my 2024 Sportage PHEV since mid-March. No battery problems at all. Most of my driving is relatively short trips 15-40 miles. I almost always just leave it on EV mode. It switches over seamlessly, so it’s no big deal when it runs out of battery power and moves to hybrid mode. The only time I bother trying to switch modes manually is when I have a longer highway trip with non-highway driving at the end. Then I try to save some battery to use off the highway. The beauty of the PHEV is that it works great in both modes, so it doesn’t really matter all that much. But I get a kick out of trying to optimize battery usage and try to get home with no excess battery left.

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I'm going to be taking my new Sportage PHeV to Denver (from PHX) in about a month. I'm going to use this trick (use HEV for the highway to save some battery for city driving at the end). I will only have the slow level 1 charger at the Air bnb so I'd like to arrive with at least some juice in the battery.

I've also read (I think on this forum) that driving in SPORT mode on the highway actually replenishes the battery -- as opposed to just keeping it at the same level. I'll try that too.

We purchased a '25 Sportage Prestige PHEV a couple months ago. We have a couple thousand miles on this vehicle. We have had reasonably cold weather, but using the heated seats feature as our only source of heat when running on pure EV, the ICE has yet to come on. The vast majority of our daily driving is local, and with our level 2 home charging system we only use gasoline for longer distance driving - making sure we exhaust the 34 miles of electric range in the process. We have owned regular hybrid vehicles for several years so we are used to operating our PHEV pretty efficiently when in hybrid mode. We get between 34 and 35 mpg when using the internal combustion engine (hybrid mode) only. We spent a little more for the Prestige trim and enjoy the many safety and comfort features it offers. No regrets so far.

I'm picking up my Sportage (prestige) PHEV on Thursday this week. It's my first time owning a hybrid and my first time owning an EV. Took me long enough! I'm looking forward to testing it out and seeing how it compares. I start with a long road trip so I won't get that EV benefit but once I get back home, most of my driving should be mostly EV.

pd119534 said:

I'm picking up my Sportage (prestige) PHEV on Thursday this week. It's my first time owning a hybrid and my first time owning an EV. Took me long enough! I'm looking forward to testing it out and seeing how it compares. I start with a long road trip so I won't get that EV benefit but once I get back home, most of my driving should be mostly EV.

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Sounds like my use for it too.. Use it mostly for going to the store and run small errands close to home, so it's mostly EV use. But we also use it to make long trips as the BEV just isn't there for that yet, but once they open up the tesla chargers, then it will be a different game.