Kia Sportage - MPG, CO2 and running costs

​You can get your Kia Sportage in mild-hybrid petrol, full-hybrid, and plug-in hybrid forms, giving everyone from family buyers to business users and everyone else in between a Sportage to suit their driving needs.

The 157bhp 1.6 T-GDi petrol returns up to 44.1mpg on the WLTP combined cycle. Although these figures seem reasonable in isolation, they can’t compete with the more economical full-hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants. It’s worth bearing in mind that improved overall efficiency comes at a price, and the cheapest PHEV model — in GT-Line trim — is significantly more expensive to buy than the equivalent petrol model.

The full-hybrid starts from around £35,500 in GT-Line trim and, depending on specification, manages up to 51.4mpg and 132g/km of CO2.

Tax

Company car drivers will find the plug-in hybrid the most appealing due to its low Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax rate — although an electric car will be far lower still. CO2 emissions of 25g/km, allowing this version to fall into the 8 per cent BiK bracket. 

The mild-hybrid and full-hybrid versions will be more costly for company car drivers, the 157bhp 1.6 T-GDi emits 146g/km and falling into the 34 per cent bracket, while the hybrid 1.6 HEV emits 129g/km and is in the 30 per cent band. 

For private buyers, most of the Sportage petrol and hybrid range (except for the GT-Line S hybrid and GT-Line S AWD versions) avoid the surcharge for cars costing more than £40,000 when new. Unfortunately, none of the plug-in hybrid PHEV models do, so these will cost significantly more to tax from the second year of registration, up until the car is six-years old.

Electric range, battery life and charge time

Thanks to its 13.8kWh battery, the plug-in hybrid Sportage has a fully electric range of up to 42 miles. Charging the battery at home using a 7.4kW wall box charger takes around two hours. The battery is covered by a separate warranty that guarantees it’ll maintain above 70 per cent capacity over seven years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

Insurance groups

Insurance premiums for the Sportage shouldn’t be too expensive. Entry-level petrol-powered Sportages in ‘2’ trim starts in insurance group 19 out of 50, while the range-topping GT-Line PHEV four-wheel drive sits in group 27.

None of these insurance groups is alarmingly high for a car in this class, but the closely related Hyundai Tuscon is actually cheaper to insure than the Kia, as this starts in group 16, as does the Ford Kuga.

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Depreciation 

Our data suggests that the Sportage should hold onto a decent chunk of its value over a typical three-year/36,000-mile ownership period. On average, you should see around a 47 to 56 per cent return on the original list price after this time, with the full-hybrid versions being the best performers. In comparison, the Hyundai Tucson is just behind the Sportage in terms of residual values, retaining around 46-50 per cent.

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