Kia Sportage and Sorento petrol SUVs to continue despite brand's 100k EV sales milestone

Kia has now sold more than 100,000 electric cars in the UK, but president and CEO Paul Philpott insists the company will continue to sell combustion cars for as long as there is demand – cementing the future of the firm’s popular Sportage and Sorento SUVs.

The maker’s rapid rise in the EV market began in late 2014, but it took more than four years for Kia to sell 1,000 zero-emission models. From there, and thanks largely to the launch of the first-generation e-Niro, Kia was catapulted to fame alongside the electric-car elite; it sold almost 7,500 EVs in 2020, peaking at 21,934 cars last year.

Despite this success, Philpott remains realistic about overall EV appetite and insists Kia will continue to offer a range of powertrains until it is forced not to. In an exclusive interview, the UK president told Auto Express: “Across Europe we’ve introduced K4, so the evidence is there that we continue to invest in ICE. I can’t tell you how long that will go on for, but we will go on selling non-EVs for as long as we can.”

Asking Philpott what that meant for key products like the big-selling Sportage mid-size SUV and the firm’s Sorento seven-seater, he said: “Clearly Sportage is a very important product for us. It’s European produced and has been our best seller for a long time. We won’t just leave it there to age.”

Philpott insisted, however, that while “there is a role for ICE products through to the end of 2029”, increasing ZEV targets – should they stay as they are – will force him to “restrict what [Kia UK sells] as ICE products”. 

It’s likely the maker will prioritise an all-new Sportage in the next 12 to 18 months; we’ve already seen the SUV’s Hyundai Tucson sister car testing, suggesting Kia’s next-generation Nissan Qashqai rival is being prepared behind the scenes. Expect it to get an evolutionary look incorporating Kia’s ‘Opposites United’ design philosophy, pulling it closer to the company’s electric vehicles despite its hybrid-only engine line-up.

Speaking of which, we can expect Kia to continue with its offer of hybrid and plug-in hybrid engines – with lower emissions and (for the PHEV) longer electric range. The pure-petrol models are likely to be dropped; in a separate conversation, Philpott mentioned that the UK will “only take Seltos as a hybrid”. The sub-Sportage Seltos SUV is due in Europe in petrol and HEV forms imminently.

While Philpott wouldn’t divulge details on a future Sorento successor, given the large SUV’s popularity in North America – the US accounts for more than 25 per cent of global Sorento sales – we’d expect a revised model to also be in the works. It might even beat the Sportage to market, given that it’s been on sale since 2020.

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