the all-new kia sportage design unveiled almost although official images of the highly anticipated
all new next-generation kia sportage are not revealed as of yet an insider report states
that the newly created rendering is pretty darn close to the actual vehicle that's on its way
since the release of the news of the impending launch of the all-new sportage a few months ago
there has been a slew of design predictions based on the spy photos of the test vehicles clad and
the heaviest camouflages however auto-hurled of korea in the january 25th issue reported that
the new rendering of the sportage by the russian prediction artist kolsa is actually 90 accurate
to what the actual production suv will look like when it is launched in the spring of 2021
and to consumers eagerly awaiting the popular suv's arrivals delight the all-new sportage
look clean and sophisticated unlike some of the earlier rendering that seem a bit polarizing
with busy and convoluted front grille and headlamp design the headlamp and the fog lamps are cleanly
integrated with the trademark tiger nose grille yet the fascia is still very futuristic with the
signature v-shape led element making a strong statement the rear is just as attractive and
clean if not more subdued than the front with the new kia logo prominently front and center
based on the corporate sibling hyundai tucson and as such mechanically similar featuring a 2.5 liter
normally aspirated four-cylinder engine mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission with the
optional all-wheel drive the fifth-generation kia sportage will be a stylish compact suv that should
be much more technologically advanced than the rivals such as honda cr-v and toyota rav4 some
of the advanced features include a pair of 10.25 inch screen used for both the infotainment and
the drivers information cluster smart park assist new driving modes to handle all sorts of driving
conditions and the ultrasonic rear occupant alert and safe exit warning for the safety of the rear
passengers and pets this is in addition to the myriad of the vehicle's safety features such as
forward collision avoidance assist lane keeping assist and lane following assist high beam assist
driver attention warning an optional blind spot collision avoidance assist rear cross traffic
collision avoidance assist highway driving assist blind spot view monitor and surround view monitor
features like these are comparable to some of the german luxury vehicles that cost thousands more
also the all-new sportage can be equipped with a hybrid plug-in hybrid and even an electric
powertrain the 2022 kia sportage hybrid will be powered by a 1.6 liter inline-four with a 44.2
kilowatt electric motor and a 1.49 kilowatt-hour battery pack for a total output of 226 horsepower
and 258 pounds to foot of torque the sportage hybrid will have all-wheel drive as standard
and said to be 30 percent more efficient than the standard sportage the plug-in hybrid model
will feature the same 1.6 liter turbo engine but has a more powerful 66.9 kilowatt electric motor
and a larger 13.8 kilowatt hour battery pack to produce a total of 261 horsepower
it also comes standard with an all-wheel drive and uses the same six-speed auto as the regular hybrid
the plug-in hybrid models will have an electric range of around 28 miles and a 2-hour recharge
time using a level 2 charger the fuel economy is expected to be around 70 miles per gallon
finally the pure electric model of sportage which will be called e-sportage like its smaller suv
sibling kia e nero will have an estimated maximum range of 310 miles or 500 kilometers
with the capability to recharge to 80 of the capacity in just 18 minutes with its 800 volts
charging architecture 2022 kia sportage will be launched sometime in the spring of 2021 with
an estimated starting price of about 24 000 the new suv king is kia sorento surprisingly
in the domestic korean market last year in 2020 the king of suv was the all-new kia sorrento
this came as a big surprise because the undisputed sales leader has always been the corporate cousin
hyundai santa fe since its release in march of 2020 kia has sold nearly 77 000 units in
2020 to take the number one position from the santa fe this is due in part to the explosion
of the sales of the hybrid model outselling even the traditionally popular diesel model
in comparison hyundai has managed to sell only 57 578 units of the newly face-lifted santa fe which
is even less than that of the larger palisade three-row suv at 64 791 units the industry experts
attribute the downfall to the updated design of the santa fe many consumers found the new
facelift design to be too eccentric and consider the new model a downgrade from the original model
even though the refreshed model included many of hyundai's latest features and technologies
that weren't available in the previous model it's ironic however that hyundai has timed
the refresh perfectly after three years from the introduction of the original model knowing
that the all-new sorrento was coming and that they tried their best to turn a three-year-old
model into something that was capable of going head-to-head with a brand new sorrento
when the refreshed santa fe was released the auto journalists in korea actually praised hyundai for
making the facelift model feel like a new car with a completely different design and all new features
however at the end of the day it appears that the overzealous facelift is backfired on hyundai
also hyundai's inability to make the hybrid engine available in 2020 due to certification reasons
has played a large role in the decline of hyundai's bread and butter suv
the new hyundai santa fe hybrid in fact will be introduced in the north american market first
in the early part of 2021 ahead of the release in korea
with a recent release of the facelifted santa fe and the all-new sorrento in north america
we wonder if the once formidable santa fe would be met with the same fate as in korea
the end of cadenza and k900 in the us anticlimactic to the hype and
the anticipation building around the upcoming all-new kia cadenza or to be called the k-8 if
it was released in the us with kia's effort to unify model naming throughout the world
kia's poor selling large sedan will meet the same fate as its corporate sibling hyundai
azera that was discontinued a generation ago in north america also being discontinued is kia's
premium rear rear-wheel drive sedan k900 which shares the platform with genesis g90
this reduces kia's sedan range to just four models that include rio forte k5 and stinger
lack of sales is attributed to the demise of the two otherwise very competent sedan models as only
1 265 units of cadenza and 305 units of k900 were sold in the north american market in 2020.
these figures are far below even stinger's 12 556 units this trend of poor sales performance
of sedans is understood to be because of the popularity of suvs to keep up with this trend
kia has added new award-winning suv models such as saltos and tellurides to the lineup
instantly boosting kia's overall sales first introduced in 2010 as a competitor to the
long-living large japanese front-wheel drive sedan such as nissan maxima and toyota avalon cadenza
will fade away into history only after 10 years in the market this news is very disappointing
as the all-new k8 was supposed to be as good as genesis g80 at the fraction of the price
our dire hope is that the excellent stinger will not be met with the same fate due to poor sales
hyundai elantra wins 2021 north american car of the year the 2021 hyundai elantra was named
winner of the 2021 north american car of the year award by the north american car utility and truck
of the year automotive or nactoy media jury this is the second time the hyundai sedan has won car
of the year after the win in 2012. only two other cars chevrolet corvette and honda civic have won
the award more than once and this marks hyundai's third car of the year category win the company's
genesis luxury brand winning with the g70 in 2019 being the third one the jurors tested and
evaluated more than 40 new vehicles before voting the top three cars utility vehicles and trucks to
be 2021 finalists the nissan sentra and genesis g80 were the other car finalists now in their
28th year the naktoy awards are selected through a series of three separate votes by a diverse jury
of automotive journalists from numerous outlets in the united states and canada jurors evaluate
the finalists based on segment leadership innovation design safety handling driver
satisfaction and value for the dollar founded in 1994 these awards are the longest-running
new vehicle awards not associated with a single publication website radio or television station
because of the jurors independence these awards are among the most respected in the industry
so this concludes the second iteration of the korean car rumor mill a series dedicated
to giving you the fastest and the most accurate korean car news and rumors thank you for watching
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