Top-selling Kia Sportage facelift revealed at LA Auto Show

A facelift for the Kia Sportage, which is closing in on the Ford Puma for the title of UK’s best-selling car in 2024, has been shown in LA.

A facelift for the Kia Sportage, which has rapidly been closing in on the Ford Puma for the title of UK’s best-selling car in 2024, has been revealed at the LA Auto Show.

For 2025 and beyond, the Kia Sportage gets a distinctive new front end, that brings it into line with the World Car Award-winning Kia EV9 and hotly-anticipated new Kia EV3.

The vertical ‘Star Map’ LED daytime running lights frame stacked LED headlights, while the grille is bolder and more distinctive. While the lighting is amber on the US-spec cars pictured here, UK cars will have bright white vertical LED lighting.

There are also new LED ‘Star Map’ translucent tail lamps, which have a more jewel-like appearance.

Kia says the front and rear bumpers have been updated too, while there will be a fresh, bold-looking range of 17-inch, 18-inch and 19-inch alloy wheels.

Cutting-edge infotainment

Inside, the new Kia Sportage receives a fully overhauled infotainment system with a curved panoramic display featuring dual 12.3-inch screens.

The new setup is Kia’s Connected Car Navigation Cockpit, or ccNC, which has over-the-air updates, intelligent cloud-based sat nav, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus the Kia Connect smartphone app.

The system also supports a digital key, meaning owners don’t have to carry a key fob – they can unlock and start the vehicle using their smartphone. They can share the digital key with others, too.

The new Kia Sportage is also available with a 10.0-inch head-up display that, on hybrid and PHEV models, actually incorporates Apple CarPlay and Android Auto turn-by-turn navigation instructions. 

There’s a smart new two-spoke steering wheel, while Kia says the multi-function touchpad that sits below the infotainment screen is now more natural to use.

Kia has replaced the gloss black trim with more fingerprint-resistant materials, too.

Choice of engines

As before, the new Kia Sportage will offer a broad array of engines, including regular mild hybrid petrol ICE plus HEV hybrid and PHEV plug-in hybrid.

The turbo engine in the HEV and PHEV has a little more power, while the regular ICE now has an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

The UK Kia Sportage will comprise 2, 3 and 4 trim lines, plus sportier-looking GT-Line and GT-Line S.

It’s likely to arrive in the UK by summer 2025, with prices unlikely to rise significantly from today’s entry level of just over £29,000.

Will the arrival of the new Kia Sportage coincide with the current one becoming the best-selling new car in the UK? We’ll find out in just a few weeks…

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Richard Aucock
Richard Aucockhttps://www.richardaucock.co.uk/
Richard is director at Motoring Research. He has been with us since 2001, and has been a motoring journalist even longer. He won the IMCO Motoring Writer of the Future Award in 1996 and the acclaimed Sir William Lyons Award in 1998. Both awards are run by the Guild of Motoring Writers and Richard is currently vice chair of the world's largest organisation for automotive media professionals. Richard is also a juror for World Car Awards and the UK juror for the AUTOBEST awards.

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