Kia Sorento Hybrid EX Review Continued: Competitive Features, Reasonable Price, And Great MPG

I just completed a one week rental of a Kia Sorento Hybrid EX on the island of Kauai. As Kia’s lowest price hybrid 3-row SUV (at around $36K MSRP), I immediately noticed it delivers excellent fuel economy for such a large, heavy vehicle. For the 300 miles of driving we did, our average fuel economy was 41.6 mpg. But how did the Sorento hybrid feature set and performance stand-up?

For the sake of comparison I am still using my plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Sorento as the primary benchmark against the hybrid (HEV) Sorento because shoppers often ask about this scenario on social media and because my SX-P Sorento PHEV is at the other end of the pricing spectrum (being the most expensive Sorento one can buy). First, let's look at acceleration. Realistically speaking there isn’t much difference since even though the HEV EX Sorento has a less powerful electric motor compared to the PHEV version, it also weighs about 300-400 lbs less. Thus, the only real differences you are likely to notice in this performance aspect would be either when punching the accelerator pretty much to the floor (something people hopefully don’t need to do that often) or, much more noticeable, in slower speed acceleration scenarios like going from a stop up to 30 mph where the more powerful electric motor in the PHEV will have an advantage. I’ll point out though that that advantage is easily missed if one doesn’t keep the PHEV’s “tach” in the Eco zone (i.e. if you press down on the accelerator too far, the gas engine fires up and as such you’ll sacrifice any fuel economy advantage you gain in the PHEV for that “thrill” of slightly faster acceleration). Still, as MotorTrend points out in its separate reviews of the HEV and PHEV versions of the Sorento, the PHEV could accelerate to 60 mph 1 second faster (at 7.4 vs 8.4 seconds). If those kinds of performance details matter to you in your family hauler, then now you know. In the majority of driving situations, like more gradual acceleration due to traffic or a lower speed limit on neighborhood streets, the two have very similar performance. Handling wise, the two are also very familiar though the extra weight of the batteries in the PHEV can be felt, a little bit, when going around corners with what seemed to me to be just a skosh more body lean in the PHEV than the HEV. MotorTrend also points out that the PHEV takes one extra foot (just 12 inches) more to come to a stop from 60 mph, too. Content wise, the EX is a lower trim than my SX-P so there is obviously going to be less in the EX and as such I am just going to focus on what I miss from our SX-P, and why, and list other differences briefly. Here’s what the EX was missing that I immediately noticed since I use them daily in my SX-P: no 360 degree camera! I use it daily on my SX-P for parking in a tight garage or in any parking lots where there are vehicles next to me. The EX only has a backup camera. No power folding mirrors in the EX, which is again something I use almost daily while parking in that tight garage. One thing this EX had that my particular SX-P does not: a panoramic sunroof! It was an option on SX-P that I didn’t get. The EX has 17” wheels and taller 65 series tires compared to 19” and lower profile 55 series tires in my SX-P (which helped the ride feel just a little more “cushy” in the EX, but this was a minor difference really). The EX has a much smaller digital instrument display (at 4.2 inches) than the SX-P PHEV, but that is purely an aesthetic difference if you ask me. The EX’s display is perfectly functional and easy to read/looks good. The EX only has a 6 speaker sound system compared to the 12 speaker Bose Premium system in the SX-P, but honestly other than a less pronounced base response, at least from the driver’s seat, I didn’t notice a huge difference. Then again, I wasn’t blasting the tunes at high volume very much in the EX since I had a car load full of people almost all the time. The EX doesn’t have one-touch auto up/down for any windows other than the driver’s. That was of a minor concern on rainy Kauai when trying to quickly raise the windows when it suddenly started raining (love those tropical showers). The EX has synthetic leather seats, and no ventilated seat function. This is something I might have appreciated in the humid warmth of Kauai, but honestly was no big deal since the AC kicks on quickly and powerfully so the only difference I might point out is that at low speed cruising with the windows down, cooled seats might have been more energy efficient than using the AC, but it would be a negligible difference and may not be any more effective at cooling us off. Finally, the EX was FWD only, versus AWD in my SX-P. I don’t think I even noticed a difference, but to be fair I wasn’t driving in anything worse than a heavy downpour or a slightly rutted/potholed dirt road (something one hardly needs AWD for). Other more important things missing from the EX: no blind spot view monitor on the instrument panel (the EX only has red-orange indicator lights built into the side view mirrors), parking collision-avoidance assist-reverse (which will stop the SX-P before hitting any detected obstacles while backing up) as well as some other collision avoidance features only available on the SX-P. Regardless of those missing features, what the EX does offer is fairly comprehensive and certainly competitive, if not leading, for competing models in its price range (and higher). Finally, a little more about fuel efficiency. In my 9,000 miles of driving in my SX-P PHEV, I have a lifetime fuel efficiency of 69.4 to date. However, I have used only about 100 gallons of gas to cover those miles, so one could say my gas mileage is more like 90 mpg. Of course that would disregard all the electricity I used too, or 60% of the total (thus the 69.4 figure the vehicle has calculated). I generate a lot more electricity than I consume in my SX-P from the solar panels on my roof though, so in a way it isn’t wrong to say I get about 90 mpg in my PHEV. Yet, if one simply wants to know “how much gas does the PHEV use when the gas engine is running?”, my self calculated figure over 9,000 miles is: 36.4 mpg. For comparison, the HEV got 41.6 mpg (always using gas of course since it can’t plug in) over 300 miles. In a place that never has truly cold temperatures, like Kauai, I might expect that 41.6 mpg to be a pretty consistent figure. I live in the Seattle area which has some sub freezing temperatures and is generally much cooler than Kauai, except in the 3-4 warmest months of the year. My SX-P is also AWD (which means lower fuel efficiency). Thus my fuel economy figure in the PHEV is negatively impacted by the cold weather driving I must do too, as we need to burn gas for heat in the PHEV and the cold temps also mean the hybrid battery is less efficient/covers approximately 10-20% fewer miles than in the warm months. Had I been driving 9,000 miles in my PHEV on Kauai, I expect my lifetime to date fuel efficiency would be closer to 40 mpg. Regardless, you can see that the standard HEV variant is more fuel efficient, running on gas. Which would you pick, if you were trying to make a decision between the two, and why? Please leave any questions or comments below. Images courtesy of Justin Hart Justin Hart has owned and driven electric vehicles for over 15 years, including a first generation Nissan LEAF, second generation Chevy Volt, Tesla Model 3, an electric bicycle and most recently a Kia Sorento PHEV. He is also an avid SUP rider, poet, photographer and wine lover. He enjoys taking long EV and PHEV road trips to beautiful and serene places with the people he loves. Follow Justin on Twitter for daily KIA EV news coverage.