You’re most welcome Matt! And
You’re most welcome Matt! And I am pleased that my pieces on the Sorento PHEV gives you hope! To answer your question: yes, pushing the accelerator down further than about 50-60% of the way to its max will also cause the gas engine to fire up. I love the same thing about the Volt as you, and miss having the same behavior in my Sorento PHEV. I think GM designed the best possible EV mode, in the Volt, and wish other brands followed their lead. That said, I haven’t found it too difficult to adjust to the different way that Sorento PHEV behaves. I know if I need to speed up as fast as possible, I am going to need gas. I know I have to drive it gently, to keep it in EV mode. But on the flip side, and this REALLY is an example of one way I think the Kia Sorento operates better than the Volt… the Sorento PHEV is very smooth, and is certainly at its most powerful and “thrilling” if you will, when it is operating in hybrid mode, whereas the Volt always drove better in pure EV mode. The Volt felt buzzy, often demonstrated less responsive handling, and had a sort of throbbing response to accelerator use when operating on gas. The Sorento isn’t like that at all. I guess that is due to the different approach GM and Kia took to integrating the gas and electric motors. Ideally, Kia will upgrade its electric motors with another 30-60 horsepower, maybe add a couple more kWh too, and let us use more/all of the throttle range at some point. But if you can’t bring yourself to accept Kia’s approach, you might check out the 2023 Volvo PHEVs and the forthcoming 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Both have larger batteries and more powerful motors I believe, and may let you use more of/all the accelerator before switching to gas. Trade-offs there being higher price/more expensive maintenance for the Volvo, and smaller size for the Mitsubishi. Good luck and let me know if you have more questions!