Full Overview: 2026 Kia Sorento PHEV EX – This Or The Regular Hybrid?
Welcome or welcome back to the Kia Hyundai channel. My name is Gabby and right behind me is the 2026 Kia Sarrento EX plug-in hybrid. Now, for just under $5,000, you can turn a regular Sarrento hybrid to a PHEV. And in today’s video, we’re going over everything you get, more specifically on the EX trim line variation. Now, I want to answer your questions. I want to tell you everything there is to know about this car. And we’re doing that in one video that’s completely live streamed. So again, real time, no editing, no script, no nothing. Just me answering your questions and showing you this car fully in depth. Now, we’re going to start off with the price point of this specific vehicle. The MSRP here in Canada is $51,1195. That is exactly $4,800 more than the EX trim line of the regular hybrid. All right, without that or with that out of the way, let’s get right into it. Starting off with the front end of the Sarrento. Today we have the vehicle showcased in Aurora Black Pearl, which is a beautiful, beautiful black paint. It is by far the hardest paint to keep clean, though. I will tell you guys that. So, if you see a water marks, no you didn’t. This car is completely clean. On the front end, you can see we have a nice satin chrome outline of our front grill. And the grill itself is finished in not a truly black plastic look. It’s a bit more of a satin black. So, it’s upscale. It’s classy. The headlamps have an amber daytime running lights and then for the main unit itself, it’s actually a projection LED and that starts on the EX trim level. A big change for 2026 is Kia silently released a new trim line called the LX, which is our starting or base model. That will not have a projection LED. While it’ll still be bright and white, they are called their multi-reflection headlamp. So, the laser beam for the light isn’t as sharp, but you do get that starting on the EX trim line. We’ll also have LED fog lamps that are positioned lower on on our front end. As you can see, bright white LEDs. There’s forward- facing parking sensors, and these ultrasonic sensors will give you a beep inside the cabin as you approach an obstacle. So, if you’re parking this in your garage, you’ll get beeps to let you know, hey, getting a little too close. We have a backup camera as well, too. And if you are opting for the top-of-the-line SX, we’ll have a front camera, two side cameras, plus the one in the back, too, for a full 360 degree view. Now, again, we’re focusing more so on the EX specifically. So, without further ado, let’s get into what else we get on this specific trim. The windshield may look regular, but it’s actually an acoustic laminated windshield, which is essentially meant to reduce wind and road noise, giving you a quieter cabin feel. And in the very center, we have a camera. Now, that camera watches the lanes ahead of you to keep an eye on if you’re centered in your lane. If you start to verge out or depart from your lane, it’ll give you a beep, but also some guidance to keep you centered. Lane following assist will see upcoming bends in the road and steer into them to always keep you in the middle as long as you’re on a road with marked lanes. If you’re on a dirt road, it can’t do much, but it is very handy for city driving. Powertrain is what we’ll talk about next. And the Srento hybrid and plug-in hybrid, they’re very different. So, of course, anytime we’re talking about a hybrid vehicle, we’re talking about two powertrains. One will be the gas engine, which in this case is a 1.6 L turbocharged gasoline direct injection 4-cylinder. But we also have an electric motor and a larger capacity battery. Now, both hybrids and plug-in hybrids have that electric motor and also a battery. When you’re looking at the PHEV or plug-in hybrid vehicle, it’s going to be a 13.8 8 kWh lithium ion polymer battery. That is certainly a mouthful. But what that means for you as a potential buyer is because this car has a larger battery capacity and also the ability to accept external charging like putting a charger in your home or stopping at a public charger, we actually have rated driving range on pure electric power. So you have the gas engine that is available all of the time, but we also have the ability to drive up to 55 km simply on electricity. I’ll talk more about that later on in this video, why that may be a benefit for you depending on your lifestyle. Now, with this combined power train or power output, we have 268 horsepower and 270 pound- feet of torque. Very, very healthy torque and horsepower number. The transmission is a six-speed automatic, and we do have paddle shifters allowing you to cycle between those six gears or even adjust the level of regenerative braking. I’ll talk more about regen braking, too. For fuel efficiency, we have about 6.8 or sorry, 6.9 L per 100 kilometers combined. And that is purely purely gasoline. So that’s highway and city driving combined for the ratios, but only with gas running. So not using your electric range. When you do have electric range on this vehicle, it’s rated at 2.8 L equivalent. So changes the measurements a little bit, but this vehicle is extremely extremely efficient when you are actively charging it. And that is the big thing. If you are charging it, this vehicle wins over the regular hybrid all the time. If you can’t charge it though, then you’re just working with the hybrid that’s almost $5,000 more expensive. For your wheels across the entire trim line of both the PHEV and HEV, we have this 19in alloy. So whether you’re getting the entry model or the top of the line, this is what our wheel design will look like. It’s a 19inch alloy again. And then our tires are Continental Allseason. Tire size. Let me read it for you. 23555 R19s. We have ventilated disc brakes in the front and also the rear with of course the front ones being larger. On the topic of brakes, let’s talk about regen braking. Now regen braking is quite I want to say cool, but it’s also very interesting. That’s because it can actually reduce or I guess increase the lifespan of your real friction brakes. That’s because regenerative braking takes your electric motor and instead of using it to just propel you forwards and you know drive your vehicle, it actually changes its function to generate power, turns it into a generator and store it into your battery pack for later use. So even if you aren’t plugging in your vehicle every single day, if you do a lot of downhill or even stop and go driving, you can restore a little bit of that power back thanks to its regenerate braking. And new for 2025 on the PHV Sarrento and of course transmitted to the 2026, we have the ability to adjust the level of regen, too. So, by using the paddle shifters on your steering wheel, if you’re in eco mode or smart mo smart mode, you can change just how strong that regen brake setting is. Like I said, it does extend the lifespan of your traditional brakes because it slows your vehicle down without using them. Of course, if you slam on the brakes, it’s still going to use the real ones, though. All-wheel drive is standard on all trim levels of the Srento here in Canada. Whether you’re looking at gas, PHV, or HV, there is no front-wheel drive only option. Now, with that being said, this vehicle does spend a lot of its time in front-wheel drive mode just to keep you efficient as far as driving goes. As soon as it senses a little bit of slippage, it’ll incorporate more power to the rear, giving you a better torque split if needed. Your mirrors are a body color with a little bit of gloss black along the bottom for accents. Can’t exactly show you how much it makes a difference on a car that’s already all black, but if we had a white one, for example, this portion would be gloss black. You also have a turn signal indicator and blind spot detection integrated onto the reflective portion. All trim lines of the Sarrento hybrid or plug-in hybrid will have proximity entry. So, the key is called a smart key, allowing you to simply walk up to the driver passenger door, press the button on the handle to unlock the car, and then when you’re done driving, pressing it again will lock it. The exterior accents are satin chrome. You’ll also notice it on the fender flare up at the front just underneath our turn signal. Side mirror that also has a turn signal. And then along the rear, we’ll point out our rear flare again in that satin chrome finish with gloss black for our pillars. On the right side or passenger side is where we’ll find our charge door. Now, this vehicle can charge one of two ways. There’s the level one charger that we’re using here today, which doesn’t require any special wiring. It simply plugs into a three-prongong household outlet. This is definitely the slower way to charge, taking about 12 hours if it’s completely depleted. But if you think about it, if you get home from work at 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., and you’re not really leaving until the next day, 9:00 a.m., you get a full charge when you wake up, which is very, very handy. You don’t have to charge your PHV every day. Matter of fact, you don’t even have to charge it at all. But if you don’t charge it, you’re really missing out on the benefits of a plug-in hybrid. Let me explain what happens if you don’t charge your car. If you don’t charge your car, you’re not going to benefit from that 55 kilometers of pure electric range. And at that point, you pretty much just have a regular hybrid, except you paid more money for it. So, if you are plugging in your vehicle, whether it be at work or at home every single day, you can really, really benefit. That 55 kilometers is extremely useful if you’re doing a lot of putting around the city or maybe your commute is 20 kilometers and your drive home is 20 on the way back too. All of that can be done without using gas. It’s very handy. My mom is actually a Sarrento PHV driver. She does not plug in at home, only at work. And she gets gas twice a month when she used to get it twice a week. So, she’s really benefiting from the fuel savings. Now, along the rear we have our typical Kia badging in that satin chrome finish. And then on the bottom right, you’ll see our PHEV badge, of course, if you’re opting for the regular hybrid. That will just say HEV. We’ll get rid of the P. We have parking sensors along our rear bumper to give you an audible alert when you get too close while reversing. And then we have our tail lamps. Up at the top is our highmounted stop lamp integrated onto the spoiler. That will be an LED. And then underneath we have our rear wiper. On the EX trim line, you’ll get a smart power lift gate. So, this essentially Oh, I forgot I set it to this. It is height adjustable. And the height I set it to for filming an earlier video was very low. So, let me just adjust this now. I’ll manually push it up. Press over here till it beeps to set it. There we go. And now when I go to open it again, it’ll save to that height. Just a quick little demonstration. Usually, this is for a separate video talking about how you can set it, but we’re going to slide it into this live stream overview. All right, so now it’s saved to our higher position. There we go. Now, the Sarrento on every trim line comes in a three row seat. For hybrids and plug-in hybrids, it’s six passengers only. So, you’ll have two captain’s chairs in the center and then, of course, our two seats in the rear. I’m very happy Kia only did two seats back here because as you can see they’re fairly wide so an adult can sit here and not spill into the person next to them. Now when you do have your rear seats up, of course you’re going to be losing quite a bit of space for your cargo. We still have about 357 L behind our rear seats when they’re upright and a lot of overhead. So a lot of vertical. Underneath the floorboard, we have a jack for a spare. Now, it’s extremely rare for a plug-in hybrid to actually have a proper spare tire, but the Sarrento does exactly that. The tire itself is located underneath the vehicle, but your jack and your um tow hooks are located right over here. If you need to knock down your rear seats, pulling on the latch here will knock down the headrest and allow the seat to fold forward freely. Freely when the seat ahead of it isn’t too far back. Very good demonstration done by me. On the lefthand side, or right hand side I should say, we have two buttons to knock down our second row seats. They’re separated by both left and right. And then we have USBC’s along back here and a 12vt inverter, too. You’ll notice that there’s seat belt clips integrated onto the sides as well. So, you may have seen that I made a a boo boo. I made a mistake by not tucking in our seat belt clip here, but if I wanted to, I could tuck it in the side. That way, if I am putting cargo into the rear, I don’t have to worry about it getting stuck on my rear seats. I hope that made sense. Now, if you are planning on towing with the vehicle, the EX trim will be your starting for our trailer pre-wiring. And we do have 2,000 lbs of towing capacity for the Sarrento hybrid and plug-in hybrid. Coming along to the driver’s side, we have our fuel tank. Now, the fuel tank itself is opened not by pressing it. That’s for the charge door. There is a button by the driver’s knee area to release your fuel door, and as long as your vehicle is not on with all its doors open, it’ll pop on open. It’s a 47 L tank, which is the exact same size as the KiaForte. So, this vehicle is extremely cheap to fill up, and you’re not going to be standing at the gas pump for 10, 15 minutes like me in my pickup truck. It’s quick. It’s a five minute or less fill up. Of course, if you are capitalizing or utilizing that EV range, you’ll find yourself at the gas station a whole lot less. It’s also just regular unled fuel, so you don’t have to pay for premium or mid-grade. You can do that if you want, but you don’t have to. That is extremely convenient. Now, I’m going to have Adam pan on over to the inside of the cabin before we hop in. The EX trim line is where you get a little bit more of a luxurious cabin experience. So, we’ll have the synthetic leatherrett finish for our seat materials. They’re heated for three different levels for both the driver and passenger front seats. And starting on the EX trim, we also have the inclusion of the heated steering wheel. Now, take a look at the steering wheel for a little a little second. It’s actually changed. So, this is another one of the silent upgrades for 2026 that Kia did not mention anywhere online. It just kind of happened. So, I remember the first time we got a 2026 here at the dealership. I hopped in and thought something’s different. I I didn’t hear about these differences. is I just got in and thought, “Whoa, what happened here?” I really do like the steering wheel. The fact that it’s heated, too. Doesn’t matter how you drive, your hands will be toasty because it heats up the entire wheel and there’s two different levels of heat. Now, before we get into everything else that’s here, let’s get familiar with what’s around us. The door card itself has a fairly dark finish with a little bit of a gunmetal accent for this upper door card. Your handles are painted in silver. And then right over here, we have our mirror adjustments. There are power mirrors and also heated our unlock and locks and then an express window for the driver and regular power windows throughout the rest of the cabin. Your window locks and child locks are together in the same button. So, electronic child locks. And then along the lower portion of the door card, we have our side pocket and bottle holder. There are six speakers throughout the cabin and they are just a regular in-house sound system. We do have a premium sound system available on the SX trim line. Across the cabin, we have nine airbags, an amazing amazing suite of driver assistance functions. So, I mentioned the lane following and lane keeping assist at the beginning of this video and also our blind spot detection, but we also have forward collision avoidance that uses that same camera up over here on the windshield and also something called smart cruise control. Now, when you have your smart cruise control on, essentially you set your speed like a regular cruise control and the vehicle will slow down if you start to enter traffic. We’ll take you to a complete stop, too, if you hit stop and go traffic. Going to have Adam pan on over to the passenger side, and then we’ll get situated with the rest of the cabin. I will take a few minutes towards the end of this video to answer some of your viewer questions. And if anybody in the chat actually is a PHEV or HV owner, let us know what you think. Is there a reason why you chose the plug-in hybrid over the regular hybrid or vice versa? We’ll also have a little discussion based off who I think each vehicle suits best. Now, the main screen of this vehicle has a 12.3 in display and it’s a full touch screen. This is running our CCNC software, which stands for car connected navigation cockpit. Don’t worry, you don’t have to remember all that. There won’t be a test at the end. But fun fact over here, you’ll notice we have our driver one where we can select between our multiple different driver profiles. That way, if you share this vehicle with someone else in your household and you have very different tastes on things like liftgate height or even radio stations, it’s all set to your specific profile. There’s a dedicated PHV menu which shows you your current battery state of charge and also what’s currently happening with the vehicle. Is power being supplied from the battery? Is it running off primarily the engine? This live map will show you exactly where it’s drawing from. As you can see right now, we’re running off battery. I’ve plugged it in earlier today and we have about 9 km of electric range, but like I mentioned earlier, it’s rated for 55. So on a full charge, you can expect 55 fully electric kilometers. And then of course, you have your 47 L fuel tank, which your vehicle can also draw from. So the main point here is that you won’t be stranded on this car unless you don’t put gas in it or charge it. If that’s the case, I can’t help you. Now, for the rest of the screen over here, I just want to highlight the fact that it is very easily customizable. So, much like a cell phone, you can kind of drag and drop the menu to make it truly yours. And then speaking of cell phones, if you’d like to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, it’s completely wireless. So, you don’t have to plug it in. You don’t have to get one of those aftermarket adapters. It’s from factory with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. I’m going to show you the gauge cluster ahead of me. And disregard the warning lights. The vehicle is running in accessory mode. So everything will be illuminated. The very center display if you are charging will show you your remaining time and the current state. By pressing this note page button here is where we can go ahead and cycle between our different menu options. So here’s another range guide. The full tank of fuel. We’re just over 560 km and 9 km of electric range, but we’re working on it with that charge. This is our lane safety menu. And then we also have our all-wheel drive torque distribution, our tire pressure, and our engine temp. The left hand side will always display your current speed, while the right will show your active tachometer. If I’d like to go ahead and adjust my regen, again, I’ll just use my left or right paddle shifter to adjust the amount. And based off my drive mode, it’ll change either regen or our gear. Left hand side here is for driver assistance. Pressing this button up at the top left will turn on our cruise control. We’ll set our speed with the plus and minus. and then adjust the following distance with this bottom left icon. To the right of that, we have our steering assistance button. So, by giving that a quick press, that little steering wheel icon appeared there, and that tells me that my lane following assist system is active. And then the button next to it, or the icon next to it that looks like a car with a lane, is our lane keeping. I can explain that a little bit more for you guys later on in this video if anyone’s stuck on it, but pretty much they use the same camera and are a similar function, but one will beep at you while the other takes corrective action in advance. The right hand side is for media. So, we have our voice commands, our volume, as well as your phone button, a star button that you can program to jump start you to your favorite media or whatever you want your shortcut to be. Our toggle for next song, last song, or next station, previous station, and then media modes. steering wheel itself. We’ll get another kind of wide angle look at it. Very a little bit more boxy looking in my opinion compared to last year, but a little bit more modern and it suits the layout of the cabin a bit better in my opinion. Still very comfortable, easy to drive with and not a lot of gloss black. So, the tight touch areas are, but as far as the spokes and whatnot, it’s not too glossy. So, should be relatively easy to keep clean. Below our main touchcreen, we have our air vents and our climate control panel. Now, this climate panel houses our dual zone climate control. I can adjust my temperature here and then passenger can have theirs separate or it can be synced. And like all of our green vehicles, there is a driver only option, so it’ll only heat up or cool down the driver’s area. Great for commuting and, you know, saves a little bit of energy usage. Flipping that will change it to a media menu. So, I can go ahead and quickly access any of my media functions with the touch of a button. Even things like search, which allow you to find whatever it is you’re looking for in the car’s head unit. So, it’s either climate or media. And you can cycle between both by simply flipping it with this toggle here. Perfect. Underneath this little storage compartment USBC’s with the one on the left being for data transfer and charging and the one on the right simply for charging. Below that is a wireless phone charger that starts on the EX trim line. Then we have our heated seat controls right over here. Three different levels of feet for both driver and passenger. Our dial in the center is for our transmission. This is called a shift by wire gear shift. So I’ll simply twist it over to drive, left for reverse, and then P in the center for park. It is a very nice gear shift, too, in my opinion. Below that, we got a little bit of Sarrento badging and then our drive and terrain mode select. So, eco, sport, and smart mode. And by pressing this down like a button, I can go and select between snow, mud, and sand for terrain. Heated steering wheel control is just below that, as well as our auto hold brake function, our downhill braking assist, electronic parking brake, our park view camera, parking sensors, and our EV hybrid button. Now, this button is where people often get confused. This is exclusive to our plug-in hybrids. The hybrid Sonto will not have this. It allows you to choose if you want your vehicle to run in electric mode where it’ll prioritize its power from our electric range. So, if I have a full charge, it’s going to use that charge instead of drawing power from the gas engine. Now, with that being said, if I’m flooring it or if it’s a very, very cold day and I have the heat cranked, if the car needs to turn on its engine to accommodate for that power usage, it will do so. And there’s no way you as a driver can prevent that. The car will have to do it in order to operate the way you want it to. Now, there is also an auto mode. Auto mode will primarily draw a lot of its power from electric. Now, it really depends on what you’re doing. So, it sees what’s best for the type of driving that you’re actively doing it and use power from either source. So, if it senses it’s probably best for it to run its gas engine, it’ll do that. It’s better for it to run EV mode, it’ll do that, too. And then you have the option to select hybrid mode, which will prioritize power from the hybrid operation. So that is both your gasoline motor running and then of course that shutting off when you’re sitting at a stop or while you’re coasting where it’ll generate power. So three different options to choose from on command or you can just have it on the auto function. On the sides here we have two cup holders. A little storage pocket here that perfectly fits the key. And speaking of the key, we should probably explain it. This is our smart key. It’s slim. I know it’s going to look big on camera, but I promise you it fits in pockets. You got your lock up at the top, your unlock, your lift gate button, and your panic button. And then on the flip side, we have a remote starter. Center console is very spacious and has a removable storage compartment. I’m going to have Adam show the glove box real quick. And then before we go into the second row seats, we’ll also take a look at the driver power seat controls. Glove box is illuminated. Always a nice touch. Now, Adam, your seat, it is adjustable, but it is manual, right? Yeah. So, we have the ability to move it on its rails. You have your back rest adjustment, and that is it. There is no height adjustment for the passenger. Now, on for the driver, we have a power driver seat. So, on my end, I can adjust how tall I’d like my seat to be, the height, but also the angle of it. the back rest and then we have our two-way lumbar support. Very nice. Now, let’s hop into the second row and see what space is like. Second row. Like I said, all variations of the hybrid and plug-in hybrid will be a six passenger. Even on the new LX trim, there is no bench seat. So, six passengers only. These two seats are extremely wide. They’ll also have their own armrest that you can adjust the height on. The seats will also have an angle of recline to them, too. So, if you’d like to drop the seat back a little bit and relax. Oh, got to get myself a little bit better situated. There we go. You can lock the rear of the seat into a more reclined position or upright, whatever you’d like best. Now, as far as car seats go, if you guys have been watching this channel for a while, you know who Charlotte is. Charlotte has had a Sarrento with the captain’s chairs configuration for a little while now, and she also has two babies in car seats. So, these are very much car seat friendly, super easy to adjust, and if you do have people entering the third row, this top button over here on the shoulder area of either seat will have the seat fold forward. Sorry, Adam, I don’t want to hit the camera. Allowing the seat to fold forward and move freely on its rail, making it easy for people to get into the third row. Speaking of the third row, I never plan ahead with this. And I’ve knocked our seats back. So, let’s get them back into the upright position so I can properly demonstrate that in a second. All right. Now, let’s get in there. Now, for captain’s chairs, it is very easy getting into the third row. Sorry. I have the seat reclined just about all the way. So, this is the worst case scenario as far as seating goes. My knees are absolutely touching the seat ahead of me, but that’s because whoever was sitting here is last was rude. We have a good amount of headroom, too. And then as far as window goes, while it is a triang triangular shape, I can still see outside of the cabin. A big thing for me in third rows too is when we don’t have a bench in front of us, it feels a bit more like you’re connected with the rest of the cabin. If you’re on a long road trip and your legs are getting tired, you can always extend them and have them rest in the aisle or middle of the two seats, too. So, a little bit more accommodating for a longer road trip. Now, I’m going to head back to the second row to show you guys what other amenities your middle passengers have. And again, very easy to maneuver these seats. You can always give the people behind you more space or less space. We have two air vents mounted on the back of our center console as well as a 12vt inverter and then USBC’s built into the backings of our front seats. There’s also a leather pocket and a mesh net pocket. And if we take a quick look at the doors themselves, you’ll notice that’s where our cup holders are for our rear passengers. And there’s also a bottle holder on the lower portion of the door. It gets the same design elements as our driver’s seat did or driver’s door did with that gunmetal finish and our silver painted door handles. There’s also a good amount of soft touch material, that leatherrett finish for your armrest on the door. So, you got an armrest built into your seat and then your outside arm can also rest on the door card itself. Either way, it’ll be comfy. Now, that’s about it for our interior overview of the Sarrento PHB. I’m curious to see what you guys think as far as ownership goes and what you would pick, whether it be a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid. So, I’m going to take the camera from Adam and we’ll do a little bit of a Q&A session and talk about when it’s worth it and when it may not be worth it, because let’s be honest, a $5,000 price difference is pretty big. All right, King Bob said nine airbags if I remember correctly. That is correct. There is nine airbags across all trim lines of the Srento Hybrid and plug-in hybrid. Um, it does benefit from having a lighter colored headliner back there. Absolutely. So, light color headliner. Some people love them, some people hate them, but it definitely gives a bit more of an airy and open feel to a cabin. I think black headliners look great. More specifically on sporty cars where you may not necessarily care too too much about what space is like and more so what the vibe of the cabin is like, but it can feel a bit more comi confined when everything is dark. Um, I like the regular hybrid so I don’t have to remember to plug it in. And that is completely fair. So, I will say plugging in your vehicle when you have a plug-in hybrid or more importantly an EV. It’s it you usually don’t forget, but it can be a little bit harder to remember sometimes if you do have a plugin where you know you won’t be stranded if you forget. Um, DTUK said, “There’s a lot to like about the Sarrento. The vehicle ticks many boxes.” Absolutely it does. Love the Sarrento. It’s definitely a favorite across our Kia lineup, I think, honestly because there’s a Sarrento for everybody. So, if you just want gas, we have plenty of options for gas STOs. Hybrid, plug-in hybrid, you name it. We have three different trim levels for either trim or either powertrain. Um, because the Outlander PHV has problems starting in extreme cold temperatures. Does the Sarrento have Oh, it disappeared. Does the STO have a heat pump? How much is the base hybrid? Thank you, Gabby. I don’t have the MSRP of the entry-level hybrid off the top of my head, but Adam is working on it. He just said he’s working on it, so I’ll get that to you in a second. This vehicle has something called a PTC heater, which is a positive temperature coefficient heater. And in the past, we didn’t always have these on our hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which made them take quite a bit of time to warm up come wintertime. Now, the PTC heater is a bit of an electric heater, so it gets the hot air or warm air out to you a lot quicker without sacrificing efficiency. And for now, the main takeaway from that is you’re not going to be stuck in a car waiting for it to warm up, warm up, warm up. So, it is a lot quicker. Um, having somewhere to plug in isn’t easy for everybody, and I absolutely agree with that. Now, a big benefit of a plug-in hybrid vehicle is you’re not going to be again left stranded because you don’t have a charge. you will always still have a gas vehicle at the end of the day that operates with an engine to keep you efficient and also not stranded. Now, I will say it’s not worth getting a plug-in hybrid if you don’t have somewhere reliable to plug in. So, whether that be your workplace or home, if you can’t get a charger at either of them, it may not be worth it for you. [Music] I’ve heard mixed reviews about K and Hyundai cars. I’m wanting a Venue or a Kona. thoughts on their reputation in recent years. I’m certainly not going to shy away from the fact that there has been certainly controversy in the past for Kia and Hyundai cars. There were quite a few years or model years about 10 years ago now that were affected by um engine issues and I actually had a vehicle in that segment. I had a 2013 Kia Optima. Now that being said, past years our vehicles have been very very very reliable. Seeing from a dealership perspective, you see the good, the bad, and the ugly. And every manufacturer has all all three, the goods, the bads, and the uglies. I will say Kia, they offer a great warranty. They offer great value. And got to be honest, with what’s out there right now, we’re winning for many, many, many ways. Um, which is best for which user, assuming you have somewhere to plug it in, like you said. Okay, perfect. So, I would say a hybrid is good for you if you value fuel efficiency. You want to keep a vehicle that is a relatively more affordable price point. The hybrid variation is always going to be more affordable than the plug-in hybrid variation. In this case for Sarrento, comparing EX hybrid to EX plug-in hybrid, it’s roughly $5,000 less expensive to get the straight hybrid. So again, if you can’t plug it in at home or work, you want something a little bit more affordable, get the hybrid for sure. Now, if you can plug it in somewhere almost every day and fairly reliable and your commute is under 55 kilometers round trip or maybe one way if you can plug it in at work, get the plug-in hybrid. I can guarantee you you will save a lot of money if a most of your daily driving is done entirely on EV range. That’s where this vehicle will absolutely win. Again, I’m going to I feel like I always have to mention my mom. She does not charge at home. She only charges at work. So from Monday to Friday, she is getting that full charge at her workplace. Her commute is roughly 25 kilometers each way. So she is about 50 kilometers of electric driving. The car is rated for 55. And again, twice a month she’s getting gas. So on the weekend she’s not doing too too much driving. And again with a smaller fuel tank that that’s pretty good. She’s probably spending about $1, $110 depending on the cost of fuel a month when again that used to be almost twice twice a week. Does it have heads-up display? Not on this particular trim level. Um, actually not anymore at all. The new STO does not have heads-up display. Sorry, I had to rack my brain on that a little bit. The Kia Sportage hybrid and plug-in hybrid does have the option for heads-up display though. Um, oh, Adam, did you put the price of the base hybrid in the chat of the STO EX? I couldn’t find LX for Canada. Base trim of the EX on Kia Canada was Can I find it? I know. I know where it is. Okay, so we’ll find the LX trim price. And then also for EX, it is 5115 Canadian. That is what we have here today for the plug-in hybrid. Oh no, guys, I am not familiar with Mac software. I know I have an iPhone, but as far as the computer goes, I I don’t know what I’m looking at over here. So, oh boy. Hang in there, you guys. Any other questions? Um, I thought I saw someone ask earlier on about the engine kicking on in electric mode. And yes, the vehicle will turn on its engine if needed. So, if you are flooring it to get onto the highway or it’s a very cold day and you’re cranking the heat, the vehicle will turn on its gasoline engine because it has to. If you’re asking quite a bit of power demand, the vehicle will have to Oh, this is Kia US. This is not what I’m looking for. Okay, hold on you guys. If we are um asking quite a bit of power demand, the vehicle will have to draw some of that power from its gas engine. If you are driving in electric mode and you run out of range, so let’s say I used my cycle button to select EV driving and I’ve depleted my entire 55 km of range. The vehicle will automatically switch over into hybrid mode. So I don’t have to it’s not going to hurt my vehicle. It’s not going to cause any sort of malfunction. That’s what the vehicle is meant for. It’s meant to drive an electric range and then once it’s done operate as a regular hybrid vehicle. Now, the base MSRP of the Sarrento LX nonplugin hybrid. Sorry you guys, my ear popped as well. It’s all over the place. Um, the base MSRP for the LX Sarrento plug-in hybrid is 48695 Canadian. And that of course will have the same powertrain, same fuel economy specs, same wheels, but the interior will be a cloth finish. There will be no power liftgate. There will be no heated steering wheel. Um, there’s no wireless charger. The headlamps are not projection LEDs. They’re multi-reflection LEDs. Not too too big of differences as far as tech and convenience. It’s largely just some of the smaller things. You know, the heated steering wheel, the wireless charger, but the efficiency that you know and love, the space that you know and love on the STO is all still there. I’m very happy they incorporated a true entry trim level because last year we only had the EX and the SX to choose from. All right, I’ll give this back to you, Adam. Um, we are at 36 minutes, so we’ll probably just take a few other questions. What are the main differences between the 2025 and the 2026 Kia STO hybrid top trim levels? So, there are not huge huge differences on paper. A lot of the differences for 2026 were surprises. So, none of which was mentioned online. There was no, you know, hint of this at auto shows. They kind of just showed up at dealers and we figured, oh, this is a little bit unique, a little different. Now one change is the steering wheel. So the steering wheel is a brand new shape for 2026 being a little bit more modern its appearance and a bit more um sharp too. So we got that straight sharp horizontal cut off and then the extra spoke edge along the sides. Another change is before for the top trim level the SX you had the choice between a light gray or a blue interior. Now the SX only has a black interior. It’s still a true leather finish, but it’s no longer that fun two-tone, which I’m actually quite a bit upset about. Gabby has the longest fingers. Thank you. And then the other biggest change for 25 to 26 is the inclusion of the new entrylevel LX. So, both hybrids and plug-in hybrids now have three different trim levels to choose from between the powertrains. JD said, “Big fan of your live stream.” Thank you. I autoblock every Kia channel but yours. Oh my goodness, Bob, you don’t have to do that, but thank you for your support. Uh, [Music] lots of nice comments, you guys. Thank you so much for coming on today. I know last week we had quite a bit of technical difficulties and quite a bit of sickness difficulties for me, but this week we’re we’re so back. We are so back for now. Um, having somewhere to plug in isn’t easy for everybody. Absolutely. I agree. How does the computer estimate the range? Does it estimate based off how my grandmother drives or how I drive? Drive like the police are chasing me after a bank robbery. All right. So, after a drive, actually like a full fuel reset, the vehicle can change its estimated distance to empty. So, I saw this a lot on my KiaForte. If I did a lot of efficient efficient highway driving, for example, lots of travel that week and it was all done really on the highway, the next time I would fully fuel my car, I would notice I have a larger or longer distance to empty. That is because it’s based off your driving style and habits. So, if I do a lot of stopand go city driving and my vehicle is not necessarily an efficient car like a plug-in hybrid or hybrid that thrives in stop and go, it’s going to read a little bit more negatively after a cycle of driving that is more inefficient versus if I do a lot of efficient driving, I may notice it a bit longer. So, as the vehicle gets to know you and your driving style, your driving habits, it will adjust. It’s still going to be roughly in the same ballpark. You might get, you know, an extra 40 km, 50 km, but it’s not going to be anywhere along the lines of 1,000 km added on because you were so so efficient. The car won’t do that. That being said, also on a plug-in hybrid like this, you have about 560 km on a full tank of fuel. But let’s say you’re driving for the next week or two is all done within your EV charge limits and you’re plugging it in every day. You can see that fuel bar not really change at all. So, you can really extend how long you go without getting a full tank of gas in your car. I actually had a customer of mine with his Nero plug-in hybrid give me updates that he has driven over 1,00 I think it was 1,200 kilometers without using his gas. So, simply charging it every day, not really getting into that gas tank, he didn’t have to get gas in it. Now, I don’t recommend leaving the same tank of fuel in your vehicle for months and months on end, but it’s pretty cool to see. Gas does go bad, you guys. That being said, use it every once in a while. All right, I think we’re going to end off today’s video, guys. Thank you so much for watching. We hope to see you again on tomorrow’s live stream. In the meantime, take care, brush your hair, and if you haven’t subscribed or like this video already, please do so. It is free. Anyway, goodbye.
The Sorento is one of the best SUVs there are when it comes to space and comfort. Join Gabi in today’s livestream where she goes over the PHEV Sorento in its EX trim. What do you think about the car? Do you have another Kia/Hyundai car you’d like us to present? Let us know in the comments.
Quick specs: 2025 PHEV Sorento EX
• MSRP: $50,645 CAD
• Colour: Aurora Black Pearl
• Engine: 1.6T-GDI 4-cylinder engine
• Transmission: 6-Speed Auto Transmission
• Horsepower: 261 hp | Torque: 258 lb-ft
• Drive type: All wheel drive (AWD)
• Charge time: 3.8 hours
EX trim includes:
• Forward & Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist• Smart cruise control
• Leather seats (synthetic)
• Temporary spare tire
• LED exterior lights
Check Out Our Podcast! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx93MBoYnWb3D0897S_bjQ-0EB_QBAd7V&si=jpAcBjouD7wFY1DZ
Thank you for watching! We appreciate your support – Gabi and Charlotte
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