Korean automaker Kia is having a fantastic time on the U.S. sales charts, and it’s not resting on its laurels. Following sightings of prototypes completely covered in canvas camouflage a couple of months ago, the Autoblog spies have now spotted the production body of the heavily redesigned Sportage as a prototype undergoes hot-weather testing and towing evaluations. The vehicle is still covered in wacky vinyl camo, but it gives us a much clearer picture of the design than before, with clear influence from the larger Telluride. That means a boxier, more premium aesthetic, and things in the cabin will change just as dramatically.
2028 Kia Sportage Gets Chiseled Looks
Autoblog/SH Proshots
Today’s Kia Sportage has large, vertical headlight clusters with a boomerang-like daytime running light design, somewhat curvaceous door panels, and horizontally aligned taillights connected by a thin strip. For the redesigned, next-generation model, we can see a break in the hood’s shutline where the daytime running lights will doubtless be placed, and below these, new headlights, again vertically oriented, will appear with the main beams sitting as low in the body as the wheel arches. A redesigned pair of intake grilles sits in the center, and the overall look is very slab-like. Moving backward, the glasshouse has also been redesigned with a more angular look, which appears to have increased the amount of glass that the rear passengers will get to look through. The black A-pillar indicates that a floating roof design will carry over, but again, it’s a far less swoopy shape for the roof, which culminates in a rather significant spoiler.
Related: 2027 Kia Sportage Gets Pricier—Should You Get a 2026 Model Instead?
The rear end, like the front, drops off sharply, with new split vertical taillights on either side of the tailgate, the latter of which has a low opening that will make loading groceries and pets easy. Another noteworthy detail is that physical door handles will thankfully continue, while two-tone wheels complete the look. Our spies didn’t get close enough to take a peek at the cabin on this occasion, but previous sightings reveal that the dual-screen infotainment setup of the existing Sportage will be ditched in favor of one large display to handle both driver info and media, running the new Pleos Connect operating system. Happily, this will retain physical buttons, so Kia is striking a fine balance between advanced technology and common sense.
2028 Kia Sportage Powertrain Details
Autoblog/SH Proshots
Bigger and roomier, the 2028 Sportage is expected to gain the same powertrain options as the latest Telluride Hybrid. That means a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with a combined output of 242 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque, a healthy bump over the Sportage’s current figures of 232 hp and 271 lb-ft. Plug-in hybrid versions are expected to manage up to 62 miles of all-electric driving range, though that’s on the exceedingly generous WLTP cycle, and figures will fall slightly on the EPA’s cycles. Presumably, the evaluations taking place in these images are meant to test just how much the upgraded powertrain offerings allow the Sportage to tow, though it’s not known if the redesigned model will exceed the current model’s maximum rating of 2,500 pounds.
Autoblog/SH Proshots
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