Any Kia Sportage Hybrid owners here?

NeilF · 28 Jan 2025 at 18:23

We have a 2yr old model, which - especially this winter - I've noticed when driving along in the cold, when the electric motor kicks in (& the petrol turns off) any resemblence of warm air blowing into the footwell is replaced with cold air (ie: seemingly unheated from outside).

So if you're say driving along the motorway in cold weather, and the car switches to electric, you then get cold air blown over your feet for a minute or two.

Any other owners able to compare notes?

Rroff · 28 Jan 2025 at 18:29

From some quick Googling looks like there is no PTC heater so it can only blow ambient temperature air when the motor isn't producing heat - but it isn't supposed to entirely switch off when the temperature is below a certain level but seems quite a few people are having that issue, maybe a design limitation.

NeilF · 28 Jan 2025 at 18:35

Thanks!

"but seems quite a few people are having that issue" - I couldn't find anyone else complaining of a similar issue?

Having noticed it repeatedly over the past few months, at times it very uncomfortable to drive. Cold air blowing over your feet/legs. The only option is to manually turn fans off/on over and over which is daft.

Clearly the car should simply turn off the fans in such circumstances.

Going to report it to Kia.

Rroff · 28 Jan 2025 at 18:55

NeilF said:
"but seems quite a few people are having that issue" - I couldn't find anyone else complaining of a similar issue?

I had to do a bit of Googling around whether there was a PTC heater or not, as it isn't a common feature with hybrids but some do have it. And that lead me to a few complaints about this kind of behaviour.

NeilF said:
Having noticed it repeatedly over the past few months, at times it very uncomfortable to drive. Cold air blowing over your feet/legs. The only option is to manually turn fans off/on over and over which is daft.

Do you have the AC on auto w/ a set temperature or manually configuring it?

NeilF · 28 Jan 2025 at 19:04

Rroff said:
Do you have the AC on auto w/ a set temperature or manually configuring it?

Tried it with both approaches.

It basically seems like if the car's blowing (warm) air into the car (footwell) and the engine turns off, you're going to get ambient (cold) air blown over your feet cos it blindly carrys on blowing... Unpleasant at times!

You would have thought the residual temperature from the engine/matrix would have lasted for a minute or two without the engine running?

Rroff · 28 Jan 2025 at 19:51

NeilF said:
You would have thought the residual temperature from the engine/matrix would have lasted for a minute or two without the engine running?

Possibly diverter flap and/or sensor not working properly - no idea if OBD2 will have any relevant information in that respect.

lordrobs · 29 Jan 2025 at 14:53

I'm surprised the coolant drops temperature that quickly. The only thing I can think of is that when the engine isn't running it also isn't pumping the coolant so you've only got the residual temperature of the volume within the heater matrix? I'm just spit balling ideas here though.

As an aside the lack of electric heater was one of the really off putting things of the Sportage PHEV for me. I do loads of full electric trips in my Astra PHEV with the heating set to 22'C. Shame as the 5% BIK was quite appealing.

Jim99 · 29 Jan 2025 at 14:58

Can't say I've noticed this, and had plenty of elec only, heated trips.

Jono8 · 30 Jan 2025 at 08:55

That sounds like a large design oversight if it isn't a particular fault with yours.

jpaul · 30 Jan 2025 at 10:09

the air remains hot on your hands despite cold footwell ? if you can't control them independently - is there a blockage on the ducting for footwell.
(I had mixer flap fail on audi ,driver side, where it was too cold for all of driver screen/hands/feet, my bmw used to have central vent that could be used for hands with independent temp)

lordrobs · 30 Jan 2025 at 12:15

jpaul said:
the air remains hot on your hands despite cold footwell ? if you can't control them independently - is there a blockage on the ducting for footwell.
(I had mixer flap fail on audi ,driver side, where it was too cold for all of driver screen/hands/feet, my bmw used to have central vent that could be used for hands with independent temp)

Normally climate control will divert the vast majority of warm air to the floor. Likewise cool air will normally be primarily diverted to the high level vents.

Jim99 said:
Can't say I've noticed this, and had plenty of elec only, heated trips.

In a Sportage? I didn't think they had a PTC heater so I'm not sure where the heat would have been coming from if the engine wasn't running.

Jim99 · 30 Jan 2025 at 16:37

lordrobs said:
Normally climate control will divert the vast majority of warm air to the floor. Likewise cool air will normally be primarily diverted to the high level vents.

In a Sportage? I didn't think they had a PTC heater so I'm not sure where the heat would have been coming from if the engine wasn't running.

It's possible that it's been running the engine to provide the heat, I'm not saying the engine wasn't running but that there was sufficient elec to not need the engine for drive.

jpaul · 30 Jan 2025 at 22:09

lordrobs said:
Normally climate control will divert the vast majority of warm air to the floor. Likewise cool air will normally be primarily diverted to the high level vents.

although, Audi - I can choose which of the floor/hands|face/screen airflows are on, if on they will all get the same temperature, set on the 'thermostat' ...
so if on sportage it was stratified somehow, and upper flows were hotter, I'd think that was a problem.

Jim99 · 2 Feb 2025 at 15:23

I did a couple of tests over the weekend and noticed that it was kicking in the engine at 1400rpm when heat was required, even though we didn't need the engine for drive.

lordrobs · 2 Feb 2025 at 19:30

Jim99 said:
I did a couple of tests over the weekend and noticed that it was kicking in the engine at 1400rpm when heat was required, even though we didn't need the engine for drive.

Yeah that was my understanding of how it worked. Big turn off for me personally.

Also means you can't precondition without firing up the engine.

bayo000 · 3 Feb 2025 at 12:04

we have 24 Tucson Hybrid which should be pretty much the same underneath and can't say I've noticed that. Ours is the facelift version so maybe they fixed that.