New Kia Sportage first look: SUV wows with distinct design, curved infotainment screen
Building on Kia's "Opposites United" design language, the new Sportage looks mighty bold with EV6-like elements.
Wowzers, this looks dashing.
Kia and its corporate cousin Hyundai remain on a roll with some pretty bold design choices for mass-market cars, and the 2022 Kia Sportage won't deviate one bit. On Monday, the brand showed off the first images of the new Sportage, which follows its latest "Opposites United" design language. We first saw what the design lingo meant with the Kia EV6, and some of those looks make their way to the company's compact crossover.
The three-quarter shot seen above shows off a boomerang-like LED accent light in the front clip and a larger version of Kia's long-running tiger nose grille application. From the rear, the same kind of curved rear hatch found in the EV6 shows up. The taillights include thin signature LED lights in the housing and it looks like they may run across to create a light bar, too. Kia said the new Sportage's design purposefully includes crisp lines to create muscular shapes on the exterior, which looks about right from the teaser photos provided. It also looks like the "floating roof" trend is alive and well.
Sharp.
The new Sportage's cockpit looks to punch above its weight, too. There, a big ol' curved infotainment screen spans from the driver's side A-pillar to the center stack. Below it sits some traditional button controls, and to its right, designers had some fun with the HVAC setup. The vent appears to crease with the curved screen (very cool) before it stretches along the passenger side of the cabin. For a mass-produced car that should remain affordable, it's pretty incredible.
Here comes another big screen.
Kia said it plans to reveal the new Sportage in Korea this July, but we'll learn more about the SUV in the coming weeks. The Sportage so far looks like it'll carve out its own space beyond the formidable Hyundai Tucson, to which it's closely related.
