The Next Kia Sportage Leaves Its Cheap Compact Formula

A wrapped next-gen Kia Sportage prototype is testing with a boxier body and a visible exhaust, while the current compact still starts at $28,990.

Photographer Stefan Baldauf’s frames from October 5, 2026, show slab sides and a taller greenhouse that read like a smaller Telluride. Kia has not published specs. The safe read is that this mule, likely a 2028 U.S. model, will follow the Hyundai Tucson that Hyundai unveiled in New York on October 1, 2026, a wider turbo hybrid with Pleos software. That is a different brief from the 187-horsepower compact that just gave Kia its best single-model year.

Camouflage Can’t Hide a Boxier Greenhouse

The vinyl still covers the lamps and the rear, but the silhouette is no longer the soft fifth-generation Sportage. The window line sits higher and more upright, the flanks look flatter, and the front end is bluff, with a clamshell hood under the wrap. Mules photographed in Spain in September 2026 had already dropped the heavy canvas, and at least one was running with a trailer, so the program includes towing work, not just styling bucks.

A pipe is visible at the bumper. This is not a battery-only test car. Watchers had already clocked the roof and the greenhouse as the change that will sell the car in a parking lot, and the October shots back that up. The Europe mule is also the short-wheelbase shape; the United States, as with Tucson, is expected to get the longer cabin.

WHAT THE WRAPPED MULES SHOW

• The stance: An upright greenhouse and slab sides that borrow more from Telluride than from the current rounded Sportage.
• The exhaust: A visible tailpipe, which points to a gas or hybrid layout rather than a pure electric.
• The hood: A clamshell panel, matching the new Tucson’s front architecture.
• The work: Hot-weather running in Spain and at least one mule on a tow hitch, which is hardware validation, not a photo op.
• The gap: No interior photos yet, and no official horsepower, mpg, or sticker from Kia.

Stacked lighting under the camo is easy to over-read. The 2026 facelift already added tall rectangular clusters; the next lamps will sit in a wider, more vertical graphic, with a thin running-light trace up the grille, but the full signature is still taped over.

Hyundai Already Published the Spec Sheet

Kia and Hyundai share this compact’s bones, so the Tucson that Hyundai put on a New York stage on October 1, 2026, is the working drawing. Hyundai’s 4,700 mm long-wheelbase Tucson is 185.0 inches long, 75.0 inches wide, and 66.3 inches tall, on a 109.6-inch wheelbase. That is 2.4 inches longer, 1.6 inches wider, 0.8 inches taller, and 1.2 inches longer in wheelbase than the Tucson it replaces. Rear doors now open to 83 degrees.

The current U.S. Sportage is already close in length. Kia’s own sheet lists it as 184.4 inches long and 73.4 inches wide, on a 108.5-inch wheelbase, and 65.4 inches tall in front-drive form without roof rails. If the next Sportage copies the long Tucson, it grows about 0.6 inches in length, 1.1 inches in wheelbase, 1.6 inches in width, and 0.9 inches in height. That is still a compact on a tape measure. The boxy glass and extra width are what make it look like it has jumped a class.

CURRENT SPORTAGE VS THE NEW TUCSON

Hyundai’s next-generation hybrid is the other half of the template. A 1.6-liter turbo four works with two electric motors, a 1.49 kWh pack, and a six-speed automatic for 233 horsepower and 279.9 lb-ft. Hyundai targets up to 42 mpg on front-drive 17-inch wheels, 8.5 seconds to 60 mph, and 3,000 pounds of towing on all-wheel-drive hybrids, a 1,000-pound bump over the last Tucson Hybrid. The gas Tucson drops the old naturally aspirated four for a 184-horsepower 1.6 turbo, rated at 28 mpg combined in two-wheel drive. A plug-in hybrid, listed for some markets, uses a 17.1 kWh pack, 292 ps, and a claimed 50 miles of electric range.

Cabin hardware travels with the platform. Tucson offers a 12.9-inch or 17-inch touchscreen, a 9.9-inch driver display, Pleos Connect, and the Gleo assistant. Kia has not shown a next Sportage dash, but this generation is slated to be among the first Kias on that software. Hyundai also said the Tucson will go on sale in Korea later in 2026, with North America and Europe in 2027, which puts the sibling in showrooms a full model year before the Sportage mule is due as a 2028 U.S. car.

182,823 Sales Came From a Cheaper Formula

Kia America booked 182,823 Sportage sales in 2025, up 13 percent from 161,917 in 2024, the best year any single Kia model has posted in the United States. The brand’s total was 852,155. Through September 2026 the Sportage was still climbing, at 145,746, up 8.7 percent from the same stretch of 2025, with 18,723 in August and 16,033 in September.

THE VOLUME THE NEXT BODY HAS TO DEFEND

• 2025 full year: 182,823 U.S. Sportages, Kia’s record for one nameplate.
• 2026 through September: 145,746, still the brand’s volume leader.
• August 2026: 18,723 Sportages in Kia’s record 83,793-unit month.
• Tucson, same stretch: 181,687 through September 2026, including 23,164 in that month, so the Hyundai twin is already ahead on the year.

Sean Yoon, president and CEO of Kia North America and Kia America, tied the 2025 result to the lineup rather than to one restyle.

Our third consecutive all-time annual sales record, coupled with our highest-ever U.S. market share, are clear indicators of the strength of the Kia brand and the competitiveness of our models.

Sean Yoon, president and CEO, Kia North America and Kia America, January 2, 2026 sales release

The car that produced those figures is still a 2.5-liter, 187-horsepower, 178 lb-ft compact with an eight-speed automatic, 39.6 cubic feet behind the second row on the low cargo floor, and 74.1 cubic feet behind the first. Gas LX pricing for the 2027 model, the one now in stock, is $28,990 before the $1,495 destination fee. That is the formula the mule is dressed to replace, and it is still selling while the next body is taped up.

Seltos and EV3 Inherit the Tight Budget

If the next Sportage looks and costs more like a small Telluride, the shoppers who came for a cheap, car-sized SUV will not vanish. They will walk down the same Kia wall. Seltos is already doing that job. Dealers moved 9,214 Seltos units in August 2026, against 5,574 a year earlier, and 50,525 through August against 35,430. Soul, the old cheap hatch, sold zero in August 2026 after 5,548 a year before. The small, inexpensive Kia is now an SUV, and it is not named Sportage.

EV3 is the other occupant of that aisle. Kia priced it from $29,890, $900 above the gas Sportage LX and $700 under the current Sportage Hybrid LX, and called it the cheapest electric in the lineup, with up to 321 miles of range on Wind and Land front-drive trims. August volume was a token six units, so it is a price peg, not a volume story yet. Niro added 18,472 sales through August. Together they cover the buyer who wants a small Kia under or near $30,000 without waiting for a boxier Sportage.

Tucson’s 2026 head start on the year, 181,687 to 145,746, is the other pressure. Hyundai gets the new hybrid, the extra width, and the 17-inch screen into U.S. stores in 2027. Sportage has to hold the current car through that year, then show up as a 2028 twin. Badge engineering is not new here. The timing is, because one sibling will look new while the volume leader still wears 2026 sheet metal.

What Buyers Lose When the 2.5 Exits

The current Sportage Hybrid already uses a 1.6 turbo and a 232-horsepower, 271 lb-ft setup, with front-drive EPA figures of 40/42/41 mpg and all-wheel-drive figures of 35/36/35. Kia’s hybrid pricing that starts at $30,590 for the 2027 LX, plus $1,495 destination, is $1,600 above the gas LX. The plug-in hybrid starts at $40,590, or $47,390 in X-Line Prestige form. Output is 268 horsepower with 34 miles of electric range. That hybrid is also why the compact still moves: the 2026 Sportage Hybrid still undercuts Toyota on the compact lot, and Kia said Sportage Hybrid volume jumped 40 percent in August 2026.

The sixth generation is expected to throw out the 2.5 as the base engine and put the Tucson’s 1.6 turbo, and the dual-motor hybrid, under every hood. Peak gas horsepower barely moves, 187 to about 184, but the character does: a smaller turbo four, an eight-speed on gas Tucsons, a six-speed on the hybrid, and a fuel-economy target of 42 mpg if Kia matches Hyundai’s front-drive number. Towing on a hybrid could rise from the current 2,000 pounds toward Tucson’s 3,000 if the hardware is shared. That is not in a Kia press kit yet.

2027 STICKERS STILL ON THE LOT

A next Sportage that copies Tucson’s screens, Gleo, and wider body will not live at $28,990 for long, even if Kia tries to hold a gas LX in that neighborhood. The 2027 Tucson is widely expected to open in the low $30,000s. Plug-in availability is the open mechanical question. Hyundai lists a Tucson PHEV for some markets and has not committed one for every region; the same fork will show up on Sportage, including talk of a range-extender in place of a plug-in in some countries. Until Kia speaks, the U.S. car should be read as gas turbo plus hybrid, with a plug-in possible rather than promised.

The 2026 Facelift Barely Had Time to Land

Fifth-generation Sportage broke cover in the summer of 2021 and reached U.S. lots as a 2023 model. The 2026 facelift, with those tall lamps, is still new in driveways. The next body is already in Spain, Germany, and Korea. Korean crossovers have been on a short clock, and this one is short even by that standard: a top seller refreshed, then replaced, inside about five U.S. model years. That cadence is what people clocking the mules keep coming back to, because the current car has not had a long run in which to go stale.

FROM THE FIFTH GEN TO THE WRAPPED MULE

1. Summer 2021: Kia reveals the fifth-generation Sportage.
2. 2023 model year: U.S. sales of the current generation begin.
3. 2026 model year: A facelift with taller lamp clusters reaches dealers.
4. July 2026: A camouflaged sixth-generation mule is photographed in Europe.
5. September 2026: Lighter-wrapped mules run hot-weather and towing tests in Spain.
6. October 1, 2026: Hyundai unveils the long-wheelbase Tucson in New York.
7. October 5, 2026: Baldauf’s Sportage frames show the boxier greenhouse and a tailpipe.

A global reveal in 2027, then a 2028 U.S. model year, is the working calendar, not a dated invitation. Gas 2027 Sportages, including some built at West Point, Georgia, remain the cars on dealer pads. Hybrid 2027 stock is dual-sourced, including the Metaplant in Savannah. The mule does not change any of that this autumn. It only shows where Kia is taking the nameplate after the cheap, 2.5-liter compact has done the heavy lifting.

Tucson will be the new hybrid in U.S. compact rows in 2027. Seltos and EV3 will be the Kias that still look and price small. The wrapped Sportage, boxier and almost certainly turbo-hybrid, is being built for the shopper who wants that extra inch of width and a cabin that matches the new Hyundai, not for the buyer who came for $28,990 and a 2.5-liter four.