I think it is fair and quite accurate to say that the KIA Optima saloon has not been one of KIA’s biggest success stories in the UK in recent years. Yes, for the eagle eyed out there who watch a bit of telly, the Optima can regularly be seen dressed up in Police clothes, and playing a supporting role in many TV shows. Some even made an appearance in a James Bond film but other than that you don’t see many on British roads. There are many reasons for this: saloons of this size are not popular, unless they have a premium badge on the boot and bonnet, it is relatively unknown and KIA have concentrated, quite rightly, on more popular shapes, sizes and image, notably the very popular and very good Sportage.
Now a more practical and flexible Optima has been introduced in the form of an estate. It seems to have been a long time coming, so have KIA missed the boat with their first D-Segment estate?
The Sportswagon is powered by a 1.7-litre CRDi diesel engine that produces 139bhp, accelerating from 0-60mph in 9.8 seconds when fitted with a 6-speed manual and 10.7 seconds with the very smooth 7-speed DCT automatic. Top speed is 124mph and the CO2 figure is 113g/km for the manual and 120g/km for the auto. Official fuel consumption figures range from 61.4mpg on the DCT and 64.2mpg on the manual.
The Sportswagon has been designed in Europe and will only be sold in Europe. It is very stylish but this style does not come at the expense of room, practicality or versatility. With the rear seats folded, it has a capacity of 1,686-litres and with them up the cargo space is 552-litres, including two underfloor trays. The rear seats are easy to fold down and back up and when folded down the floor is fairly flat and very useable, also the floor is level with the rear bumper making loading easy.
The Sportswagon is identical in length to the saloon at 4,855 mm, same width at 1,860 mm but is slightly taller by 5mm, which is due to the roof rails, which are standard.
We drove the Sportswagon on the outskirts of Munich on a very hot day in August and the air-conditioning worked a treat and the air coming out of the vents felt and smelled very fresh and nice. This Optima drove really well and couldn’t really find any faults with it – in true KIA style the designers, engineers and assembly personnel have thought about everything and got it right.
There are four models in the range: ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘3-DCT’ and ‘GT-Line S DCT’ with prices ranging from £22,295 to £30,595. All the models have a high level of standard specification.
As we know the D-Sector is not as popular as it once was, with SUV’s and smaller people carriers at the top of the popularity list these days. The Sportswagon, as good as it is and as good as it looks will suffer, as others too are suffering as they are just not as popular as they once were.
After driving the Sportswagon, we then drove the saloon PHEV, which is KIA’s first Plug-In hybrid model. It is powered by a 2.0-litre petrol engine (154bhp) and coupled to an electric motor (67bhp) which between them produce 202bhp, I know that doesn’t add up, but there is a reason for it, as when they work together they never produce the maximum amount of power at the same time or something like that, all a bit too technical for me. It accelerates from 0-60mph in 9.4 seconds and has a CO2 figure of just 37g/km. The official fuel consumption figure is 176.6mpg, but this figure is very difficult to explain and achieve.
You plug it in for a few hours and hey-presto, you get a fully charged battery, with a range of up to 33 miles. So in theory, you could charge it up every night, go 30 miles the next day on electric only and repeat that month after month and the engine would never fire-up and your miles per gallon would be massive. You could in theory achieve 1000’s of miles per gallon. But in reality, life doesn’t work like that for the majority of people and you travel further than 30 miles at a time and would need the 2.0-litre petrol engine and that is when the fuel consumption goes up, to a more realistic figure.
We set off with almost a full battery and managed quite a few miles on pure-electric and the mpg was sky high. When driving this PHEV it is very difficult to tell when you are in EV mode or being powered by petrol and the transition between the two is seamless and quiet, you really do not feel it being swopped between one to the other. The battery will also charge whilst driving with the engine and this gives you more electric power range, a very clever system and a system where the driver really doesn’t have to do anything, just drive it and the car will do the rest.
Prices do not come cheap for this advanced technology, as it costs £31,495.00 – after the Government £2,500 Plug-In car grant but does offer fantastic benefits to company car drivers with huge savings on BIK.
The Optima PHEV does offer a lot of car for the money but there will still be resistance by many to buying a 2.0-litre petrol engine car, with technology they are still wary but things are changing and legislation is getting tighter and therefore more and more of these types of cars will be about, so they had better get used it, like it or not.
Optima Sportswagon
Summary stats:
On the road price £22,295.00 to £30,595.00
Diesel: 1.7 CRDi 139 BHP
CO2 113 to 120 g/km
Combined MPG 64.2 to 61.4 MPG
Gearboxes 6 Speed Manual & 7 Speed DCT Automatic
New options and features:
Lane keep assist – Standard on 3 & GT-Line
Rear cross traffic alert – Standard on GT-Line
Reversing camera – Standard on all
Navigation system – Standard on all (7” screen on 1 and 8” on rest)
Metallic paint - £545 option on all
Optima PHEV Saloon
Summary stats:
On the road price £33,995.00 before grant
Petrol Electric Hybrid: 2.0 GDi 202 BHP Combined
CO2 37 g/km
Combined MPG 176.6 MPG
Gearbox 6 Speed Automatic
New options and features:
Wireless Smartphone charger – Standard
Around View Monitor – Standard
Harman Kardon Premium audio system with 10 speakers and amplifier – Standard
LED headlights - Standard
