
Not every crossover or SUV has the brains and ability to keep you from slipping on the road during winter. In a recent test of the Kia Sportage Hybrid, I can tell you that the traction control worked as expected — even after putting the Sportage through a few unique scenarios.
I live in Minnesota where winter can be unpredictable. We thought we had a reprieve from heavy snow up until a couple of weeks before the holiday break. Then it hit with a barrage of snow, dropping about 4-5 inches in the space of only a few hours.
Fortunately, the Kia Sportage Hybrid has a snow mode where you can hug the road a bit tighter. It works using a variety of techniques, and I tested each one.
First, snow mode adjusts the engine torque. A lot of tailspins and slippage can occur when you punch it a little too much and start sliding out. Snow mode basically prevented that in my first test case, taking a hard right turn onto a highway. Instead of slipping, the Sportage simply throttled back and didn’t let me accelerate as fast.
Second, the vehicle provides equal torque to all four wheels. This is rather remarkable when you are the one trying to get some tire slip. I headed to a local grocery store parking lot and did a quick turn in an empty area. The tires tended to hug the road even in about two inches of snow. No problem there.
The transmission is also adjusted in snow mode to make shorter shifts that don’t cause the punchy, sudden acceleration you might want on a morning commute. Instead, the shifts are barely noticeable. I tried punching it on a country road in that storm and the Sportage stayed nice and centered on the road, managing the tire slip.
Then, in a safe area, I tried braking quickly as well at low speed. The Sportage uses a Traction Control System (TCS) to apply lighter brake pressure automatically when you are in snow mode, making sure you don’t start sliding. Once again, I was impressed that this feature worked as expected as well, since I didn’t start sliding and the vehicle slowed down more gradually.
Curiously, you barely notice all of this when you are driving, as it should be. You just notice that you are not sliding around. For me, the main issue is that I sometimes forget to actually use the snow mode and I wished it engaged automatically using an AI that knows you are driving on snow. I believe that is coming soon enough in modern cars.
For now, snow mode worked surprisingly well during all my test scenarios, even if a couple of passengers got tired of me pulling off to a deserted parking lot to test things out. What’s great about the feature, if you remember to engage snow mode, is that it just works in the background and you don’t have to think about it at all.
Combined with snow tires on the Sportage, the vehicle hugged the road during all of my testing and seemed like a good match for unpredictable Minnesota winters.