Ian Waller and his family test out this seven seater hybrid that could be perfect for the school run
How’s the school run going? And the pick-ups from netball, judo, recorder recitals and history club? Then there’s the trips to see mates, drop-offs at the boyfriend’s, nipping into town for trainers and – well, you get the idea… The family taxi is a well used vehicle, which is not a great thing during these days of escalating fuel prices.
So we decided to try out the car that the very friendly people at Kia suggested would be an ideal solution, the snappily titled Kia Sorento ‘4’ 1.6 PHEV T-GDi Auto AWD, a plug-in hybrid that combines a 1.6 turbo petrol engine with an electric motor providing up to 43 miles of cleaner, cheaper city driving and way below the price of unleaded.
Our job wasn’t to test its 0-60 mph times or give it a Top Gear style blindfolded trek to Scotland and back while juggling koalas. Instead, it was to see how it works for a family of five during a typical week of school runs and domestic duties, combined with a couple of days out.
Our first impression is how big it is. No, not Range Rover taking up two spaces at Tesco’s car park big, but certainly higher and with more headroom than our Vauxhall Zafira, which made it an immediate hit with our six-foot (and growing) 14 year old son. It’s also extremely comfy, with seats that move and adapt to just about any body shape, making longer journeys a pleasure.
Our 11 year old, meanwhile, was dazzled by the rich array of gadgets and gizmos that took up every surface around the driver, including, he announced with great excitement, seven USB charging points! Actually, on the subject of those charging points, crikey they top a phone’s battery up quickly, something that’s incredibly useful for parents who use their phones for diarising everything from household chores to work duties, as well as the kids keeping up with high-scores and TikTok.
This car really does have more bells and whistles than a Trowbridge carnival marching band, including electric and heated seats and steer wheel, sunroof, parking sensors, an array of driving modes and driving displays. There’s even a choice of ambient sounds to help relax the driver, including rain fall, crunching snow and ocean waves.
Our first task for the Sorento was pick-up from three different schools, followed by a drop-off to an evening job at McDonalds, which meant making the most of the car’s electric mode. This wasn’t the first electric car we tried – both the Kia Niro and the Nissan Leaf have their positives, although neither offers three rows of seats, meaning you can have all of the family on board plus room for the grandparents or a couple of mates.
The electric mode is superb, so smooth, plenty of power and swift acceleration, plus it’s incredibly easy to use – just turn the dial to D and you’re away. Charging is either by plugging in at home or using a public charger (more on that later). With the battery on charge, we managed a round the trip from Bath to Radstock (about 12 miles) and back, plus a bit of running around before the petrol motor kicked in.
Once in petrol mode, the Sorento is still so much quicker and smoother than our old Vauxhall. And if you’re not sure which power source to use when, don’t worry, there’s clever computery bits working out which one to use and when, and even combining the two when the car needs an extra little oomph.
As for space, with the very back seats down, there’s plenty of room in the boot for our family needs, plus we felt it would easily deal with a camping trip away, complete with mountains of tents, fold-up everythings and other camping supplies.
The real test for space using all three rows of seats was a trip to Warminster Park with two adults, four children, two scooters, two skateboards and all the associated pads, helmets, water bottles and just stuff. With the seven seats engaged, the boot space is suddenly very limited – enough for the scooters and not a lot else, meaning that any other bit and pieces went into the footwells. The good news, however, is that all three lots of seats other plenty of foot room and headroom – very handy for children who can grow inches by the week and are soon looking down on dad’s bald spot.
As for the battery charging, well this wasn’t a smooth experience. The Sorento came with two leads, one to plug it into a household three pin club for charging at home and one for use at public charging points or if you can have one fitted at home. As we don’t have a driveway, we couldn’t use the homecharger, so were keen to give the public charging points a go.
The first of these was during that trip to Warminster, with a GeniePoint outside Morrisons. With the app downloaded and all my details added, the charger still refused to work. Two phone calls to the helpline eventually got things going but with just 30 minutes left, it made very little difference on the state of the battery.
Our second and third goes were at a similar point in Charlotte Street car park in Bath. The first time around it only took one call to the helpline and yes, the charging worked fine, with a two hour charge costing £3.63 and giving us about a quarter of a full charge – enough for getting to school the next morning. A second effort the next day saw yet another call to the helpline, resulting in us basically being told the charger wasn’t working.
Chatting with other owners of electric cars, their sage advice was to invest in a high speed charger at home which will charge the battery enough in an evening for those school runs.
So did we like the Sorento hybrid? We loved it! It’s a wonderful family car with loads of space, oodles of gadgets and that battery power to help provide a certain level of green credentials, while also saving on fuel for the school run. Yes, you will certainly have to invest in a home charger, although the petrol engine will ensure that even if you do run out of charge, you won’t be left stranded.