2023 Kia Sorento Hybrid

The contact owns a 2023 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that while driving approximately 40 MPH on several occasions, the vehicle stalled after the battery became drained. The vehicle was able to restart each time after waiting for the battery to recharge. The vehicle was taken to two different dealers on three occasions. During the first two visits, the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. On the third visit, the failure was duplicated, but the dealer was unable to provide a cause for the failure. During a visit to the dealer, the vehicle stalled while a mechanic was driving it, and the vehicle was towed back to the dealer. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 25,000.

While driving on September 15, 2025, the vehicle displayed a loud beeping and the warning message “Check Hybrid System. Stop Safely.” The vehicle restarted about an hour later, but the combustion engine ran very rough. The Kia dealer inspected it but reported no stored error codes. On September 23, 2025, the vehicle suddenly lost power while driving. It appeared to operate only on electric at low speed, then died completely in the roadway. The vehicle would not power down until the start/stop button was held. It required a tow back to the dealer. Prior to the first incident, a faint electrical smoldering odor was present. The vehicle remains at the Kia dealer for evaluation. This is a serious safety concern because the vehicle experienced sudden loss of motive power and stalling in traffic, which put both myself and others at risk. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

I was driving down the highway when my vehicle shut off with no warning and the parking break engaged. I was stuck in the travel lane with cars flying by me going 50 plus MPH. My vehicle has 7000 miles on it. According to KIA the hybrid battery failed and they don’t know why. KIA has been no help and as far as I know they are not looking into this issue. Upon further research there has been multiple instances where this hybrid model has just shut down while the vehicle is moving and KIA has been unable to resolve the issue. Myself and my children could have been severely injured or killed. They need to get to the bottom of what is causing these hybrid batteries to fail on brand new vehicles.

Vehicle loses power from combustion engine and drives only on electric battery. Hybrid system doesn’t engage correctly and vehicle will accelerate extremely slowly after a delay and will only achieve roughly 30 mph with accelerator fully pressed. This vehicle has been sent to the dealer multiple times and they have recreated the problem. However even after parts being replaced and connections being replaced the problem persists. Vehicle can be inspected anytime. My family has been in several near collisions with oncoming traffic due to the vehicle moving after a delay and then at a much slower than expected pace. Pulling out in to traffic is nearly impossible when the vehicle malfunctions. It has also depleted the entire battery and left us motionless on the side of the road multiple times. Due to the problem being intermittent and not reliably duplicated a service technician was given permission to use the vehicle to commute to and from work for a time. This allowed him to experience the issue in person. The vehicle has been inspected multiple times by the dealers service department and they have been working with engineers from the manufacturer. When this problem occurs there typically is not a warning light or a code stored. They believe it is a faulty connection. This issue will cause an accident in the future if not resolved. The manufacturer has not been able to determine what is causing the issue. They also have not been concerned with our safety and have released the vehicle back to us 3 times stating that it is fixed yet the problem persists.

The contact owns a 2023 Kia Sorento Hybrid. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, a loud and squeaky noise was intermittently coming from the driver's side cabin. The Highway Driving Assist (HDA) system warning message was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where the failure could not be duplicated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 5,000.