Home · 2018 Kia Sportage Phev Phev · Complaints

What 158 owners told NHTSA about the 2018 Kia Sportage Phev Phev

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (158)Crash / fire / injury (17)Engine (85)Electrical system (28)Transmission & drivetrain (17)Brakes (11)Fuel system (10)Steering (9)Speed control (8)Body & structure (6)Lights (6)Engine & cooling (5)

2 of 158 complaints match · Fuel system · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters

Mar 26, 2026Electrical systemEngineFuel systemFire

On 1/26/2024 approximately 9am, my husband had been driving on the highway for about 2 hours and pulled over to shut his eyes for a few minutes. He shut off the engine, closed his eyes and immediately smelled smoke. Black smoke began coming from under the hood and quickly got worse. He quickly got out of the car and walked away. He heard a loud pop sound and the engine area was engulfed in flames. He called 911. It took about 10 min for the fire dept to arrive and by then, the fire was being fed by the gas in the tank. They tried to put out the fire but the car burnt completely due to the gasoline. No one was hurt, thank goodness. There were no active lawsuits that I could find to get some compensation for this loss. We had to pay our high deductible and lost personal belongings in the car. This car did have an ongoing oil consumption issue. We had to replace the oil more frequently than normally required and it used much more oil than normal. We were told we had to wait for engine failure to get any kind of resolution.

NHTSA ODI 11727238

Oct 23, 2025EngineFuel systemFire

My vehicle make and model has been documented to have had engine issues which has caused car fires from the engine compartment from what has been documented this is my best guess.

NHTSA ODI 11695264

Working with the data? Download all 158 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 19, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2018 Kia Sportage Phev Phev verdict →