2025 Kia Sorento Hybrid Fuel system Problems

I purchased a 2025 Kia Sorento Hybrid from Dulles Kia. Since I've owned it, I've had the same problem three times — my car randomly goes into limp mode while I'm driving. It doesn't matter what speed I'm going. The car just starts slowing down on its own, won't let me accelerate, and the RPMs start surging up and down. It's terrifying. The first time it happened, it was towed to Fayetteville Kia. They couldn't even recreate the problem. They redownloaded some software and sent me on my way. The second time it happened, it was taken to Herson's Kia in Rockville. This time they were able to recreate it. They told me it was the fuel pump and replaced it under warranty. Now it's happened again — this time while I was on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland. I was stranded with my two dogs, one of which is my service animal. I had to arrange a tow and find a last-minute hotel out of pocket. The car is currently at Pohanka Kia in Salisbury. They first told me it was a fuel injector, then changed their diagnosis to a valve seal issue — and apparently it's a known issue with this type of vehicle. It has now been sitting at the dealership for over a week. This is the third time the same problem has occurred. It has ruined multiple vacations and left me stranded, stressed, and without my car for extended periods. I just want a car that works.

NHTSA ID

11748306

Incident

Apr 19, 2026

For an unknown reason when driving on the highway in heavy traffic the engine started to shake violently causing us to immediately pull over and when we opened the hood the engine was shaking violently. This was a dangerous situation because during this time the engine was not very responsive to input. No warning lights came on at all.

NHTSA ID

11746457

Incident

May 29, 2026

My 2025 Kia Sorento Hybrid, with approximately 20,000 miles, has experienced a sudden loss of power and entered a limp-mode condition twice within two days. During both incidents, the vehicle would not accelerate normally and was unable to maintain expected traffic speed, creating a significant safety hazard. No warning lights, warning messages, or check-engine light appeared before or during either event. After the incidents, no OBD-II diagnostic trouble codes were present. Stopping and starting the vehicle restored normal operation temporarily, but the problem reoccurred. The sudden and unexplained loss of propulsion without any warning or stored fault codes increases the risk of a crash, particularly when merging, passing, or driving in traffic.

NHTSA ID

11744877

Incident

Jun 17, 2026

Around XXX the car was suddenly unable to accelerate properly. When pushing the accelerator, the engine would rev only after a long lag, would rev significantly higher than normal without shifting, and the acceleration response was dramatically less than usual. It felt as if the engine simply had no power, or at times almost as if something were resisting the engine. It made it nearly impossible to accelerate past roughly 40mph and the response in acceleration from the pedal was very unpredictable. A mechanic was able to replicate the issue and it was initially attributed to the high pressure fuel pump. Roughly a week after the pump was replaced in early August 2024, the issue occurred again and was again replicated by the dealer and attributed to the fuel sensor, which was replaced. The issue then re-occurred on June 14, 2026. The car is currently in the shop awaiting diagnosis and repair. At no point during any of these instances did any warning appear on the dashboard or anywhere else in the car. The parts are not available for inspection, it is unclear to me who from Kia or any other organization has examined them beyond the dealership (Kia of Riverdale in Riverdale, NJ). The safety of the car’s occupants and potentially other motorists was put at risk by acceleration performing radically differently than would be anticipated from a properly functioning car. The issue was noted several times, including while pulling out of a parking lot onto a busy road and while attempting to keep up with traffic on a busy divided highway.

NHTSA ID

11744327

Incident

Jul 20, 2024

1/24/26 -- While driving ~25-30mph (~2 miles from start of trip) car produced “Engine Management System error” and within a minute or so “Check Hybrid System. Stop Safely” warning and went into electric only mode, limp mode. Turning off the car and turning back on temporarily enabled the gas engine to run. Dealer reviewed fault codes and stated vehicle was now running correctly. ~800 miles and less than 30days later the same problem occurred again. 2/17 – While driving ~30mph (~1mile from start of trip) the car produced a “Engine Management System error”. At this point I was approaching a traffic light and stopped at the red light. Decided to return home and attempted to turn right on red at the light. When I hit the gas to turn, the gas engine did not engage, the car limped forward a few feet in electric mode, and the car started beeping with the “Check Hybrid System. Stop Safely” warning. If I had less less space when turning right, or the car would have a moved a few feet farther, I would have been hit in the intersection by an oncoming car. Thankfully I had left a lot of space and my car did not pull that far into the intersection. I turned the car off, when I turned the car on again, the gas engine engaged, and I was able to slowly drive the 1 mile home. Car was then towed to the dealer 2/18 for repair. As of 3/17 dealer still has the vehicle (so do not have a second repair invoice) and waiting on an Customer Care escalation from KIA as dealer recalibrated the Hybrid module but can't recreate the issue after driving 400miles. This issue leaves the car in a limp mode with a significant chance of causing a accident, I was almost hit, when there is loss of ability to accelerate at any meaningful rate or drive any sustained distance.

NHTSA ID

11725121

Incident

Feb 17, 2026

Incident #1: Car suddenly and without warning had complete loss of power, with gas engine shutting off and only using battery power. Car was traveling at 45mph in morning traffic. Pedal was pushed to the floor, but car would only go a maximum of 20mph. Warning dash lights then appeared saying "Hybrid Malfunction/Pull Over Immediately/Turn off car". I was able to pull off road and turn off car and then turn back on. Car ran normally the 2 miles back home. Incident #2: 2 days later, while driving my kids to school the car again, suddenly and without warning had complete loss of power, with gas engine shutting off and only using battery power. Again, warning dash lights: "Check Hybrid System. Stop Safely!". I did so and car ran normally back to my house (distance approx: 2.5 miles). I immediately called KIA of Beaverton and they said to have it towed right away. Once at dealer, they were unable to diagnose any issues and said that no codes showed up, but also said that the car "deleted codes". Car was in shop for 2 days and determined "car operates as designed." I picked up the car. Incident #3: 7 days later, with kids in the car, again car had complete power loss with no warning. Warning lights again told of "Check Hybrid System. Stop Safely!" Pulled over (in heavy Friday rush hour traffic) and turned off car. Turned on again, but this time car drove for less than a quarter mile before complete power loss happened again with all warning lights. This time we took video of the car not having power, all the warning lights etc. as evidence. We turned off the car and upon turning it on, it instantly had no power. We pulled car over and had to park it that night at a local business for towing. Car was towed again to Beaverton KIA. Again, dealer said they were not able to replicate problem after driving 250 miles on it. Insisted we pick up car, despite numerous comm's saying how unsafe we felt taking it. Dealer claimed KIA told them to remove .5 Qt of oil.

NHTSA ID

11715726

Incident

Jan 13, 2026

While driving, have had the engine of my 25 Sorento Hybrid stop working. An emergency notice comes on the screen (see photo) stating to pull over safely. The hybrid system error message has come on 4-5 times in the last month. The vehicle will not drive more than 15-20 miles per hour and has virtually no acceleration making it very dangerous to drive in or around high speed/traffic areas. Took it to a local Kia dealership where I was told nothing was wrong and their only guess was that it was related to the battery and cold weather. The same messaged/incident has happened 2x since bringing it into the dealership. With the most recent being 1/22/26. Problem first arose on 1/9/26. There are dozens of reports of this in online threads over the past few months with Kia hybrid engines

NHTSA ID

11712750

Incident

Jan 9, 2026

Will be driving when it switches to EV mode it will have no power and go into limp mode. Can't go over 30 mph. This is now the second time this has happened. Dealership tried to say it was because of temperature. Come on.

NHTSA ID

11708773

Incident

Jan 5, 2026

Dad, driving back with Daughter, noticed a brief and unusual delay between shifts, but was able to make it home fine. A few minutes later, Mom left for picking up Son after school. On the way there, she noticed sluggish acceleration, louder engine sounds/effort on acceleration and mild slopes, and there was a lag in acceleration response. After powering off the vehicle and sit in idle to recharge battery, restarted trip home and was unable to get acceleration response up the hills, doing only 20 MPH. Engine was struggling and not getting any acceleration response. No check engine lights were generated as usual. Dad called Service Manager at Kia Temecula and he said to call Kia Roadside Assistance to come tow the car to them. He also said that likely we'll be out of pocket to do any car rentals until they have a car to loan to us.

NHTSA ID

11681718

Incident

Aug 19, 2025

Driving on highway car would suddenly lose power.it has happened 7 times. 4 times the car told you to get off road pull to sideband leave engine running to have battery recharge.after doing this sometimes it would allow you to continue.not always sometimes would continue to have no power. car has been to 2 dealerships nothing resolved yet. they tell me to wait.

NHTSA ID

11680885

Incident

Apr 16, 2025

There have been 2 incidents. First, I was going down a steep incline and used my paddles to down shift and up shift. When I entered the flat area the car lost power 25mph to 38 mph. I was unable to go any faster. This continued until I shut off car. Then it went back to normal. A few days later driving on flat streets it lost power again in the same way. I returned home shut off car and it started up as usual again. I took it to dealer and it has been with them 4 days. They were unaware of any other complaints and cannot locate the problem. I have to take grandkids to school and activities a few times a week. This is very dangerous especially on the freeway. Found similar problems on Internet.

NHTSA ID

11664658

Incident

May 26, 2025

Incident #1 ([XXX]) - while driving on [XXX} at 70 MPH in Sarasota I experienced and complete loss of engine power. The car coasted from 70 MPH down to 35 MPH until the EV kicked in. I was very fortunate as were the other driers not be involved in a serious accident. I reported this situation to Kia NA and was assigned this case number [XXX] Kia had the car from [XXX] until [XXX]. They told me the problem was a defective fuel rail pressure sensor . The assured us the car was fixed Incident #2 ([XXX]) [XXX] days later with four passengers in the car we experienced the exact same problem while driving on [XXX], a complete loss if engine power. Kia has the car now and assigned a case number of [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11645012

Incident

Jan 29, 2025