2024 Kia Sorento PHEV

On 3 separate occasions, while idling, the engine will sputter as if it’s about to cut off. The RPM will rise and fall and the engine will rev up and down and finally it will quiet down. Once the light is green, It is able to drive as normal. At the next light the same thing happens and the engine revs up and down sounds like it’s about to die. At a certain point the car will lose propulsion,(hard to notice at first when it’s stop and go traffic) even with the pedal all the way down, making it difficult to drive at a safe speed. The car will operate this way in a very limited capacity w stuttered propulsion for a minute or two then a warning symbol and alarm sounds letting me know there is a safety issue with the hybrid system and to stop safely. The car then becomes completely unresponsive and you must stop immediately and shut the car off. Once restarted the car jolts back up and operates somewhat normally.

NHTSA ID

11704560

Incident

Dec 10, 2025

We parked our vehicle and turned it off to go get dessert. Upon returning after 15 minutes, I pushed the "start/stop" button with my foot on the brake, and the car powered on but for some reason it thought it was in D. The car refused to start and kept showing a message to put the car into P. However, the P button wasn't responding when pushed, and no matter which direction I turned the shift dial, the car would not change from D. Pushing the P button did not change the status. We tried turning the car off by pushing the "start/stop" button, but it would not turn off and instead entered the accessory ON mode and kept showing a message to put the car in P in order for it to turn off. Our car would not turn off nor would it start. It was stuck in accessory ON mode. We did a Google search of our issue and discovered that this situation has happened to other HEV Kia Sorentos. It is through this search that we were able to try a quick solution of essentially doing a "hard reset" on the car by unplugging the main battery and plugging it back in. Thankfully, this worked so we could travel back home. However, access to rear battery was challenging because the rear hatch would not open while the car was in D. It required crawling to the back and adjusting the 3rd row to gain access to the battery. This strikes me as a computer system failure. It is not something consumers can fix on their own. Failure of this system strands drivers at their location of failure. We were lucky it happened in a parking lot but it could happen anywhere a person chooses to put their car into P. In addition, having the car stuck in accessory mode would eventually drain the energy out of the battery. At this point, the car would not operate. Prior to this incident, the car was operating fine. No symptoms or warnings. In fact, we had just finished lunch about 20 minutes before and had no problems turning the car on/off when parked. We have not had the car inspected as it just happened Saturday.

NHTSA ID

11570123

Incident

Feb 3, 2024

TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN: KEY AND CYLINDER SET REPLACEMENT - This bulletin provides information to replace the driver’s door lock and trunk lid key cylinders on some 2019-2024MY Kia vehicles listed below. On affected vehicles, the stored key code may not correspond to the mechanical key profile, which can result in incorrect key cutting when the original key is lost or damaged.

TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN: WARRANTY EXTENSION CAMPAIGN: REAR RH DOOR CURTAIN INSPECTION / REPLACEMENT (WTY043) - This bulletin provides information associated with the ‘Warranty Extension Program’ (WTY043) inspect and, if necessary replace the rear RH door curtain on certain 2023 - 2026MY Sorento Hybrid (MQ4 HEV) SX Prestige vehicles produced from June 27, 2022 through December 05, 2025 and certain 2023 – 2026MY Sorento Plug-In Hybrid (MQ4 PHEV) SX-Prestige vehicles produced from June 27, 2022 through November 22, 2025. The affected vehicle’s rear RH door curtain may not return to the fully retracted position. Under this program, the New Vehicle Warranty coverage for this condition is extended from 5 years / 60,000 miles to 10 years / 120,000 miles, whichever comes first, starting from the date the vehicle was first put into service.

TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETIN: INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM SOFTWARE UPDATE USING UPDATE.KIA.COM - This bulletin provides information and service procedures for updating the infotainment systems on applicable Kia vehicles using the Kia Navigation Updater available at update.kia.com. The software update may improve system performance, enhance existing features, and apply the latest operating software for supported vehicles (2021-2026MY All Models).

WARRANTY EXTENSION CAMPAIGN: REIMBURSEMENT FORM (WTY043) - This document is a Reimbursement Request form that was mailed with the customer letter advising them to submit the form if they had paid for repairs for this same matter prior to the warranty extension campaign program launch.

WARRANTY EXTENSION CAMPAIGN: OWNER NOTIFICATION (WTY043) - This document is the owner notification advising that Kia is extending the New Vehicle Limited Warranty coverage, to all owners, for certain repairs related to the rear right-hand (RH) door curtain in certain 2023-2026 MY Sorento Hybrid (HEV) SX-Prestige and Sorento Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) SX-Prestige vehicles from 5 years / 60,000 miles to 10 years / 120,000 miles, whichever comes first, starting from the date the vehicle was first put into service.

WARRANTY EXTENSION CAMPAIGN: DEALER PRINCIPAL MEMO (WTY043) - This document is the announcement to the dealer principals advising that Kia is extending the New Vehicle Limited Warranty coverage, to all owners, for certain repairs related to the rear right-hand (RH) door curtain in certain 2023-2026 MY Sorento Hybrid (HEV) SX-Prestige vehicles manufactured from June 27, 2022 through December 5, 2025 and certain 2023-2026 MY Sorento Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) SX-Prestige vehicles, manufactured from June 27, 2022 through November 22, 2025.