Quick Take: 2014 Kia Optima Hybrid

If you were to ask me what I thought of Kia, I’d have said that Kias were the “Target” versions of Audis and BMWs. I’d have said that the Kia Stinger concept is a Target-brand version of the Audi Sport Quattro concept from the year before, for example, and that the brand aspired to be little more than a cheaper, more obtainable alternative to those “aspirational” German offerings. After a week behind the wheel of a 2014 Kia Optima Hybrid, however, I came away with a new-found respect for the brand- and a real appreciation for what the Kia Optima Hybrid is, rather than what it wants to be.

Which is good, because this car desperately wants to be an Audi or BMW, and has fallen well short of those marks in the ways that stereotypical gear head/auto journalists think matters. The thing is, though, that the 2014 Kia Optima Hybrid has, arguably, done a much better job than either Audi or BMW in ways that matter to, you know, ACTUAL car buyers. That’s my story, anyway – follow along, below, and see if you agree.

2014 Kia Optima Hybrid | Outside

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“Does it go as good as it looks?” asked my next-door neighbor, Frank, as I parked the Kia next to his van.

“Too soon to tell,” I answered. The car had only just been delivered a few minutes earlier, and I’d driven it around the block to adjust seats, mirrors, and (because it’s 2014) pair my phone and try out the sound system. “But, maybe.”

That would be a big ask, because this car is really, really good-looking- especially in the metallic, shimmery “Aluminum Silver” color that my tester came in. In a bid to “go as good as it looks”, Kia gave its latest Optima Hybrid 199 (combined) HP and some 235 lb-ft of torque. More than enough power, in other words, to get out of its own way while easily delivering on its 36/40 MPG EPA ratings, thanks to an EV mode that’s all you need in downtown Chicago traffic.

All the same, the Kia Optima Hybrid could have an extra 100 HP and 2 or 3 MPG thrown into the mix and the driving experience still might not equal the car’s looks. To give you an example of what I mean, all the photos you see here were taken in the late afternoon in a CarMax parking lot alongside I-290 with an older iPhone, and the car still looks fantastic.

2014 Kia Optima Hybrid | Inside

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The interior styling of the new Kia Optima is where you can really see the brand’s sporting ambitions. The two-tone interior looks like a million bucks, and- on looks- could easily be installed in a sporty luxo-go-fast coupe without raising any eyebrows. The car’s stylists did an excellent job, here, and everything worked. Controls were well-placed, functioned intuitively, and felt decent enough to operate. There is, though, the small matter of the material choices.

“This car is giving me cancer,” said my wife. “If I get cancer later in life, it’s because I sat in this car.”

What Dr. Maggie was referring to in that hyperbolic (?) diatribe was the fact that whatever chemical cocktail of fish oil, formaldehyde, and Armor All worked to keep the Kia Optima’s leather, vinyl, and rubber interior bits from cracking and drying out had a distinct odor to it. A “stink”, if you will, that drew attention to the fact that the “piano black” plastics were really just cheap and shiny. To me, the stink was forgivable (it will dissipate over the course of the car’s ownership, surely), especially considering that the Optima Hybrid’s tech-heavy interior looked a step above the BMW 328 I also drove that week … and the BMW’s price tag was some $20,000 higher than the fully-loaded Kia’s.

2014 Kia Optima Hybrid | Final Thoughts

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Earlier in this post, I mentioned that Kia had ticked all the boxes that mattered to people who buy new cars? I feel like, with the Optima’s low-ish price, solid performance, outstanding fuel economy, and 10 year, 100,000 warranty, it would be hard to call it anything but a solid buy. Besides that, it looks like a million bucks, and no one I shared the car’s $35,000 price tag with balked (although, it must be said, that the most common response was, “What do you think it leases for?”).

Still that reasonable price comes with a few drawbacks, in addition to the stink, that may not be so reasonable. The trunk, for one example, displays some of the old “afterthought” engineering that early hybrids displayed. It was forgivable, maybe, in my 2009 Chevy Malibu Hybrid, but in 2014 it probably shouldn’t be. For another example, the Kia’s key fob kept falling off the key – something that happened enough times over the course of the week that, by the end, I’d begun to check my pockets in a panicked state several times an hour.

That’s not good.

All that said, though, I’d definitely recommend a car like the Kia Optima Hybrid to anyone looking for a sharp-looking commuter car. It is, maybe, ever so slightly putting style over substance in a lot of ways, but I know a more than a few people that do that every day, and I get the sense that the Kia Optima Hybrid would suit them quite well.

Source: Kia

Audi TT Offroad Concept Is Wireless And Weird

Combine a sporty coupe with the chassis of a compact SUV, sprinkle it with some wireless charging technology, and you get the Audi TT offroad concept. It’s weird. It’s wireless. It packs more than 400 horsepower and fuel economy 123 MPGe. Too bad it’s just a concept.

Adding a pair of doors to the Audi TT and stretching it out gives us the basic body style, though the chassis obviously has off-roading in mind. The plug-in drivetrain is similar to previous Audi concept vehicles like the Audi Allroad, Nanuck, and Sport Quattro concepts, offering limited electric driving and heaps upon heaps of horsepower.

In the case of the Audi TT offroad concept, a 2.0 liter turbo provides 292 horsepower, with another 116 horsepower coming coming from a pair of electric motors, for a total output of 408 horsepower and 479 ft-lbs of torque. That makes for a theoretical 0 to 62 MPH run of about 5.2 seconds, and the 12 kWh battery offers enough juice for up to 31 miles of electric driving range.

While just a concept, Audi oddly decided to include wireless charging technology as part of the package. It’s a strange addition for an off-road concept vehicle, and with just two paragraphs of a lengthy press release devoted to the wireless tech, it could simply be a feature added at the last moment for additional press exposure. Audi is working with companies like WiTricity (which also did projects for Toyota) to bring wireless EV and plug-in hybrid charging to the masses.

As for the Audi TT offroad? It will make its rounds on the show car circuit before being parked in what I assume is Audi’s high-tech, underground car vault, waiting for another day to inspire the future.

Source: Audi

Audi Sport Quattro Concept Is A 700 Horsepower Hybrid

700 horsepower. That’s the only number you need to know when it comes to the Audi Sport Quattro Concept, a bi-turbo V8 hybrid that the German automaker claims can return 31 miles of all-electric driving and up to 94 mpg. Those are just details though.

Speculation ahead of the official Audi reveal had hinted at some big horsepower numbers, but coupling a twin-turbo 4.0 liter V8 engine with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain certainly isn’t what I expected. The small V8 engine is good for 560 horsepower by itself, along with 516 ft-lbs of torque. That in and of itself is more than 98% of cars on the road.

Then Audi went a step further with a disc-shaped electric motor sandwiched between the engine and eight-speed tiptronic transmission. The motor adds another 140 horsepower, and peak system output reaches 700 horsepower and 590 ft-lbs of torque. The 14.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack provides enough juice for over 30 miles of pure-electric driving, and in Hybrid mode the Audi Sport Quattro Concept can supposedly deliver up to 94 mpg.

Yet Audi has fallen short in a few regards, especially when it comes to curb weight. Despite extensive use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers and aluminum in the place of steel, the Audi Sport Quattro Concept still comes in at a hefty 4,078 pounds. The only thing heavier would be the price tag, should Audi actually build it.

And they probably won’t. Instead the Audi Sport Quattro Concept another showpiece from an automaker trying to draw in the dollars of the uber-wealthy with high-end hybrids focused on performance. Billionaires don’t have to worry about fuel economy, though the hope is this technology will eventually trickle down into more “pedestrian” models. While that doesn’t dampen my excitement for any 700 horsepower hybrid, it is a reminder of what this Audi concept car is really all about.

Source: Audi