Kia have been turning up the heat on their upcoming all-new Sportage model by taking it California’s Death Valley for the final stages of development testing.
The all-new Kia Sportage, which was unveiled earlier this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show ahead of a sales launch early next year, is undergoing what Kia describes as the most rigorous testing programme it has ever subjected one of their models to.
California’s Death Valley one of the hottest environments on Earth, with summer temperatures of up to 56ºC testing the Sportage’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC) to their limits. An up-hill climb test, where the Sportage’s cabin temperature is allowed to reach over 50ºC before being driven from sea level to almost 5,000 feet elevation at 62mph, is designed to test the system’s ability to cool the car and its occupants even under heavy strain. A second test in the appropriately named Furnace Creek area of Death Valley saw engineers run the Sportage at 25mph for two minutes before stopping and idling for a further two minutes, repeating the process over and over to test the engine, gearbox, and HVAC systems under simulated urban congestion conditions. The third test devised by Kia’s engineers saw the Sportage taken on a 30 minute, 25mph drive around Badwater Basin, at 282 feet below sea level the lowest point in North America, to test the HVAC system’s capacity when airflow into the air conditioning condenser unit is dramatically reduced.
These extreme test were in addition to Kia’s standard hot weather tests carried out at the manufacturer’s own North American testing facility deep in the Mojave Desert. Located 110 miles from Los Angeles, the Mojave Proving Ground consists of 75 miles of paved and off-road surfaces, a high-speed oval, high-vibration road surfaces, and brake test facilities designed to test new model’s to their limits.
The all-new Kia Sportage is the fourth-generation of the model, and is coming to the end of an extensive development programme which has seen a fleet of test vehicles complete the equivalent of around 137 circulations of the equator. When released early in 2016, the all-new Kia Sportage will come with Kia’s renowned 7-year, 100,000-mile warranty.
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