35 mm. A tiny number for a car body — but it lands exactly where passengers will feel it. ShortsCar has picked apart a new pre-production prototype of the sixth-generation Kia Sportage, and the first finding alone is worth stopping for: the wheelbase measures roughly 2,790 mm, versus the official 2,755 mm on today's Korean-spec Sportage. And there's more — the same prototype was spotted wearing 20-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport tires — the current Korean model tops out at 19 inches.
Don't rush to the easy math, though. Today's Sportage exists in different body specs: the Korean car rides on a 2,755 mm wheelbase, while the European fifth-generation version sits on just 2,680 mm. So the claim that "the European Sportage only grows by 35 mm" is premature. Kia hasn't revealed the sixth generation's dimensions yet, and hasn't confirmed whether a separate short-wheelbase European body will even survive.
The design shift, on the other hand, is already legible in the prototype. The front end has turned noticeably more upright, and the hood and fenders echo the electric EV5, with a camera built into the grille and a radar mounted below it. Around back, expect vertical rectangular taillights with turn signals pushed down low. One thing Kia didn't go for: flush door handles. The test car keeps ordinary mechanical ones. Still, these details belong to the spotted prototype for now, not to any confirmed production spec.
The real leap looks set to happen inside. The source points to a new steering wheel and a large Pleos Connect display — and that's not idle talk, since the platform is already official. Hyundai Motor Group rolled it out in 2026 and plans to gradually spread it across Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, growing the Pleos Connect fleet to roughly 20 million vehicles by 2030. The 17-inch screen size and its debut specifically on the Sportage, though, Kia hasn't confirmed separately.
The engine lineup isn't settled either. According to Korean Car Blog, Korea and Europe could move entirely to MHEV, HEV and PHEV power — with no unelectrified version left standing. That would track with where the current lineup is heading: today's Sportage HEV already comes with a 239-horsepower setup, so the shift feels almost inevitable. But Kia hasn't published an official NQ6 engine lineup, and sources still expect the US market to keep a separate gasoline version.
The stakes here run higher than a routine generation change. The Sportage is Kia's best-selling model worldwide: the brand sold 569,688 of them in 2025. So every extra millimeter of cabin space, every piece of new electronics, and the shift toward hybridization touch the brand's biggest global product — not some experimental side model.
The next real checkpoint is the official dimension reveal. That's what will show whether 2,790 mm becomes the production figure for the global Sportage, or whether it only applies to one long-wheelbase prototype spec. Until then, the 20-inch wheels, the 17-inch screen and the hybrid-only lineup should be treated as preliminary.
