For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Kia Sportage PHEV are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The Ford Bronco doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Sportage PHEV X-Line Prestige has standard Parking Collision Avoidance-Reverse that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Bronco doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Sportage PHEV has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Only the Bronco Big Bend/Outer Banks/Badlands/Stroppe/Raptor/Heritage offers Cross Traffic Alert and the Bronco’s Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the Sportage PHEV uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The Bronco uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the Sportage PHEV and the Bronco have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, rearview cameras and available around view monitors.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates the general design of front seat head restraints for their ability to protect front seat occupants from whiplash injuries. The IIHS also performs a dynamic test on those seats with “good” or “acceptable” geometry. In these ratings, the Sportage PHEV with standard seats is safer than the Bronco:
|
Sportage PHEV |
Bronco |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Head Restraint Design |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Distance Below Top of Head |
-24 mm |
20 mm |
Dynamic Test Rating |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Seat Design |
Pass |
Pass |
Torso Acceleration |
10.1 g’s |
13.8 g’s |
Neck Force Rating |
Low |
Medium |
Max Neck Shearing Force |
3 |
132 |
Max Neck Tension |
383 |
770 |
(Lower numerical results are better in all tests.)
The Kia Sportage PHEV achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The Bronco is not a “Top Safety Pick” for 2024.