NHTSA Complaint #11553611 — 2023 KIA SORENTO HYBRID

Vehicle loses power from combustion engine and drives only on electric battery. Hybrid system doesn’t engage correctly and vehicle will accelerate extremely slowly after a delay and will only achieve roughly 30 mph with accelerator fully pressed. This vehicle has been sent to the dealer multiple times and they have recreated the problem. However even after parts being replaced and connections being replaced the problem persists. Vehicle can be inspected anytime. My family has been in several near collisions with oncoming traffic due to the vehicle moving after a delay and then at a much slower than expected pace. Pulling out in to traffic is nearly impossible when the vehicle malfunctions. It has also depleted the entire battery and left us motionless on the side of the road multiple times. Due to the problem being intermittent and not reliably duplicated a service technician was given permission to use the vehicle to commute to and from work for a time. This allowed him to experience the issue in person. The vehicle has been inspected multiple times by the dealers service department and they have been working with engineers from the manufacturer. When this problem occurs there typically is not a warning light or a code stored. They believe it is a faulty connection. This issue will cause an accident in the future if not resolved. The manufacturer has not been able to determine what is causing the issue. They also have not been concerned with our safety and have released the vehicle back to us 3 times stating that it is fixed yet the problem persists.