As an interim a PHEV makes more sense than the self charge hybrid. I had one as a courtesy car last year. Battery capacity was very small. It kept switching from EV to ICE far too frequently. Seamless yes but annoying. In kick down the battery drained in seconds. Nice boost but , to me in that car (Kia) it was a waste of time. Basically, battery capacity was way too low. They didn’t have a pure EV available for a test drive so I couldn’t compare. I bought an ICE Sportage with turbo engine. A big improvement over the earlier Sportage. A lot of tech in it but after a few thousand miles the useful bits are worth it. The lane sensing is annoying though as it activates at weird places. It seems to pick up non lane markings, especially on bends, or fails to pick them up if old and worn. In the handbook there is a LONG list of possible false reading situations.
