The Turtle-Charged Sportage
As part of Kia's Accelerate the Good Program, we've teamed up with Sea Turtle, Inc. to help baby sea turtles find their way home.
Sea turtles are critically endangered. Every year, they nest on our beaches. But only 1 in 1,000 turtle eggs survive to adulthood. Sea Turtle, Inc. is trying to change that, and Kia wanted to help. So we designed the first purpose-built rescue vehicle for sea turtles. We started with a Sportage X-Pro, with multi-terrain AWD, and completely customized it to be everything a sea turtle could need. With night-vision cameras, and red LED spot lights so that baby sea turtles can be safely released at night (regular lights disorient them). With sand-ready tires, a first aid kit, roof rack for tools, and even an algae bar, so when injured and rehabilitated sea turtles are transported, they can enjoy a little snack during the ride. Plus, the cargo area is custom designed to transport turtle egg nests from the beach to a protected hatchery, where they can incubate, safe from predators, human traffic, and pollution. Then once they hatch, the babies are transported back to the beach and released. The Turtle-Charged Sportage is a toolbox, turtle transporter, field hospital, and beach-rover all in one. And taking on some of the world's tiniest passengers is just another way Kia is accelerating the good.
To learn more about Sea Turtle, Inc. visit www.seaturtleinc.org.
