With more than 450km range on a single charge.
Korean marque Hyundai is looking to introduce the electric variant of its Kona crossover on our shores in the very near future, it seems. Despite repeatedly fending off the press by repeating the usual “under review” nonsense, it’s been confirmed that the funky crossover’s battery-electric model will make it here, and will likely serve as a pretty important model to push the battery-electric vehicle agenda forward in our market.
The Kona EV, when it arrives later this year, will be flanked by the entirety of the Ioniq hatchback family, which includes a battery-electric variant, a plug-in hybrid model, as well as a traditional parallel hybrid.
Interestingly, Hyundai Australia intends to adopt a two-variant approach with the Kona. There will be an entry level model sitting beneath a 150kW range-topper, which is expected to also pack a range of about 470km, while also being able to take off like a stabbed rat. They’re aiming to get the Kona EV in at around the $50k mark, considerably higher than the present range-topping Kona Highlander turbo AWD, which asks for (just) $36k.
Lower down will sit the Ioniq family of hatchbacks, long-delayed and overdue. The Ioniq EV packs less driving range than the Kona EV (280km on the Ioniq, vs. 470km on the Kona), though at least we can say for certain that there’s 88kW of power on offer and 295Nm of twist.
The EV market in Australia appears to be hotting up, despite our relative lack of infrastructure, tax incentives, and so on. Renault’s Zoe, BMW’s i3, and Nissan’s Leaf are all due this year, before the addition of Hyundai’s Ioniq and Kona. Interesting times.
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