More than a decade since the first mainstream EV from an established automaker launched, the affordable end of the EV spectrum is looking… not great. The Chevrolet Bolt is going on hiatus, the Tesla Model 3 is losing its tax credit status in America, the Nissan Leaf is uncompetitive, and the Mini Cooper SE just doesn’t have enough range for people who aren’t hardcore urbanites. On the plus side, there’s always the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric.
In the EV race, Hyundai is forging full steam ahead with models like the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6. However, while the Ioniq cars are out making headlines, there’s a little electric brother in the lineup that’s historically been equally impressive.
The old Hyundai Kona Electric was an efficiency champion with a kernel of electric hot hatch. However, for its second generation, it’s grown larger, less torquey, and more pragmatic. So, is the new, more mainstream 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric worth spending your hard-earned money on? I flew to Victoria, B.C. to find out.
[Full disclosure: Hyundai flew me out to Victoria, one of the few places in Canada that isn’t giblet-chillingly cold in December, to drive the new Kona Electric, and put me up in a hotel that’s allegedly haunted, but probably in a good way.]
How Does It Look?
Bigger and more aggressive, which you can read more about in my first drive of the gasoline-powered version. However, since the new Kona was styled as an EV first, this is arguably the most pure look in the range. I definitely dig the Geordi La Forge daytime running light visor, the satin chrome trim, and the body-color flares on the electric model.
Interestingly, the charge door on the front of the Kona Electric is heated, with an element tied into the rear defroster to help mitigate the risk of ice jamming in the winter. It’s a smart touch that I was delightfully surprised to see.
What’s The Interior Like?
With dour black upholstery having quickly become the standard for everything over the past decade, it’s refreshing that you’re able to spec the cabin of the Kona Electric with color and verve that suggests a certain lust for life. I’m talking faux-leather upholstery with a touch of seafoam green, funky dotted textiles on the dashboard and door cards, and a smattering of lime green piping.
Seriously, how lovely is that fabric? Sure, you can still get a black interior if you want, but why would you?
Of course, the new Kona also gets Hyundai’s latest infotainment system which features a physical home key, a sight for sore eyes after years of Hyundai infotainment without one. While the digital gauge cluster isn’t massively configurable, punching in an address is as fast as it is on your phone, and both screens look incredibly high quality. Wireless Apple CarPlay works a treat, top-spec cars get a solid eight-speaker Bose stereo, and you can even see a camera feed of your blind spots in the cluster. More tech like this, please.
As for room and comfort, it’s top-notch for the segment. Sure, a little more thigh support for the driver would be nice, but the driving position is spot-on, the rear seat is enormous, and the cargo area should be more than enough for a small family.
Intriguingly, the Kona Electric features a perfectly flat floor in the back, meaning this tiny crossover is genuinely comfortable for three across the rear seat. Add in clever storage cubbies like a massive tray in the center console and a shelf above the glovebox, and this fashion-forward subcompact crossover really blends style with brains.
How Does It Drive?
Given that EV affordability is still a struggle, it’s sexy for automakers to offer cars with bigger and smaller battery pack options depending on consumer needs. The 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric is no exception, although the availability of the smaller battery pack is limited to the United States. With a 48.6 kWh battery pack on tap, it’s good for 133 horsepower and 197 miles of range, which should be usable enough for urbanites. However, the base trim isn’t the car you want.
U.S.-spec SEL, Limited, and all Canadian cars get a 64.8 kWh battery pack dishing out juice to a single electric motor driving the front wheels. Output for the long-range model clocks in at 201 horsepower and 188 lb.-ft. of torque, that’s the same power, it has 103 lb.-ft. less than the outgoing car. Yes, this means that rolling burnouts are no longer on the menu, but how often do you want to be blowing through tires on a daily driver anyway? More importantly, models with the big battery are rated at 261 miles (420 km) of range, which fills the soon-to-be discontinued Chevrolet Bolt’s shoes nicely.
Now, to keep costs low, Hyundai hasn’t installed the latest and greatest everything under the skin of the Kona Electric, so we’re still talking about a 400-volt architecture and a maximum DC Fast Charging pull of 100 kW. However, you can now manually toggle battery preconditioning through the infotainment for a better DC Fast Charging curve, and the onboard Level 2 AC charger has been downloaded from the Ioniq line of cars, so it’s good for 10.8 kW. Perfect for late-night/early-morning missions. It’s all promising on paper, but what about out on the road?
Well, the first thing I noticed about the Kona Electric was just how quiet it is. You can drive at 50 MPH with the front windows half-down, and the noise you hear will only be about as loud as a bathroom fan. With the windows up, the chaos of the highway gives way to the serenity of a quiet living room. Whereas the old Kona Electric had this hint of motor whine at speed, the new car fulfills the fantasy of silence.
Then there’s the unusual yet gentle enforcement of following distance. If you’re coming up on slower traffic with your foot off the accelerator, the Kona Electric will automatically ratchet up the regenerative braking to maintain a safe gap, then drop regen levels down again when that gap is achieved. The result is seamless, and it makes you look marvelous behind the wheel. Speaking of the wheel, the electric power steering calibration feels made for the EV’s wheel and tire setup, with nice weighting that offers up an extra dose of confidence.
Ah, but what about the new car’s reduced torque output? Well, I have good news. Compared to the pre-production unit I drove earlier this year, Hyundai seems to have added back some of the outgoing model’s tip-in response. Sure, you still can’t light up the front tires with impunity, but the finalized model feels eager in a way that the prototype, and indeed the gasoline-powered equivalent, didn’t. The result is a detuned EV that just doesn’t feel as slow as its reduction in peak torque suggests.
Unfortunately, the Kona Electric does have a nemesis out on the road, and it’s called a big bump. I’m oversimplifying here, but in a typical car, you drive over a bump, the bump compresses the springs in the suspension, and the damper, be it a shock absorber or a strut, controls the motions of the springs so you don’t suddenly find yourself strapped into a 50 MPH pogo stick. In the Kona Electric I drove, the rear suspension was noticeably underdamped, to the point where some bumps made the car oscillate up and down three or four times. We call this behavior ‘underdamped’ because there isn’t enough damping to keep the suspension controlled.
On the plus side, ride quality around town is outrageously good, and I saw around four miles per kWh in predominantly highway driving without any hypermiling shenanigans. As a road-trippable runabout, it’s hard to fault much with the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric.
What’s The Verdict?
The odd high-speed bump aside, the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric is an incredibly pleasant entry-level electric car that feels far more expensive than its positioning suggests. Sure, the quietness of electric drivetrains is a great equalizer between affordable and expensive EVs, but the road noise insulation, comfort, amenities, and sheer attention to the design of a more expensive, more grown-up car than a typical subcompact crossover are here.
However, pricing can make or break a new car, so where did Hyundai land? In America, the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric starts at $34,010 including freight for the small-battery base model, rising to $38,010 for the mid-spec long-range SEL trim, and topping out at $42,380 for the all-singing, all-dancing Ultimate trim. Sure, purchasing one might not be eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit, but with the Tesla Model 3 soon losing its tax credit status, this new Kona represents a damn good deal for new EV shoppers, offering more range than a base Ioniq 6 for noticeably less money. Add in the impending demise of the Chevrolet Bolt, and the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric might just have a banner year.
Granted, availability isn’t perfect. In the beginning, you’ll only be able to buy the Kona Electric in North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, but that’s still 26 states.
In Canada, in Canadian dollars (just in case clarification was needed), the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric starts at $48,324 including freight for the long-range Preferred trim, topping out at $53,124 for the opulent Ultimate trim. Chuck in a $5,000 federal rebate for lease terms 48 months or longer and all purchases, and this will be one of the most affordable new EVs on the Canadian market.
So, for the next year or so, the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric should be one of the best-value EVs on the market. It does the normal car thing well, and adds its own dash of style.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
The 2024 Hyundai Kona Grows Up And Gets Ready For The Suburbs
-
Chevrolet Bolt Sales Skyrocketed Right In Time For GM To Kill It
-
Rejoice! The Chevrolet Bolt Is Officially Coming Back From The Dead
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
This is one of the few cars I’ve seen that looks better with all of the gaudy black plastic wheel flaring. On this thing, it helps those goofy lower tail lights look better. I love H/K products but their styling trend of having the turn signal 5 inches off the ground in the back needs to stop like five years ago already. I hate being in rush hour traffic behind one. At least they got it right on the Soul models with the indicators up high and eye level.
I dont know what sane person would buy an CCS EV right now, every automaker is on the verge of switching to NACS (Tesla), which is a huge deal unless you plan on using it strictly as a city car. The CCS network blows bigtime, leaving you with limited, unreliable and slow options. As a CCS user of 8 years who just switched to a Tesla, I’ll never go back.
I’d take a used Model 3 over this every day of the week, twice on Sunday. For the $900 more you can have an 832 mile used (I’d call it a demo) ’23 Model 3 directly from Tesla with an extended factory warranty, accident free, 272 miles of range, Autopilot (godsend on long-slog road trips on straight stretches), and the undisputed best charging experience in EVs.
https://www.tesla.com/inventory/used/m3?arrangeby=mlh&zip=52003
More range and access to the best, fastest, most reliable charging infrastructure available for a $900 difference is a no-brainer. CCS is so absolutely useless its just laughable to even compare the two, NACS transforms your car from one where you constantly seek out “Plan A, B C” to one that you just get in a drive. I dont even bother with the Plugshare app anymore, no need.
I’m kinda playing devil’s advocate here, but:
considerably longer warrantybetter dealer networks and parts availabilitybetter comfort, NVH, more spaciousa $249/mo lease is a lot more appealing than a $500/mo purchase for many people, esp with EV tech in relative infancyan 800mi 2024 Kona will be a lot cheaper than 34k once it exists, which would be a more direct comparisonin a year, this car will start being sold with NACS anyway, so if that’s the deal breaker, just wait a year
NACS is the major deal breaker, just wait a year is my entire point. Trust me, you dont want a CCS EV. If you must buy within a year, I’ll rebut every point you made with CCS is unusable. Lets break it down though..
-Warranty: You’re correct
-Dealer network: Tesla sends a tech to your doorstep, even if you’re out of service area. I think they travel ~2-3 hrs max.
-Parts: You’re correct if we’re strictly talking about repairs after a crash.. Pretty rare for most people, but you’re right.
-Spacious: I’m not sure about that, with the huge false floor in the trunk + frunk, my model 3 holds as much gear as my midsize SUV. The online specs are very similar, and Tesla’s figures are widely speculated to not include the false floor which holds an entire large roller case plus more.
-NVH: Its hit and miss. There’s a vocal minority, mine is silent at all speeds.
–Lease vs Purchase: I’m not debating the merits, it depends on resale, depreciation, and individual terms. Apples and oranges. Generally, I dont think leasing is a good financial idea, but in some cases it makes sense. Lower monthly isn’t always a better financial choice, that’s a terrible argument.
–800mi Kona?: We cant compare hypothetical cars that dont exist. Are you saying that you should lease because tech is evolving quickly and you dont want to be tied to old tech for 60 mo? Sure, but 800 mi by next year isn’t close to reality.. and if anyone was closer to offering that it’d be Tesla.
In summary, buy a Tesla (new or used) or wait a year. If you buy new, do it in the final weeks before the tax credits run out. If after, buy used because the credits are baked into the used price already.
Left out not supporting Musk, though I guess you still end up supporting him due to the charging standard, which is a unfortunate.
Musk is an ass-hat, but that’s not a strong enough argument for me personally. If you buy a non-Tesla EV just because of Musk, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. Either way, you’re letting Musk control your actions. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The product is good, and I stopped caring what people think of me in high school. Maybe combo it with a personal plate that says “EL0NSUX” if you’re feeling self conscious.
He isn’t just an ass-hat though.
He’s a nazi-enabler.
That’s definitely a strong enough argument for me.
Honest question: Would you refrain from buying a classic Mustang because Harold Ford was a Nazi sympathizer? I dont think anyone thinks twice, then or now. Do you immediately change the station when Michael Jackson songs come on? Do you watch old Kevin Spacey movies? Do you google every movie to make sure it wasn’t produced by Harvey Weinstein before watching it? Every consumer purchase cant be based on virtue, I’m sure you have products in your house that aren’t free of harm to the world. We can strive to be better, but sometimes we need a car that works and isn’t spewing fumes. Musk and his views are disgusting for the record.
For me, yes is my answer to many of those. Flawed logic on my part I suppose but I nope the heck out of MJ these days as well as Spacey who was one of my favorite actors.
Ha, I typed Harold instead of Henry Ford.
Good on you for being a conscious consumer, but does that mean all VW/Porche off the table because they were made by the Nazi gov’t? I find it exhausting to buy products and consume media from morally pure people. I could see how MJ would make one nauseous while listening, but cars are made by more than just the CEO. I focus my dollars to vote for climate action. I can honestly say that if I couldn’t drive a Tesla, I’d still be daily driving a gas/hybrid because its just not advisable to drive xcountry using the CCS network. I can ignore Musks attention seeking behavior and move on with my day.
In any case if we can focus on just cars and leave morality out of it, my points still stand.
Are Nazis in control of VW today? Is Henry Ford alive today? I don’t understand how these can be considered relevant questions.
Henry Ford is dead, but you’d still enriching the family of an antisemite. Classic VW/Porche were literally built by Nazis, so if you can live with driving a car that was hand-built by people who hated Jews, go ahead. I’m being facetious of course.. obviously what Nazis did was horrendous, but no one thinks twice. Lets cut the moral theatrics, everyone makes compromises. Are you using an iPhone? It was built in conditions akin to slave labor. Now please, I’d rather not die on this hill, it’s making me nauseous.
My whole point was just to wait a year and buy anything with NACS, you’ll regret CCS. I think Musk has gotten under everyone’s skin in a way that makes them disproportionately angry. Musk is publicly terrible, but many companies do worse, quietly. I get more worked up about plastic waste in consumer goods than I do about what some jerkoff tweets. If Musk bothers you that much then wait a year. Anyone spending $35k on a car with CCS will soon regret it.
I know I’m belaboring this but it just doesn’t make sense. My ancestors probably did a lot of shitty things to. Do you want to not hire me b/c my grandpa was racist?
Lets just talk about the cars… The cars please. I’m clearly at the other end of the argument, just playing devil’s advocate there.. I could care less but if we’re taking moral high grounds with every purchase, lets not just stop at the guy blabbing on Twitter.
🙂 I can appreciate that.
Good luck actually seeing a non-black upholstered car at your dealer.
I’d like to meet the mother that could love that face.
You’d BETTER have a heated charge port if the door is in the front. Traffic slush freezing it shut is still going to be a problem in the north.
The front is not a bad place for the charge port, but it should never be front-facing, square to the wind like that.
Good catch. Wow. That is a really stupid place. I can only imagine what it would look like after a trip from VT to MA in the driving snow/sleet. Very surprised that Korea has plenty of snow…
Maybe it’s just because where I live isn’t cold enough, but driving my Niro EV in the snow (front facing charge door), I have never had the charge door get slushed up from traffic or even driving through active snowfall. The forward sensor for adaptive cruise/emergency braking, on the other hand, does get easily slushed up.
Only time I’ve ever had the charge door get frozen was when we got enough freezing rain to encase the whole damn car.
“How Does It Look?”
Like one of those weird eyeless albino cave fish.
Well I think we’ve found the limit of Hyundai’s design language – there are about 3 different cars in one on the outside of this thing. The rear 3/4 view especially looks like a dog’s breakfast.
What garbage are you feeding your dog?
After he’s digested it?
What an overstyled mess
Just like almost everything else available today…
If cars were made to be as slippery as possible without much regard for styling, efficiency could improve by 50% or more, without the buyer really giving anything up or meaningfully adding to the cost. For EVs, this means more miles of range per dollar spend on the battery pack.
Current vehicles on the market have an average Cd value of around 0.28, and tend to be crossovers. A sedan or sports coupe with 3/4 the frontal area of a crossover and 2/3 the drag coefficient, while chopping 500+ lbs off the mass vs a crossover, will go 50%+ farther per kWh of battery, which could chop yet 100s more pounds off the vehicle weight for the same amount of range, or increase the range on the same battery. Cd values in the mid 0.1X range are perfectly possible for a practical road-going sedan or sports coupe. Many examples of functional prototypes exist going back 4 decades now.
We are at a point now where it is possible for EVs to have weight parity with ICEs for an acceptable range, if only the EVs were designed for efficiency instead of aesthetics.
unfortunately automotive design is a profession where one has to purposefully make themselves stupider to join the club
I don’t think Adrian would agree with that comment, but I am certain the executives he is being forced to cater his designs to are significantly less intelligent than both him and the engineers that assist in the design process.
That comment comes from my experience as a thesis candidate in a top tier automotive design program in Detroit (I’m sure Adrian knows the one to which I am referring)
Nice specs for an urban/suburban runabout with enough range to not have to search for somewhere to charge every day if one so chooses. I’ll keep holding out for a less weird looking EV alternative to an Sonata/Accord/Camry.
The Cylon light set up makes it look like a somewhat kissing cousin to the Cyber truck.
It looks 10 years old already.
This is a joke, right?
35k for a golf cart with subpar range and refrigerator storage drawer looks seems crazy.
$34k for an EV with 197 miles of range. $38k for an EV with 260 miles of range. That seems competitive with Tesla, whose model 3 starts at $39k for 270 miles of range.
Look, I’m not a huge EV fan. I like saving money on gas, but an EV doesn’t really fit my current needs. But that’s fine, and I like that there are more options available! Deriding this as a golf cart just makes you look spiteful. It may not be a muscle car, but 200hp is not a golf cart either.
I’m happy that Tesla has more competition, happy that more options are becoming available, and happy that prices for electric cars are starting to come down. Hopefully soon the average middle class family will be able to afford their choice of ICE, hybrid, or EV. With any luck someone will build me a brown manual wagon while they’re at it.
This car will run up against the now very low prices on used EV’s with much better specs. I don’t see this converting anyone in the US market.
Counterpoint: you can’t get a lease on a used EV. I did extensive calculations on total cost of ownership for me for buying used vs leasing new, and they are pretty much neck and neck, with the answer really only coming down to the incentive mix for one or the other. This was based on keeping either option for 2-3 years, I’m not sure how it pans out at a longer interval.
I agree with Dumb Shadetree that dismissing this as a “Golf Cart” just makes you look spiteful. The problem we have with EV’s right now is every manufacturer is building to the top end of the market to shut up all the people who dismiss every new EV as a “Golf Cart” so everything you can buy is a 500+ hp rocket sled or 8000lb off road monster like the hummer EV and they all cost over $70,000. So here comes Hyundai with a fairly inexpensive (in context of todays car market) crossover with average looks, great technology, a big list of options, good quality, enough power to be competitive with ICE cars and decent range and here we get the “Golf Cart” nonsense again.
Oh and it shares parts with the regular Kona so you can insure it and you don’t have to support Elon (Big Plus for me)
Where do you find golf carts making 200hp? That’s a dumb description. This is a proper car like a bazillion others on the road.
How exactly is it a golf cart?
No really, what do you mean by that? It seems like a regular car to me.
and practically a couple hundred miles is plenty of range for like 90 percent of car buyers.
We are living in a dream world where we can tell ourselves that it’s ok to blow $35k on an “entry level” car.
The true cost of a car has to factor in its long term value.
With specs like this and a face a mother could hate, this car will have a resale value of practically nil. Thats not affordability.
In every possible way (other than Elon Musks lingering stench) the Model 3 or Y is a vastly better option. The combination of specs and price of those cars still sets the bar in this class.
Someday, when the market stabilizes and more than one manufacturer makes a fully fleshed out product, we will have an “affordable electric car”. It hasn’t happened yet.
“Someday, when the market stabilizes and more than one manufacturer makes a fully fleshed out product…”
The automobile has been around for over a century and in its ICE form still hasn’t realized this statement.
Perhaps we should accept some things here:
It’s great that you like the Tesla and support the charging standard. However, this too shall be supplanted one day as technology evolves, and I would imagine there are smart engineers out there working on something that that may bridge the gap between both standards. If there’s money to be made from that technology, it will be developed.
VW’s history is worth reading about. It’s too simple to dismiss it as a Nazi-conceived vehicle, as Ferdinand Porsche’s design preceded that regime. No question of that monstrous government’s involvement in the plant and the KdF-Wagen scheme. But there’s much more.
The British were instrumental in saving the firm for the people of the region to have meaningful, gainful work (thank Major Ivan Hirst for this), and the unprecedented success of the Type 1 and its variants created a myopic mindset in design – and nearly killed the company. NSU was the hero at this point, with the K70. Not remarkable, but it made possible something just as big in a small package – the Golf/Rabbit.
I just don’t understand the exterior styling of the Kona. How does this even happen? (And I’m no styling snob – growing up my family had a VW 411 and I’ve owned a 2nd gen Honda Fit for almost 15 years so I’ve paid my dues.)
Draw a horizontal line at the top of the clumsy fender flares and the “upper” car is completely different from the “lower” one. The upper car has some Venza and even Jaguar cues; the lower car’s rear end is a clone of a 1999 Ford F-150 Stepside with some elements reminiscent of a PT Cruiser thrown in for good measure.
Did a designer get food poisoning so they were replaced halfway through the process by a stylist from Ssangyong? Was the original design folded over and torn in the mail (hence the side crease) and then reassembled backward? Did the adult supervision at Hyundai take the day off on the day of the styling review? Inquiring minds want to know!
I think they accidentally dropped one of the clay models on top of another one right before a meeting finalizing the design and just ran with it.
Hey the 411 and the Fit are fine looking and dare I say it, cool little cars!
I’m usually very anti-leasing, but for this generation of EV’s, and in today’s interest rate environment, I think leasing is the way to go. Hyundai is running lease deals on their 2023 Ioniq 5 and 6 that are pretty mind blowing – you can get a 36 month lease on a 2023 Ioniq 6 SE standard range for $229/mo for 36 months. At the end of the three years you get to hand the car back and not have to deal with owning an out-of-warranty piece of tech. That’s a screaming deal to get onto 4 new wheels in pretty much any form, let alone a fast, handsome new sedan.
Yeah, the economics of the Hyundai EV packages fit American needs better than most other manufacturers at this moment. You have to hand it to them.
This is the way. Though I hate this way personally, for the average daily driver type, this makes the most sense, no haggle on trade in, no issues with warranty running out and you always get the newest thing in theory.
Those rear fender flare lights make me gag a little. The rest of the design is fine to me, if a little much.
As some others have stated, I’ve seen a few too many people in my inner circle getting boned by unreliable Hyundai/Kia products and their putrid dealers. I’d be more interested in owning/recommending such cars (most of which are genuinely interesting form/function-wise) if I didn’t think that I was dooming the owner to frustrating nonsense.
Hyundai/Kia – get it together dudes.
I got my driving permit in the early 80s, so am generally a fan of widebodies & boxy flares, but this design may take some getting used to(especially as it just hints at them). The line slanting up from behind the front wheel to the bottom of the 3rd (window? Or, is it a panel?) is just trying too hard in my eyes. I’m not going to dump on it until I get a chance to see it in person, but all those creases definitely look overly busy in the pictures.
Otoh, I am glad to see a relatively* low-priced EV out there.
*hard for me to call this low-priced, cheap as I am. But, here we are.
If they could just smooth out those weird ass angles a smidgen, ya know?
Kia Rio’s my DD, and I have questions.
My spouse and I play the, “What if a bro-dozer take out one of our dailies?” game occasionally/ We need one short-range vehicle. A low-end EV such as the Kona Electric would fit the bill, but after an array of unforced errors we’ve seen from Hyundai/Kia, I’m skeptical of owning another of its products.
Great questions!
It feels too early to say exactly what effect the ICCU fix campaign has had on the Ioniq 5, mostly since it’s software-based. I feel like the forums will likely have a better answer in six months.
As for the damping on the Kona, I suspect it could be baked into all of them. The ICE variant I drove earlier this year was also underdamped out back.
I play this game too, and based on this review the Bolt is still a better option, assuming the dealers aren’t trying to make them more expensive.
Most likely though, if my Prius got smashed today, I’d look for another Prius instead of a EV. Or a Prius Prime if I could find one.
The base 133 hp motor makes it a gutless wonder above 30 mph, but as a commuter in a small city/ short range it would be manageable, the higher output closer to the old car would be much more pleasant to drive.
Man, that thing is fugly.
Super mega fugly.
Incorrect. I dig it. But then I’m also a big fan of the Nissan cube and the xB.
don’t you dare compare those two icons of simplicity to this abortion
I’m a fan of those as well. They have coherent designs. This has the opposite of that.
Nissan Cube is good. this is not
It really is. That last picture looks like two different cars tried to materialize into the same physical space at once.
An unfortunate Star Trek Transporter Incident (STTI, if you will)
That’s it exactly. The last picture looks like some junior ensign transported a 2024 Toyota Venza and 2003 Hyundai XG350 to the same coordinates.
Once you see it you can’t un-see it.
Along with a PT Cruiser
The interior looks nice enough, but yeah that exterior.
If this were a midsized sedan with 1/2 the CdA and the battery size was cut by 1/3 to get the same or slightly more range, the reduced battery/material costs could make this a sub-$30k vehicle with the same or better range.
This is exactly the issue I have w GM, Ford, Mercedes, etc bringing out oversized trucks and SUVs as electrics, when the best use case of EVs is getting people out of those rolling safe rooms and into smaller, efficient (and sometimes fun) vehicles.
The manufacturers are afraid of a paradigm of low-margined, low-maintenance, long-lasting cars taking hold. Inexpensive EVs open the door to this.
For every $25k 200-250 mile range 35 kWh streamliner sedan with a $2k profit margin sold, that is a $50k 250-300 mile range 70 kWh crossover or an ICE crossover/truck/SUV with a $10k+ profit margin not sold. The vehicle with the bigger battery pack will inevitably have higher running costs, with more profits to be extracted from the buyer, and be much more likely to cost more than the car is worth to replace the battery when the time comes.
Tesla offers better products at very little effort on their part vs the other OEMs, and if the mainstream manufacturers got serious about EVs, Tesla could still run circles around them just by offering a marginally better product at marginally less cost.
The current $14k BYD Seagull is not an accident or an outlier, but a possibility that could have existed decades ago if the mainstream manufacturers weren’t outright hostile to the idea. If the US manufacturers don’t get an affordable long-range EV available in the US soon, the Chinese will.
“For every $25k 200-250 mile range 35 kWh streamliner sedan with a $2k profit margin sold, that is a $50k 250-300 mile range 70 kWh crossover or an ICE crossover/truck/SUV with a $10k+ profit margin not sold.”
That’s Ford and GM logic.
Which makes no sense in the real world
The reality is that there are still $25-30K buyers out there.
They’re buying new Civics, Corollas, Fortes and Elantras.
Or off-lease vehicles that were $40-50K when new.
I hate the off-center charge port, but at 261 miles of range and a fairly reasonable price this would 100% be on my short list of second cars if I were looking for an EV right now.
It would look a LOT better in the center.
Other than size, how is it different from the off-center port to the tie-down hook?
Size matters. The charge port is very in your face. I’m also more inclined to forgive the tow point cover because it needs to be mounted to structure and basically everyone has it off-center for that reason.
This vehicle is a dilemma. On the positive side Hyundai and Kia make interesting looking electric cars that drive and spare you risk of grenading Theta engine. On the minus side you have the worst stealership network in the US and corporate has a terrible warranty policy lately. I currently reject all things Hyundai for the dealers alone, the Theta is just the cherry on top of the poop emoji.
The DC Fast charging rate hits acceptable. It’s not very fast but not pathetic, it is slower than many new vehicles but at this price its ok.
Not to be melodramatic, but while I fully appreciate what Kia is doing to make a budget-friendly EV with minimal compromises, did they have to make it so ugly?!
Have you seen the previous model? I wouldn’t call the new Kona a looker, but it’s much better looking than the design it’s replacing
I unfortunately have seen the previous Kona, and while I agree the outgoing one is ugly, I’ll have to disagree that the new one is less so. In my view, the old one was conventionally ugly while the new one is unconventionally ugly. Kia has good designers, so I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t use any of them for the Kona.
Kia’s master strategy:
Step 1: Put out beautiful designs of their own
Step 2: Edit Hyundai’s designs to look like modern Pontiac Aztecs
Step 3: Profit!
Since Hyundai is the parent company, this is one odd strategy…
Yeah, this makes an MK1 Fiat Multipla blush.