Hyundai’s revealed the new all-electric Kona it will bring to Australia next year, along with details on upgrades set to enhance its technological appeal.
While the Kona Electric has enjoyed only humble sales since it debuted in Australia, or at least in comparison to the more affordable petrol powered range, the EV Kona has found over 120,000 homes worldwide within two years.
So to keep interest high in the compact five-door SUV, Hyundai has focused on a cleaner front-end design, aerodynamic tweaks and a restocked safety suite that complements improved interior technology.
For instance, you’ll see the new front grille is now smoothed over and flanked by redesigned daytime running lights. They sit above headlights with multi-faceted reflector technology on their inner-bezels, Hyundai says.
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The wheel arch claddings around the car are now painted to match the body colour, while air intakes fore of the front wheels reduce turbulence in the wells.
Hyundai’s again opted for a single 64kWh lithium-ion battery pack on local cars. It will be juiced via a charge port now placed asymmetrically between the front headlights. Charge time is claimed to take 47 minutes when done with a 100kW DC fast charger.
The rear-end follows the same 'clean up' design strategy, with Hyundai painting more panel area in the Kona’s body colour and redesigning the lamps to segment the bumper from the rear hatch more effectively.
Changes inside the new Kona Electric bring it in line with other key models in Hyundai’s range. The old analogue instrument cluster is now a full 10.25-inch digital screen to match the identically-sized multimedia unit in the centre stack.
New footwell lighting on both the driver and passenger side is said to match the car’s “lifestyle character”, while a second-row USB port keeps rear occupants supplied with power.
Broadened safety technology rounds out the gamut of upgrades, including new additions like:
- Rear cross-traffic alert
- Blind-spot avoidance
- Leading vehicle departure alert
- Safe exit warning
- Rear seat alert
Hyundai says the new Kona EV will arrive in the first half of 2021. While it has not released any details on pricing, we expect it will continue to sit well above the regular combustion-engined Kona.
The Kona EV is currently priced at $60,740 in Elite trim, $20K more than the most expensive petrol version.
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