Hyundai slashes Kona EV prices, adds $54,500 base model

August 19, 2021August 30, 2021 Toby Hagon 2496 Views

Hyundai has taken the knife to the pricing of its Kona Electric compact SUV and introduced a new entry-level model priced from $54,500 plus on-road costs.

The new Kona Electric Standard Range joins the renamed Kona Electric Extended Range that is now more affordable than ever.

The Kona Electric now starts at $54,500 for the Standard Range Elite and goes to $64,000 for the Extended Range Highlander. In between is the $58,000 Standard Range Highlander and the $62,000 Extended Range Elite.

That represents a price reduction of between $1500 and $2000 for the Kona Electric that was only updated and repriced in April and makes the new Standard Range base model $6000 cheaper again.

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It also makes the new Kona Electric cheaper than the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus, which is the top-selling EV in Australia.

Specifications of the Elite and Highlander are identical between the two grades, as is the styling.

All get a Harman Kardon sound system, 17-inch alloy wheels, smart key entry, leather trim, wireless phone charging and a 10.25-inch central screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The Highlander adds features such as LED lights, sunroof, ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, ambient lighting and a head-up display.

Incentives and rebates from state governments could slash upwards of $5000 off the drive-away price of a Kona Electric, depending on where you live.

Hyundai Kona Electric EV — A new Standard Range version of the Kona Electric lowers the price of entry to $54,500 plus on-road costs

The Kona Electric range shuffle and price reduction appears to be in preparation for the upcoming Ioniq 5, which will be the hero in the Hyundai EV lineup.

Built on a bespoke EV architecture – rather than adapted to an ICE platform – the Ioniq 5 and its Kia EV6 sibling have grand plans to shake the Tesla electric car dominance in Australia.

The reduced Kona pricing gives the strongest indication yet that the Ioniq 5 will be priced around the mid-$60K level, which is also about where Kia is believed to be aiming with its EV6.

All of which means cheaper Kona EVs for now.

The new Kona Electric Standard Range gets a 39.2kWh battery pack – shaving about 150kg off the kerb weight – well down on the 64kWh battery that continues in the Extended Range model.

With identical equipment levels between the Standard and Extended range models, it means the $6000 price premium is attributable purely to the battery pack. That amounts to $242 per kilowatt-hour of battery capacity. Considering Tesla charges around $1000/kWh for its home Powerwall, that’s seems like a reasonable deal.

Keeping the comparisons to the car world, the Nissan Leaf e+ costs $10,500 more than the regular Nissan Leaf and adds 22kWh of battery capacity. That works out to $477/kWh.

Like the Extended Range, the maximum AC charging speed of the Standard Range is 7.2kW.

But DC charging is halved from the Extended Range’s 100kW down to 50kW for the Standard Range.

Not that it affects charging times markedly because of the smaller battery pack. A 10-80 percent charge on a 50kW DC charger is claimed to take as little as 47 minutes, which is exactly the same time as the bigger battery version charging at up to 100kW. The fastest 7.2kW AC charge on a wallbox would take around 6.5 hours in the Standard Range and 9.5 hours in the Extended Range.

That smaller battery also reduces the Kona’s electric range to 305km using the WLTP measurement. The Extended Range maintains its recently upgraded 484km range.

And without as much power from the battery pack the maximum output from the electric motor is reduced to 100kW, although torque is identical to the Extended Range, each making 395Nm.

Still, it’s a tempting proposition for those who don’t need one of the biggest EV ranges at the affordable end of the EV market.