A hot Kona EV could still happen; Hyundai "has a solution"

The new-generation 2024 Hyundai Kona made its online debut in December, but now we've had the opportunity to see it in person – and speak to company leadership about future plans for its popular small SUV.

Of course, our top priority was one that speaks to Australia's reputation for often being a high-volume taker of performance models from a number of brands.

One of those, a very recent phenomenon, is Hyundai's N brand. Turns out, while fans of long-time Japanese performance icons Toyota and Nissan were waiting for compelling new models to launch, Hyundai was swooping in with the i30 N – a traditional hot hatch that ticked a lot of boxes for fed-up enthusiasts ready for something new. And everybody loves an underdog.

With the current Kona line-up, Hyundai used its mid-life facelift to launch a pair of hotly anticipated variants – the sporting 1.6-litre turbo N Line and the brash, madcap Kona N (below).

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Sadly, the incoming new-gen Kona is set to lose that hero model.

Buyers will still have the option of an N-Line variant in the petrol configuration, but no full-bottle N model has been announced. Indeed, former N boss and now semi-retired consultant Albert Biermann has confirmed that all future N models will be electric only, but it's a treatment that will be exclusive to vehicles built on the company's dedicated E-GMP 800V EV platform.

The new Kona shares its 'K3' platform with the new Kia Niro and the i30 Sedan, and while the company has done much more with the Kona EV than simply dropping an electric motor into an otherwise petrol-focused platform, it remains a 'slower' 400V electrical design, which Hyundai has decided to exclude from its electric N project. (The first electric N car will be the upcoming Ioniq 5 N, and an Ioniq 6 N is likely.)

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The new Kona N-Line in petrol trim

So what's this hot Kona EV solution?

Firstly, some context: Right now, Hyundai feels it has extracted as much performance from the exclusively front-wheel-drive Kona EV as it can do, while keeping it a safe and efficient vehicle.

Depressingly, the company also says that its global research does not indicate significant enough interest in a faster and more dynamic Kona EV – which only suggests Australia isn't a significant enough opportunity, despite the current N-Line and N models making up nearly 40 per cent of the Kona's 11,538 Australian sales in 2022.

You can be sure the local arm is seething at having to say goodbye to those N-badged cars.

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We've imagined a hero Kona N Electric, but an N-Line is the only realistic chance – and it's not all that realistic, really.

Get to it...

At last week's 2024 Kona event in Berlin, Sang Hyeon Park, Hyundai's EV strategy boss, told Wheels Media that if evidence of buyer interest grows to a compelling volume, his team has a "solution" – a design exists for adding a second, rear-mounted motor, if market demand calls for it.

This is, of course, the standard tactic for all flagship performance-oriented EVs, but for now it's missing in the primarily budget-focused Kona EV range.

The price for such a model may be off-putting, though. While we don't have any confirmed numbers yet, we expect the regular Kona EV to kick off from around $60,000 for the short 'standard-range' variant, while the long-range battery will likely add around $5000 to that. Adding a second motor would only happen with the long-range battery, so an electric N-Line would conceivably begin from around $70,000. Even now, the top-spec Kona EV is priced at $64,000.

When you consider that a Polestar 2 dual-motor long-range model starts from $74,000 and adds a plethora of luxury-focused appointments, a ~$70,000 N-Line could prove a tough sell. And, despite being rear-wheel-drive only, the base-level Tesla Model Y at $68,900 – $3400 less than it cost in 2022 – could likewise sway buyers.

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Will it happen then?

What Hyundai has revealed here is that while there is an engineering solution for buyers seeking a faster Kona Electric, it could well be the accountants that rule it out.

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