Hyundai targets Chinese EVs on price

Hyundai Australia will take the fight to Chinese brands on battery-electric vehicle pricing, but it will be with a smaller new model and not the new-generation Hyundai Kona Electric that arrives here late this year.

Shown to the Australian motoring media at last week’s local launch of the second-generation (SX2) Hyundai Kona, the EV version is expected to climb in price like the rest of the new small SUV range when it launches in October or November.

The existing Hyundai Kona Electric is currently priced from $54,500 and tops out at $64,000. Price rises across the new Kona petrol range have been as much as 19 per cent.

Kona is the only Hyundai-badged EV model in the Korean brand’s local line-up. It also offers the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 and will add the high-performance IONIQ 5 N in early 2024, followed by the IONIQ 7 seven-seat SUV.

The new Hyundai Kona Electric will be offered in multiple model variants and – as per SX2 – is likely to drop the local Elite and Highlander designations. However, the new EV will not be available in sporty N Line form (which has become more important in the mainstream line-up), at least not initially.

Hyundai Australia COO John Kett dismissed the chances of the new Kona Electric being price-competitive with the BYD Atto 3 dedicated electric SUV ($48,011-$51,011), let alone new sub-$40,000 EV entrants such as the MG4 and BYD Dolphin.

Instead, Hyundai showed off its potential price competitors for those new cars to its dealer body during a recent trip to Korea.

Its options are understood to be led by an EV version of the Casper compact SUV due for release in 2024, but that model is yet to be officially announced by Hyundai.

“The Kona EV won’t be price-competitive against them [Chinese EVs]. We have to find another solution for that,” confirmed Kett.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring you to Korea to show you what those solutions might be over the coming two or three years.”

Kett also made clear that even at its most competitive price, Hyundai would still charge a premium over the Chinese EV competition.

“To think that Hyundai will have a car to compete against the Chinese at absolute price is not right,” he said.

“We have been there before and we have seen what happens to us when we do it.

“We will have some competitive EVs that will recognise not arrogantly… our brand premium that we think exists over some of those emerging competitors, those challenger brands.

“That’s why we feel good about where we are heading. We just can’t share it with you.”

The new-generation Kona Electric will not only be more expensive but will also offer better performance than its predecessor.

Hyundai Australia product planning manager Chris Saltapidas told carsales that sales expectations were static for the new Kona Electric.

“We feel the current Kona electric does really well. We are a selling around 1000 cars [per annum],” he said.

“Considering its price point… in the mainstream market we are happy with its performance. We are not looking for a huge lift.”

The Kona Electric on display at the launch was one of two prototypes that have been in Australia for testing and evaluation purposes for about five weeks, Saltapidas explained.

“They are here for our usual business purposes; product evaluation, suspension evaluation, accessories development, etcetera.

“Before we launch a car we get prototypes in and we evaluate different combinations of spec and trim level to figure out how we apply those in practice, but we also use them for other business purposes.”

For everything you auto know about EVs, listen to carsales' Watts Under the Bonnet: the electric car podcast

Join the conversation at 

our Facebook page

Or email us at 

editor@carsales.com.au