2024 Hyundai Kona Electric Limited SUVOTY Review: Halfway There
The new Kona Electric is better than the gas version but not as good as other Hyundai EVs.
Pros
- Charming personality
- Excellent ride quality
- Surprisingly good in slippery stuff
Cons
- Charges slow
- Underwhelming base model
- Price overlaps with better Ioniq 5
There it is. There’s the Hyundai Kona we knew. We were wondering where it went, as the gas-powered version that competed in our last SUV of the Year competition seemed to have lost its charm. This year, the new 2024 Hyundai Kona Electric Limited was in the running, and it’s clear where all the personality went.
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Indeed, while the most recent redesign offered more space and features for a similar price, that appealed more to the head. Our hearts were left wanting. Now that we’ve driven the Kona Electric, both head and heart are satisfied. Mostly.
Last time around, Hyundai designed the Kona with a gas engine first and then shoehorned in the battery pack and electric motors. That’s why the gas-powered car was always better to drive than the EV and had way more charm. This time, Hyundai did the EV first and then figured out the gas version. And it turns out the EV is actually really good. It handles better, it rides phenomenally well for a non-luxury car, and it’s surprisingly competent in deep sand and the like for a front-wheel-drive vehicle. In fact, even with traction and stability controls fully on, it embarrassed a few all-wheel-drive cars in our sand pit, which approximates deep snow and mud. It’s far more forgivable for an SUV to not offer all-wheel drive when it performs like the Kona Electric.
“Even though the Kona continues to use a previous architecture, I think Hyundai has used that to its advantage,” Mexico editor Miguel Cortina said. “The previous Kona EV was nice enough, but this one improves that formula with a longer wheelbase and more interior room for those in the back.”
Unfortunately, sticking with the old platform is a double-edged sword. While this Limited model offers competitive range, its charging speed is anything but. Well under 100 kW on a DC fast charger is just bad, especially from a company that makes electric vehicles that are capable of well over 200 kW. Speaking of the Ioniq 5 in the room, the Kona Electric Limited’s $42,440 starting price is right on top of the base Ioniq 5’s, which is bigger and charges way faster, helping make up for its mediocre range.
Then there’s the matter of the base Kona Electric. It’s way slower in a straight line and goes barely 200 miles on a charge, making the super-slow charging even more egregious. Naturally, it doesn’t have nearly as many features as the top-shelf Limited, so while it has a more attractive $34,875 starting price, it isn’t as good a value. Neither model is eligible for federal tax credits on sales, either, only leases.
If you’re shopping for a new Kona, the Electric is the model to buy, presuming you can live with its limitations. But our SUV of the Year award typically goes to a full model lineup, and the Kona Electric’s is too compromised to take the prize.
This review was conducted as part of our 2025 SUV of the Year (SUVOTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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