Ready For The Electric Future? Hyundai's Latest EV Is Here

The Hyundai Kona comes to India and we head to the Buddh International Circuit for a truly electrifying experience.

- Sarmad Kadiri

There’s this curious case of diminishing tech terms from the dictionary of a motoring journalist. Common terms such as fuel stops, transmission tunnel, turbo-lag, and manual gearbox are gradually disappearing. Hang on a sec… am not hitting the panic button just yet because deep down I am honestly glad to let go of a few of these. Fellow motoring scribes have been asked to up their tech vocabulary with catchy words to make the fast-evolving world of mobility comprehensible for the layman. This means making sense of terms such as wall box charger, range anxiety, single-speed reduction gear, and a thing called “quick charger” which makes you wait for an hour before you can resume driving again. Matter of perspective, my friends.

Having flipped through a bunch of EV brochures and armed with my updated lexicon, I reach the BIC... ready for some electrifying action. I come face to face with the first all-electric, long-range SUV: the Hyundai Kona Electric. It looks like a contemporary mid-sized crossover, about the size of a Hyundai Creta. The design of the Kona is not striking but is unique enough to merit an approving second glance.

Being an electric vehicle, the Kona doesn’t require a front grille and to give a familiar face, the engineers have etched the large front bumper to impersonate Hyundai’s signature hexagonal grille. It also conceals the charging socket which is hidden beneath a small flush-finished lid. The headlamps are mounted low on the single-piece bumper, while the sleek LED daytime running lights are positioned above, making it an eye-catching design. It’s only when you look at it from rear three-quarters does the Kona appear more robust and SUV-ish. The high roof-line, pronounced rear wheelarches, and the plastic cladding add up to give it a more robust appearance. The rear styling gets the usual Hyundai treatment with slim LED tail-lamps and a curvaceous boot-lid.