Hyundai Kona Electric

Electric version of this bold-looking small SUV gets a boost in range, practicality and comfort On sale Now Price from £34,995

- Neil Winn

WE'D LOVE TO have been a fly on the wall in Hyundai's design department when ideas for the latest Kona were being bandied around. The conversation must have gone something like this: "Well, the Ioniq 5, with its '8-bit video game' looks, is winning over buyers, and the Ioniq 6, modelled on a 1950s streamliner, has won numerous design awards, so let's go all in and style the new Kona after RoboCop".

It practically shouts, "Hey, I'm electric", which makes sense when you consider that this second-generation Kona has been developed as an electric vehicle (EV) first and a combustion car second; the more traditionally styled first generation car was the other way around.

Like its predecessor, the new Kona Electric offers two battery and electric motor options. The standard version has a 48.4kWh (usable) battery and a 154bhp motor, while the long-range version gets a 65.4kWh battery and a 215bhp motor. We haven't yet tested the entry-level model, but the 65kWh Kona feels truly sprightly, accelerating from 0-62mph in 7.8sec. That's a fair bit quicker than rivals such as the Jeep Avenger, Peugeot e-2008 and Skoda Enyaq.