Hyundai Kona 2024 review: Hybrid

There are two, and kind of four, ways to have your Kona Hybrid, which begins with the aptly-named Kona, which is $36,000 plus on-road costs. That same model can be fitted with an N Line pack, which lifts the price to $40,000.

Alternatively, you can spring for the Kona Premium, yours for $43,500, or again equip the N Line pack, which will set you back $46,500.

The base cars get a pretty handy spec offering, including 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and tail-lights, heated and powered wing mirrors, satin chrome exterior flourishes, and a cool EV-led design ethos which includes the light bar that spans the bonnet and boot.

Inside, there's a 12.3-inch central screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, LED interior lighting, dual-zone climate control and push-button start. Also new(ish) is Hyundai's Bluelink connectivity with over-the-air updates.

Ticking the N Line box gives you a second 12.3-inch screen, this time a digital instrument cluster, as well as the better headlights which are standard on the Premium. Most of all, though, you get N Line styling, inside and out.

Step up to the Kona Premium and you add some extra safety kit, which we'll cover in a moment, as well as a powered boot, a second 12.3-inch screen that acts as the driver display, better headlights, a better eight-speaker Bose stereo, heated and ventilated front seats (that are heated in the rear, too), and standard navigation – which you won't use, because Google Maps.

Waving the N Line wand over the Premium adds only the N Line styling tweaks, without really impacting the equipment list.

This new Kona is 30mm taller and 145mm longer than the model it has replaced – now just over 4.3m long, 1.8m wide and close to 1.6m tall – with the packaging improvements felt most in the backseat.

I'm 175cm tall, and I have absolutely no problem sitting behind my own driving position, with ample legroom and headroom. Sure, three adults across the back won't be overly fun, but the Kona stretches the definition of "small SUV", and so this is about as good as you're going to find in this segment.

Elsewhere in the back, there are twin cupholders in the pull-down seat divider, bottle holders in each door, and big central air vents.

Connectivity is another Kona perk, with twin USB points in the rear, more connection points up front (including one that you can direct to Apple CarPlay, or just to charge, so your passenger can plug in without having their phone pop up on the central screen).

The boot opens to reveal 407 litres of storage space, growing to 1241 litres with the rear seats folded flats. Plus you can tailor the space with an adjustable floor height and shopping-bag hooks.

Hybrids don’t take much explaining these days, and this one pairs a 1.6-litre petrol engine with a front-motor and a 1.32kWh battery to deliver a total 104kW and 265Nm, which is channeled through a six-speed dual-clutch automatic and sent to the front wheels.

The Kona Hybrid pairs a 1.6-litre petrol engine with a front-motor and a 1.32kWh battery to deliver a total 104kW and 265Nm.

The magic of any hybrid is in its fuel use, and this one promises fuel use of just 3.9L/100km. That’s better than the Corolla Cross, by the way, which is more like 4.3L/100km.

That means not only is its 38-litre tank pretty cheap to fill, it should get you almost 1000kms, provided you are gentle with it.

It's a pretty comprehensive safety offering, even for the entry-level Kona, which arrives with blind-spot collision-avoidance assist, driver attention warning, forward attention warning, forward collision-avoidance assist (AEB) which includes oncoming traffic and crossings, rear cross-traffic collision-avoidance assist, high-beam assist, lane following assist and lane-keeping assist, as well as intelligent speed limit assist, which sadly isn't intelligent enough to know what time it is when you're crossing a school zone, for example, so you end up switching it off.

Premium cars then add a blind-spot view monitor, parking collision-avoidance assist-reverse, a 3D surround-view monitor, and remote smart parking assist with side parking sensors.

The current Kona five-star ANCAP rating applies only to the now defunct model, but the current model has been tested, with the results due before the end of the year. So watch this space.