Hyundai Kona - India's First Long-Range Electric Car

The Hyundai Kona is India’s first long-range electric car, and it gives us a taste of what the future is like

- Aatish Mishra

THEY’RE HERE!

Sounds like one of those ominous warning screams from a sci-fi War of the Worlds-Esque apocalyptic fantasy, but instead of explosions and wailing, it was followed by silence. Okay not silence, but a soft whirring. The electric car is finally here in a form that asks very little by way of compromise. To be fair, electric cars have been around a while – however, they were never versatile and certainly not cool. The launch of the Hyundai Kona Electric has changed that. The Kona Electric claims many firsts – it is the first long-range electric car in India. It is also India’s first electric SUV. We’ve already driven the Kona Electric in South Korea, but this story is far more relevant as we’re driving the actual car being sold in India (what we drove in Korea had a higher capacity battery), and we finally know details like the price and what sort of network and support these EVs will get.

EV Talk There’s a lot of new terminologies that you and I have to grapple with when it comes to EVs. First, there’s the total amount of energy on board. The Kona we’re driving gets a 39.2kWh battery. Now just to give you some perspective – the Mahindra eVerito gets an 18.5kWh battery and hybrids like the Honda Accord has a 1.3kWh. This battery gives the Kona an ARAI-certified range of 452km, though I suggest you take that with a pinch of salt. The ARAI testing methods for EVs aren’t exactly up-to-date and it’s even done with the air-con off. The more-relevant WLTP cycle says that the Kona Electric will do 289km on a single charge, and this is a more accurate indication of its real-world range.