Hyundai Kona Electric gets a design refresh, but retains its impressive range

The Hyundai Kona is one of the best electric cars on the road. The reason for that is simple: it offers great range for the money, while also being backed up by a design and system that makes it feel like it was designed as an EV first.

There's a new design tweak that's gone a little Tesla, with an new closed-off nose that screams "I'm electric!" at you. Previously, there was still an insert in the front of the car that was a hangover from the old grille on the combustion version of this car.

There are tweaks to both the exterior and the interior, but it still looks (mostly) like a Hyundai Kona. On the interior there's more of a shift, things look a little more modern while the general aesthetic is retained.

The big change is a shift over to a proper digital driver display, meaning that it's likely to offer more customisation than it did previously, while there's still going to be the option for a 10.25-inch central display, with an 8-inch display as standard.

It supports a wide range of connectivity, able to download things like traffic data monthly to be able to more accurately plot routes, while also offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to support those smartphone-based systems. When we reviewed the 2018 model, we commented that the interior tech felt strangely dated, and hopefully this will deal with that minor bugbear.

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But the important details are around the driving. Here, in reality, there hasn't been a change. The Kona electric will still be available with a choice of battery capacities - 64kWh or 39.2kWh - with a 484km (300 miles) or 305km (198 miles) respectively.

The larger battery has a 150kW motor, meaning it will do 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds, while the smaller has a 100kW motor, reducing the acceleration to 9.9 seconds. Both have 395Nm torque, however, for that peppy off the line speed that electric cars as known for.

The new Kona Electric will charge at up to 100kW, which will get that larger battery to 80 per cent in 47 minutes, which means you're getting great range from not too long on the charger.

The CCS socket is still on the front of the car, while there's optional support for 10.5kW three-phase AC charging, or the standard 7.2kW that some will get from a home charging point.

The pricing hasn't been announced and we don't have confirmation of when and where it will be available, but this car has been popular in Europe, so we'd expect to see it on sale and on the roads in 2021.

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