[TusharK]

The Hyundai Kona Electric is no longer on sale in India. The electric SUV has also been removed from the brand’s official website.



Kona Electric was one of two electric models offered by Hyundai in India, the other being the Ioniq 5, which will continue to be on sale. The Kona was positioned below the Ioniq 5, priced at Rs 25.30 lakh (ex-showroom).

The Kona Electric was available with a 39.2 kWh battery, powering an electric motor that produced 131 BHP and 395 Nm. It had a maximum certified range of 452 km on a single charge.

The discontinuation of the Kona Electric could be linked to Hyundai’s plans to launch the Creta EV. The latter will go on sale in early 2025.

Link to Team-BHP News

[vattyboy]

The Hyundai Creta EV is anticipated to be released shortly. Once the Creta EV is on the market, it's expected that there will be a decline in the demand for the Kona, which may impact Kona sales significantly.

[The Pianist]

Originally Posted by TusharK

The electric SUV has also been removed from the brand’s official website.

Kona Electric was one of two electric models offered by Hyundai in India,

The discontinuation of the Kona Electric could be linked to Hyundai’s plans to launch the Creta EV. The latter will go on sale in early 2025.

Is it the cost points that are not allowing in the new Kona not being released in India?

Hyundai does have enough volumes along with Creta EV for the Kona EV.
Or is it that Kona was not as successful as per Hyundai standards in India?



The new Kona EV does look good

[Sedated]

For the size both kona and creta ev are they will be directly competing with each other from the same brand and maybe even similar price. Even if they did release the new kona, creta has the stronger brand image.

[XRoader_001]

Creta electric will be taking the space between ₹ 20-24 lakh price bracket its expected to get a 2024 Kona 48 kWh battery pack and electric motor.

Hyundai India didn’t updated Kona electric back in 2020 while it was face lifted across globe even Nepal used to get 2020 version it seems only chance of Kona electric to arrive in India is with a 64 kWh battery pack to offer an electric car between Creta ev & Ioniq 5

[manualManuel]

Looks like both the vehicles would have occupied similar or close price points. In that case, when you consider the interior space of the Kona to the Creta, the Kona does not make much sense. So for a car with already limited sales, makes no sense to continue to sell it.

[Sids85]

Good they discontinued it. It was an old gen car which never got updated. With Creta EV launch on the horizon, Kona would have been a dead horse to carry around.

[darkgamer]

I’m honestly not sure if the Creta EV will be a worthy successor to the Kona EV. From the spy shots it looks like a patch job with battery pack hanging below. Kona was a much more finished product.

The specs also look kinda underwhelming for the Creta EV, especially for the size and price. Funnily enough, MG comet will remain the only ‘born EV’ car south of 40 lakhs for the foreseeable future

[SR-71]

Curious, why would they launch a Creta EV if the Konda is having a good run worldwide. Is it to cash-in on the brand name or the fascination of the people to have an 'SUV'. I am guessing Creta will pretty much carry similar powerhouse as the Kona. However, the Kona is a tried and tested model in the EV space and carries a 4-star NCAP rating versus the Creta which is new to the EV space, and it has a 3 (or is it 2) start rating in its current avatar. Personally, I prefer the new Kona's design language over the current Creta's.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by SR-71

Curious, why would they launch a Creta EV if the Konda is having a good run worldwide.

It boils down at the end to Economics. Economy of Scales to be precise. Create as a platform is already available and Hyundai can adopt the existing Kona EV Arch and do some R&D and testing on integration and viola - You have a EV ready. It makes sense in lot of other ways - Its selling well, Body shell etc are the same so cost rationalization in a competitive market.
Actually Tata is the flag bearer of this approach with Tiago, Tigor, Punch, Nexon etc.

[StrykerEV05]

Originally Posted by darkgamer

Funnily enough, MG comet will remain the only ‘born EV’ car south of 40 lakhs for the foreseeable future

BYD Atto3 is also a born electric car under 40. But yes, for now these 2 are the only options under 40L.
The upcoming MG Cloud EV might be the 3rd one. Also the Tata Harrier EV can be considered a different vehicle - Pseudo Born EV maybe! Because that'll come with a twin motor setup and 4 wheel drive. So can't really call it just an EV version of the existing Harrier.

[darkgamer]

Originally Posted by StrykerEV05

BYD Atto3 is also a born electric car under 40. But yes, for now these 2 are the only options under 40L.
The upcoming MG Cloud EV might be the 3rd one. Also the Tata Harrier EV can be considered a different vehicle - Pseudo Born EV maybe! Because that'll come with a twin motor setup and 4 wheel drive. So can't really call it just an EV version of the existing Harrier.

Meanwhile in China you get a

BMW 3 series EV with 300bhp for 22 lakhs.

.

Our policymakers have absolutely failed to promote EVs in India, and I’m sure when sales keep low they’ll blame the consumers. States like Karnataka even recently raised road taxes on EVs

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by darkgamer

Our policymakers have absolutely failed to promote EVs in India, and I’m sure when sales keep low they’ll blame the consumers. States like Karnataka even recently raised road taxes on EVs

Let's blame it on the policymakers when corporates cannot see beyond the quarterly profits and margins.

India has some of the best incentives for EVs in the world. 5% GST (vs 30 to 50% for ICEs) on EVs and charging equipment, road tax waivers in many states for a few years, generous subsidies for 2 and 3-wheelers and also for fleet cars, PLI schemes for EV and battery manufacturing, etc...

GST difference itself should take care of the extra costs associated with batteries and motors. Battery prices also reduced significantly in the last 1-2 years, but Tata is still selling the Nexon with the same battery capacity and charging speed vehicles now as they were 4 years ago. They even launched more models with even smaller batteries. No wonder their sales are declining despite having more EV models now. Our car companies are risk-averse and not daring enough. At least in 2-wheeler space traditional companies are forced towards EVs due to competition from startups like Ola and Ather.

On the other hand, we cannot emulate the Chinese market either. There are dozens of major carmakers struggling with EVs and many are going bankrupt despite achieving mass volume over the last few years due to insane competition. Everything from China will be filtered and we will only talk about the positives mostly. Our companies should find the balance between growth at any cost and being laggards.

[darkgamer]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

Let's blame it on the policymakers when corporates cannot see beyond the quarterly profits and margins.

India has some of the best incentives for EVs in the world. 5% GST (vs 30 to 50% for ICEs) on EVs and charging equipment, road tax waivers in many states for a few years, generous subsidies for 2 and 3-wheelers and also for fleet cars, PLI schemes for EV and battery manufacturing, etc...

Most of these are a recent phenomenon, especially the PLI and the new 15% import duty for some manufacturers.

How can an electric manufacturer in good faith invest massively in the market when there’s no policy continuity. The government took FAME subsidy from 4 wheelers first, now as soon as a couple good EVs launched, Karnataka government raised road tax on EVs.

Manufacturers know that as soon as good EVs come in, the taxes will shoot through the roof because greedy politicians can’t see beyond revenue. If manufacturers believed that policy will continue, we’d already have EVs like absolutely tiny countries like Nepal have.

GST difference itself should take care of the extra costs associated with batteries and motors. Battery prices also reduced significantly in the last 1-2 years, but Tata is still selling the Nexon with the same battery capacity and charging speed vehicles now as they were 4 years ago. They even launched more models with even smaller batteries. No wonder their sales are declining despite having more EV models now. Our car companies are risk-averse and not daring enough. At least in 2-wheeler space traditional companies are forced towards EVs due to competition from startups like Ola and Ather.

It worked in 2 wheeler space because government gave subsidies which are significant. US government gave $15k tax subsidy and Chinese government literally subsidised production costs.

On the other hand for 4 wheelers government first removed FAME, then they removed 80EEB benefit last year and now state governments are slowly raising road taxes.

Cars like BYD Seal costs 23L in India, and then government imposes charges on it so that it costs 42L ex showroom. They also don’t let BYD manufacture cars in India because their precious Tata and Mahindra won’t be able to compete. So Tata and Mahindra have no incentive to sell better cars because cars from other manufacturers have a tax of 80-90% while they have 5%.

On the other hand, we cannot emulate the Chinese market either. There are dozens of major carmakers struggling with EVs and many are going bankrupt despite achieving mass volume over the last few years due to insane competition. Everything from China will be filtered and we will only talk about the positives mostly. Our companies should find the balance between growth at any cost and being laggards.

Certainly not good for Indian consumers and taxpayers, while Chinese customers are spoiled for choice. And by the time good locally manufactured EVs come, I’m sure we’ll have to pay 50-70% tax on them just like ICE cars.

[Love4Cars]

And here I was planning to buy one in April 2024 but ended up buying a Vitara Strong Hybrid instead. I knew it would be discontinued soon looking at the official 4 Lacs discount and additional 2 lacs discount by a dealer in Chennai.
Resale and range anxiety were two reasons why I didn't go for Kona.
Creta EV won't be anything close to Kona build quality and yet will be priced similar or more.