Hyundai Kona Electric review - Reliability and Safety

Hyundai is a brand whose reputation for making safe and reliable cars is building: its 22nd-place finish in our 2019 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey doesn’t quite do justice to its great scores for reliability and low rate of reported faults. Results for servicing costs and overall build quality were also above average.

Instead, the brand’s overall result was skewed by owners’ dissatisfaction with performance, styling and driving experience – all issues addressed ably by the Kona Electric.

The Kona Electric has not been crash tested by Euro NCAP, but the standard Hyundai Kona received the maximum of five stars, with an 87 per cent adult protection rating and 85% child protection rating.

Standard safety kit includes autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, forward collision warning and six airbags – one less than the Kia e-Niro. It’s worth stepping up to Premium trim to add blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert – especially if you do lots of town driving – while the improved lane-keep assistance makes motorway jaunts safer too.

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Warranty

The Kona Electric is subject to the same excellent five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty that applies to all conventionally powered Hyundai models. Kia offers its e-Niro with a seven-year warranty, but with a 100,000-mile limit.

Servicing

Hyundai offers a comprehensive fixed-price servicing plan that can be tailored to your requirements. Yearly services are required as per a conventional, but expect slightly shorter mileage intervals.