The country’s second-largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) today launched their latest offering for the Indian market and their first all-electric vehicle in India, the Hyundai Kona. The Kona is the first electric vehicle offering by a major international brand in India, and to assure customers that the vehicle will not run out of charge, has a certified range of 452 kilometers from a 39.2 kilowatt-hour battery, although experts believed that the vehicle will have a real-world range of between 250-300 kilometers. The Kona, which is being partially assembled in India will be priced at Rs 25.3 lakh and will be available at only 15 Hyundai showrooms in 11 cities across India as the carmaker estimates demand.
Hyundai executives said that the carmaker has tied up with IndianOil corporation to build by fast-charging Direct Current chargers at select petrol pumps (only four are in operation currently) with which Kona owners can charge their vehicle to 80 percent power in 15 minutes. Hyundai will also provide users with a Level 2, wall charging point that will allow faster charging from a regular home connection, charging the car entirely in around six hours. If users choose to use a regular wall socket, the Kona’s battery will take 15-19 hours to charge fully. To further assuage customers, Hyundai Motors is providing a three-year unlimited mileage warranty and a 160,000 kilometer, eight-year warranty on the main battery which the company says will be good for 2000 full-charge cycles.
Hyundai Motor, Research and Development Chief, Y S Kim also highlighted that Hyundai is working on multiple technologies and with multiple vendors so as to have a full fleet of electric, plug-in and hybrid vehicles by 2025. Newer battery technologies that Hyundai is jointly developing with other Korean companies such as Samsung and LG should also make batteries more durable and have higher energy density. However, Hyundai is waiting to see how the Indian market reacts to the Kona. The Kona has been brought in at the current 12 per cent GST that electric vehicles attract, however prices could drop if as proposed in the union budget, GST rates for electric vehicles drops to five per cent at the next GST Council meeting.