Another day, another electric car story! This time Hyundai Australia has announced the arrival of its first fully electric Kona SUV. The first lucky customer is Charles Dalglish a Blue Mountains man and green power enthusiast who lives off-the-grid via his home solar setup. 

Mr Dalglish who is now in semi-retirement is the owner of a green power business. 

Mr Dalglish says “Ever since I got wind of the Kona Electric two years ago, I’ve just pushed and pushed and pushed. I’m very pleased,”

“The Hyundai is going to be tremendous – it’s got a 450km range,” Dalglish said. “I’ll be in clover; it will be fantastic.”

Hyundai Australia Boss JW Lee added, “We are extremely pleased to deliver the first game-changing Kona Electric to Mr. Dalglish, who is an enthusiastic proponent of alternative green power, and of the efficient Hyundai EV system,”

The Kona has an excellent range of 449km and has ultra-fast 100kW DC charging capability.

Mr Dalglish goes on to make this valid observation, “No affordable electric car can go from Sydney to Bathurst without having to stop or being on a tow truck.”

 “I’ve built three electric cars, so I know a little bit about them,”Dalglish added, “and I’m much in admiration of the Hyundai being so efficient.”

The electric Kona has a 150kW electric motor powertrain and certainly is easy on the eye. 395Nm helps see the 0-100km/h dash completed in 7.6-seconds. The often quoted 80 per cent battery charge can be performed in 54 minutes, or you can trickle charge it overnight via the 7.2kW on-board charger that plugs into a typical domestic socket. 

It has a 65kWh battery and will set you back $60,000.