Hyundai Kona Electric reliability & safety

From a European perspective, Hyundai has gone from fringe manufacturer to mainstream player in quite a short timeframe, but there’s nothing second-class about the safety kit packed into its latest cars like the Kona.

Hyundai Kona Electric reliability & problems

Hyundai did remarkably well in the reliability section of our sister title Auto Express' 2018 Driver Power consumer-satisfaction survey, with only 6.2% of owners saying their cars had a fault in the first year they owned it.

The brand’s overall 15th place reflected lower scores in areas such as driver appeal and interior comfort – although that’s not relevant to the Kona, which was too new at the time to have featured. Hyundai's position had improved to 13th by the time of the 2020 survey.

The 2020 edition of the survey also saw the Kona (encompassing petrol, hybrid and electric versions) ranked 60th out of 75 models. Negative comments focused on practicality and engine noise, however, with the latter obviously not applying to the electric version. Reliability of the model was praised, with only a tiny 4.5% of owners saying they'd experienced a fault.

Safety

While the Kona Electric hasn’t been crash-tested specifically by Euro NCAP, the combustion-engined version was evaluated in late 2017, receiving the maximum five-star safety rating. Adult and child occupant protection were rated at 87% and 85% respectively.

There’s no shortage of safety equipment on the Kona Electric, with both the Premium and Premium SE trim levels featuring autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, hill-start assistance, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alerts. The range-topping Premium SE gets a head-up display designed to help minimise distractions from the road ahead.