Friday, July 10, 2026

Hyundai slashes prices of Kona Electric and Ioniq 5 EVs, but cuts some features

Jun 5, 2026

The EV price war continues apace with new models now regularly breaking the $50k and $40k barriers, leaving other manufacturers scrambling to catch up in order to avoid losing sales volume to the newcomers.

Hyundai is the latest to move – again – and have just announced new pricing for their Ioniq 5 and Kona Electric SUVs, along with a new Kona Electric variant (‘Elite’ version) that slots in-between the existing Kona Electric and Kona Electric Premium.

This brings it more into line with the fossil-fuelled Kona range.

The Kona Electric Standard Range now opens at $46,000, with the new Elite variant priced from $53,000 (both prices are before the dreaded ORCs, or ‘on-road-costs’*).

The Ioniq 5 range now begins at $68,200 (plus ORCs). The IONIQ 5 Premium N Line variant also now includes leather sport seats with N logos (replacing the previous suede seats).

Hyundai Ioniq 5

These changes however do not come without a few slight stings-in-the-tail. For both, the portable charger that used to come standard with both models has now been deleted, as have their interior 230V 3-pin vehicle to load (V2L) outlets.

On top of these, the Kona has a had a few more feature downgrades to bring it in at the lower price. The biggest surprise perhaps is the removal of the heat-pump and a return to the 2019-23 OS model’s much less efficient resistive element heater system.

This could decrease the potential driving range by up to around 10% if using the heater a lot. Given one of the major upgrades in the step-change from the OS to the SX model was fitting a heat-pump as standard, this does seem an odd move. Gone too in the Kona is the electrochromic rear vision mirror with a switch back to a manually operated one.

The revised Kona Electric and Ioniq 5 ranges are available to order now, with arrival into dealerships commencing from June.