Will Hyundai Sime Darby Launch This EV Crossover Soon?
The petrol powered Hyundai Kona Malaysian media test drive will be next week and its official launch soon after. Priced from RM115,000 there are some Malaysians ‘on the fence’ on whether to buy this cute Korean crossover or wait for the selling price of the Proton X50 and decide.
Then there is the Kia Seltos which is also ready for booking at a price from RM120,000 which is ready to be launched in the next few weeks. Choices, choices and more choices are coming to the Malaysian crossover segment and they are all good products with asking prices that hit dead centre with the middle class Malaysia car buyer.
It should be noted that in this fast growing segment, there is no Electric powered crossover on sale in Malaysia and we have not heard of a possible launch from the brand guardians despite all of them having EV’s in the product portfolio.
Then this happened.
So far Hyundai Malaysia has only confirmed to be bringing in the petrol variant of the Kona. So what then is the story behind this Hyundai Kona Electric that was spotted charging in Malaysia?
Spotted wearing Malaysian number plates, and a very recently registered plate at that, could this be an early sign that Hyundai is bringing in an electric variant of the Kona to our shores? If so, this could be the first true EV alternative that Malaysians could seriously consider when out car shopping.
This move, although highly unorthodox, is not completely out of the wheelhouse of Hyundai Malaysia. Having dealt with hybrid technology in the Ioniq Hybrid before, handling a fully electric car should not be a problem for the Hyundai in Malaysia. Moreover, with the electric car market in Malaysia amping up in recent months, especially with the launch of the Mini Electric and the Porsche Taycan, perhaps the launch of a more common-man centric EV has been long overdue here.
To add to that, the Hyundai Kona Electric has already proved itself to be a rather capable little EV in the markets which it is sold with over 100,000 units sold since its launch two years ago. These things have already been a common sight in its home market of South Korea for a while now, and reviews from the western world rates this EV crossover highly too. So if it is good enough for the rest of the world, it should be good enough for us here.
Having said all that though, there is a fairly simple explanation as to why one of these Kona Electrics can be spotted wearing Malaysian plates, and it all has to do with COMOS. Apparently even before Hyundai decided to bring in the Kona into Malaysia, COMOS had already planned to bring in a fleet of Kona Electrics as part of their electric car subscription program.
If the name COMOS sounds familiar, that is because it is the same company that were offering the leases on the Renault Zoe and Twizy here, in an attempt to kickstart the local EV revolution. COMOS, or Cohesive Mobility Solutions to give it its full name, had intentions to add to the fleet of Kona Electric EVs into its existing once fully Renault EV fleet.
A quick look at their website confirms this fact, as one can still register their interest to lease a Kona Electric here in Malaysia. However, seeing as the lease price begins at RM 4,300 per month for the cheaper of two variants on offer, this could be the reason as to why there are virtually none on the road here.
Speaking of not seeing any on the road, the jury is still out on whether COMOS still offers the Kona Electric as part of its highly-expensive subscription program. Or whether if this scheme ever got off the ground in the first place. The actual number of Kona Electrics are there in Malaysia are also a mystery. The only concrete information available is that with this teal blue Kona Electric you see here, there is at least one of these zero-emissions compact crossovers roaming the streets of Malaysia.
Opinion and Text by Joshua Chin
