Even without tax credits, you would pay the equivalent to $31,000.
If you are interested in a Hyundai Kona Electric in the US, you have to live in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, or Washington. And have $36,950 to spare. In China, Hyundai will sell you the same vehicle anywhere. For the equivalent to $31,000 before tax incentives. The price is RMB 216,300. With the government’s help, you would end up paying RMB 172,800, or $24,766 at current exchange rates. But your car would have another name. It would be called Encino EV, despite the “Electric” badge on the back.
Gallery: How Much Less A Chinese Customer Pays For The Hyundai Kona Electric?
The new EV was presented to the Chinese market last November 4, according to our friends at CarNewsChina.com.
As they mention, such pricing makes the Encino EV one of the cheapest “foreign” electric cars in China. Something that is not surprising when it comes from Hyundai. The company has always been very aggressive in presenting its cars as real bargains.
The Encino EV has the same specifications as the one sold in the US. It also has a 64 kWh battery pack, and a 150 kW (201 hp) motor. Only the range is more extensive in China, at 500 km (311 mi), but that is probably because of measurement cycle differences.
If you are starting to become jealous of Chinese customers due to the entry-level Encino EV, wait until you see the fully loaded EV. In China, it is called Top, and it costs RMB 242,300, which is equivalent to $34,727.
With government incentives, that price falls to RMB 198,800, or $28,492. Still cheaper than what you have to pay for the entry-level Kona in the US. In some states. If you can. Ironically, Encino is a neighborhood in the Los Angeles region.
We just wonder why the Kona became the Encino in China. Probably for the same reason it is not named Kona in Portugal, but rather Kauai. Kona is the obscene word used there to refer to women’s genitals – sorry to make you never look at your Hyundai in the same way again, but that is the truth. We are afraid to ask what Kona could mean in Chinese… Or Kauai.