Hyundai Kona Electric TAUNTS Tesla and Elon Musk on Billboards across Europe

The arrival of the Hyundai Kona Electric at the Geneva Motor show marks the first compact electric SUV to the market, and Hyundai are using it as an opportunity to taunt Elon Musk and Tesla.

It’s only two weeks since the Hyundai Kona Electric compact SUV was revealed to the world, but it’s set to be a proper game changer for the Korean car maker.

Not only is it the first electric compact SUV, but it arrives at a time when the buzz around electric cars is hitting a new high, as cars like the impressive Jaguar i-Pace hit the market, to be closely followed by the Audi e-tron and Mercedes EQC.

But the cars from Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes are very much ‘Premium’ models, with prices starting from around £60k, and all are bigger than the compact Kona. So the Kona EV’s arrival allows Hyundai the bragging rights of being first to market in its sector, just as Jaguar has achieved for its larger, premium car. And the bragging rights seem to be based on real substance, with the electric Kona promising a range of up to 300 miles from its more powerful, 64kWh version, which also boasts 201bhp and a 0-62mph in 7.6 seconds.

Hyundai are so chuffed with their coup they’ve decided it’s worth having a dig at Tesla’s apparent inability to deliver their much vaunted ‘affordable’ electric cars, with the new Model 3 tied up in production hell and the Model Y – a smaller Model X based on the Model 3’s underpinnings – probably at least two years away.

So billboards have started popping across Europe, with the Kona EV front and centre and a simple tag line: “Your Turn, Elon”.

It’s tough enough for Tesla to see the Jaguar i-Pace delivering a comparable, appealing and more affordable, alternative to the Model X, but Hyundai’s Kona EV puts a spoke in Tesla’s wheel at least two years before they have a prayer of responding with their Model Y.

Ouch.

Hyundai Kona Electric Photos

Billboard Image Source: Electrik