Hyundai KONA Electric vs Nissan LEAF

The Hyundai KONA Electric is £999 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £136 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Hyundai KONA Electric comes out roughly £999 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 266 miles for the Hyundai KONA Electric and 313 miles for the Nissan LEAF - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Nissan LEAF goes roughly 47 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 41 minutes in the Hyundai KONA Electric and 30 in the Nissan LEAF, so the Nissan LEAF loses less time at each stop. That makes the Nissan LEAF the stronger long-distance car.

The two are within 15 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 590 mm of total clearance for the Nissan LEAF and about 575 mm of total clearance for the Hyundai KONA Electric.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 86% battery health for the Hyundai KONA Electric and 84% for the Nissan LEAF. That gives the Hyundai KONA Electric a modest edge in retained real-world range. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.