Suzuki Jimny vs Hyundai Kona

What's the difference?

The Suzuki Jimny XL is still very much a Jimny, just stretched.

It’s pretty ordinary on-road, it’s on the wrong side of small – especially in terms of its cargo-carrying ability – and it’s still an exercise in driver-adaptability because it’s so basic, bouncy and requires so much effort to keep it driving in a straight line. 

But if you’re willing to fully embrace the fun and cop a few of those compromises along the way, you won’t be disappointed. 

It hardly feels cutting-edge in the world of EVs, but it is refreshingly familiar to look at, sit in and drive, and it shrinks the jump from an ICE vehicle to your first EV into something that feels entirely manageable. This is easy, breezy, fuss-free electric motoring.

The standard Suzuki Jimny is 3965mm long, 1645mm wide, 1725mm high and has a kerb weight of 1185kg.

The Jimny XL is 340mm longer than the three-door Jimny (so it’s 3985mm from end to end if you need help with your maths) and its wheelbase is 2590mm (up from 2250mm), but it remains the same width and height, 1645mm and 1720mm, respectively, as the three-door Jimny.

In terms of appearance, it looks like what it is: a stretched and heavier Jimny with a couple of extra doors. It retains that distinctive retro-cool boxy shape of its smaller stablemate.

The interior is seemingly a homage to the basic but functional cabins of 4WDs of yesteryear.

Hyundai has made a big deal about designing the new Kona as an EV first, so it doesn't matter if you buy the petrol, the hybrid or the full electric, they all share styling cues.

But for mine, the Electric is the pick of the bunch, looking modern – futuristic even – without pushing it too far.

Some EVs look like they will age like a glass of milk, but the Kona isn't one of them. I suspect it will still look plenty sharp five years from now.

Even the sharp body creases along its flanks don't look overly in-your-face, and the design of the alloy wheels, the lightly flared wheel arches and the swept-back roofline all give the Kona Electric a relatively sleek and sporty profile.

But the Kona Electric looks best from front-on, where the slim light bars, pixelated grille and rounded snout look great.

Inside, the Kona Electric is a little more predictable, coming across as any other internal-combustion SUV, rather than delivering some future-facing cabin of surprises – albeit with the Drive selector shifted from its usual place between driver and passenger to a stalk to the right of the steering wheel.

The Jimny interior is basic but comfortable, erring on the side of practical rather than anything that could ever be accused of being posh. And that spartan approach gels with the Jimny’s off-road orientation.

The cabin of the XL is the same as the smaller Jimny’s – cloth seats, hard, durable plastics – and it all feels as if you could hose it out if you got the urge, although I wouldn’t recommend that, of course.

Everything, including the controls, is really practical. The buttons and dials are big so you can find them and operate them even during particularly bouncy 4WDing.

The cabin is simply a very usable and user-friendly space. 

One of the more important things to note in the XL is the fact that it is longer. There is a bit more room inside the cabin, in general, with plenty of head, shoulder and legroom in the two-seater rear pew.

In other good news, you get a tiny bit more space in the rear cargo area than you would in the three-door Jimny. Not a whole lot, but enough to give you some more flexibility in terms of what, and how much, you can pack back there.

With the second-row seats in use, boot space is listed as 211L. With the second row stowed away, there’s a claimed 332L of cargo space.

It's bigger than its ever been, this new-generation Kona, measuring just over 4.3m long, 1.8m wide and close to 1.6m tall – 30mm taller and 145mm longer than the model it has replaced.

And yes, that's most notable in the back seat, where my 175cm frame fits with ease. Hyundai tells me there's now 77mm more legroom, 17mm more shoulder room and 15mm more headroom, but what you really need to know is there is space aplenty for second-row riders.

The boot is bigger, too, now 407L to 1241L, and there are ample storage cubbies, bottle holders and console storage, including pop-out cupholders between driver and passenger.

Fun fact. We drove the Hyundai Kona Electric some time ago, but refrained from writing about it because the Korean brand couldn't yet tell us what it would cost. And in the increasingly competitive world of electric vehicles, the price is a big factor.

And yes, that's unusual. Car companies usually have every possible duck in a row before launching a vehicle. But with the Kona Electric, Hyundai was fighting over the price, trying to get it as low as it possibly could.

So, where did it end up? Cheaper than the last one.

The Kona Electric can be had as a base model or Premium, with the entry-level then able to be had in Standard Range or Extended Range guises (the Premium is Extended Range only).

So, the base Kona Electric Standard Range is now $54,000, before on-road costs, which is $500 cheaper than the model it replaces.

The Extended Range version of the same car is now $58,000, some $2500 cheaper than before. The only bad news is for the Kona Electric Premium, which lists at $68,000, or $4000 more than its predecessor.

For the record, that makes the Kona slightly more expensive than the BYD Atto 3 ($48,011 to $51,011), and cheaper than a Tesla Model Y ($65,400 to $78,400, not including the Performance).

What separates the base-model cars is the battery (48.6kWh or 64.8kWh), so both share 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, dual 12.3-inch screens for the digital instruments and multimedia touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, a wireless phone charger, dual-zone climate, keyless entry and push-start ignition, as well as a full active safety suite.

The Premium grade then gets 19-inch alloy wheels, synthetic leather interior trim, heated and ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, a head-up display, a Bose premium audio system, remote smart parking assist, a sunroof and a powered tailgate.

The five-door Jimny has the same 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the three-door – and that produces 75kW at 6000rpm and 130Nm at 4000rpm.

The Jimny punts along simply because it is so small and light, even in XL form, but the engine is a little bit wheezy for this bigger Jimny.

It has a part-time four-wheel drive system with high- and low-range and off-road traction control.

Both Kona variants are single-motor propositions, but you do get more grunt when you opt for the bigger battery.

Base-model cars get a single, front-mounted electric motor, producing 99kW and 255Nm, while the Premium and Extended Range models deliver 150kW and 255Nm.

Neither, though, are particularly fast, reporting a 9.9sec or 8.1sec sprint to 100km/h, respectively.

The Suzuki Jimny has an official combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 6.4L/100km.

I recorded 11.6L/100km on this test which seems a bit steep but, as always, I did a lot of high- and low-range 4WDing and, as mentioned earlier, I did have to sink the right boot in quite often to maintain momentum to get through the more challenging sections of terrain.

The five-door Jimny has a 40L fuel tank, so, going by my fuel figures, a full tank should give you a driving range of about 345km.

However, if you use the official fuel figures in your calculation, a full tank should give you a driving range of about 625km.

We know already that the Kona can be had with two battery sizes, and the first (48.6kWh) will deliver a theoretical driving range of 370km on the WLTP cycle.

The bigger battery, now 64.8kWh, ups that number to 505km, but with a catch.

See, the Premium arrives with 19-inch alloy wheels, which look great, but also reduce efficiency, dropping your range to 444km. To get the full 505km, you need to stick with the 17-inch alloys.

It's also not the fastest-charging EV on the planet. The on-board AC charger is now set up for 10.4kW (though most home chargers are more like 7.0kW), but DC charging is limited to less than 100kW, meaning a 10 to 80 percent charge takes 45 minutes – or over an hour if you're using a 50kW fast charging station.

The Kona Electric also introduces an interior V2L plug, the same kind you might find in your kitchen, meaning you can plug in thirstier electronic deceives like laptops when on the move.

The Jimny XL, though longer, and heavier than the three-door Jimny, is still so small, light and nimble that those characteristics are a help and a hindrance.

A help because the XL is easy to steer anywhere – city streets, shopping centre car parks and suburbia. And more importantly, it’s one of the easiest 4WDs to manoeuvre into a parking spot.

A hindrance because it is so small and light that it takes countless minor steering corrections while driving to keep the XL steering in a straight line. And that can be very tiring. 

It’s also easily unsettled by irregular surfaces, strong wind and large passing trucks.

You’d think because the XL is 90kg heavier than the three-door Jimny it wouldn’t exhibit those characteristics quite so much, but while it’s marginally better at managing all of those challenges than the standard Jimny, it’s by small increments.

The Jimny XL feels underpowered and vulnerable, especially on highways. Hit 100km/h or so and it feels like the Zook shouldn’t be pushed any harder.

Ride is firm and jittery via a light narrow body on a ladder-frame chassis and coil springs.

However, the Jimny is fun and highly manoeuvrable off-road. Not because of any mechanical or off-road traction control systems, but because it's so small and light.

The Jimny has part-time 4WD (with high- and low-range 4WD) and an 'AllGrip Pro' system of driver-assist tech that includes hill descent control, hill hold assist and more – all adequate in terms of performance.

This is a real 4WD with a full ladder-frame chassis and rigid axles front and rear. It exists in a vehicular realm occupied by other purpose-built 4WDs such as the Ford Ranger Raptor, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series and Land Rover Defender.

And because of its size, offering up plenty of visibility and with a wheel at each corner, the Jimny is, as mentioned, very easy to steer through rough terrain, because the driver knows exactly where the tyres are at any time.

The Jimny XL has decent off-road angles. Approach is listed as 36 degrees, departure is 47, ramp-over is 24, but this 4WD is not as naturally suited to off-roading as the three-door.

Ground clearance is 211mm and wading depth is unlisted but likely around 300mm.

In 4WD 'High' or 'Low', the Jimny simply keeps on trucking through rough terrain. It doesn't have a diff lock, but because it's so small and light it still manages quite nicely without one.

You have to use plenty of throttle, keeping the revs up and wheels spinning in order to get the most out of that traction control, but that's part of the fun.

However, for the exact reasons it is such a lively drive on-road and such an engaging drive off-road, the Jimny faces a few substantial challenges on tough terrain.

This 4WD demands its driver be fully dialled-into the experience, fully committed, and, while that’s a characteristic I really like, it will exhaust some people.

The Jimny requires constant micromanagement of the steering, transmission and the vehicle itself simply to keep it on track. And that can quickly become tiring, especially if you're not used to it. 

Because it's so small and light, the Jimny can be unsettled by corrugations, shallow and deep, skipping around lightly as it attempts to maintain traction and momentum.

Also, while low-range 4WDing, any dramatic changes in the terrain or driving conditions – an abrupt wheel drop into a deep rut, or a shift in onboard load, or a wind gust while driving up a rocky hill – can create instantly tricky, even serious, issues for the Jimny to overcome.

As always, standard tyres (Bridgestone Dueler H/L 195/80 R15) are fine for sealed surfaces and some light-duty off-roading but if you’re planning to drive on anything more than well-maintained formed trails then invest in a set of decent all-terrains.

It has a full-sized spare wheel mounted on the rear door.

On a minor niggling note, there's a lot of in-cabin noise on any track surface, and a noticeable transmission whine.

In terms of weights and practicality for packing, gross vehicle mass (GVM) is listed as 1545kg, 110kg more than the three-door Jimny . But the vehicle weighs 90kg more than the three-door, so there’s that…

Payload is listed as 360kg. Towing capacity is 350kg (unbraked) and 1300kg (braked).

What's it like to drive? Bloody easy, to be honest. What I loved about the old Kona Electric still rings true here, and that is that it this feels like a very easy step to make if you're moving into your first electric vehicle.

It looks familiar, it feels familiar, and it's immediately familiar to drive.

You know how some EVs feel mega-futuristic, pushing you back in your chair every time you poke the accelerator, all silent and slightly discombobulating aggression?

Well, this isn't one of those. It's smooth, sedate even, with fairly leisurely acceleration, smooth steering and a ride that's comfy enough, too.

But as I was cruising back from Canberra to Sydney (which required a charging stop, btw), I was pondering what it is people want from a small SUV. Mind-bending performance? Or practicality and comfort?

I suspect it's the latter, and the Kona Electric delivers on that front.

That said, the time it takes to charge is punishing. To have to stop for 30 minutes on the drive between Canberra and Sydney (granted, it was only 80 percent charged when I got in it) is tough, but it's made tougher still when the time stationary is half an hour plus.

It's officially a four-star ANCAP vehicle, this Kona, owing mostly to the performance of some of its active safety kit, like AEB, which ANCAP described as "adequate".

How much that bothers you is an individual thing (I can tell you it bothers me exactly not at all), and the Kona is fitted with a whole bunch of safety kit, including seven airbags, 'Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist 2.0' (AEB) with human and bike detection, lane change and junction assist, 'Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist' and 'Blind-Spot View Monitor', intelligent cruise control and auto lights.

The Suzuki Jimny has a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty.

Servicing is scheduled for every 12 months/15,000km.

Over five years you'll be in for a high of $589 and a low of $349 for an annual service, the average being $453 per service over that period. Not outrageous, but not exactly cheap.

The Kona Electric is covered by Hyundai's five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty,  while the battery is covered for eight years or 160,000km.

Servicing is a strong point, with the intervals pegged at 24 months or 30,000km, and capped at $520 per visit for the first three services, or up to six years.