Move aside, Tesla: Hyundai and Kia's electric cars are the new cultural benchmark | Opinion

Remember when Tesla was the be-all and end-all of cool EVs?

People were wondering what all these sleek cars with number plates referencing electricity or coded jabs at oil and petrol were all about. Enthusiasts were watching videos of ‘luxury’ sedans trouncing supercars at drag strips.

Tesla is still wildly popular, don’t get me wrong, but it’s no longer got that broadly accepted ‘this is the future’ status that helped it wake other manufacturers up to the fact that a decent number of people are interested in an electric car.

It’s been a long time since someone who’s not that interested in cars gushed to me about how much they like Tesla (it doesn’t help that the man in charge of Tesla has done less and less for his own reputation as time rolls on), so if Tesla isn’t the brand at the cultural forefront of electric cars, then who is?

In terms of a realistic benchmark brand for electric car offerings, I would suggest the Hyundai Group — and Kia especially.

I’m not talking about sales volume, Tesla has the market covered there.

No, I’m talking about the products themselves, the brand’s approach to practicality and, importantly, style.

I was recently in Seoul to drive the new Kia EV3 and it ticked over something in my head: Kia and Hyundai’s EVs are the only ones I feel like I’d really recommend, without caveats, to anyone in an EV-ready financial situation at the moment.

Let’s take a quick look at the competition. As mentioned, Tesla’s brand image is becoming more divisive — the Cybertruck is an excellent example of this — while past build quality issues have likely turned some potential buyers away for good.

Image is also important when Chinese brands like BYD and MG are involved, both have decent EV options (Atto 3 and MG4 both review relatively well) but once Australians are asked to spend more than the lowest price possible, the brand becomes more a factor in the purchase. Chinese brands in general also have some way to go with polish in certain areas, but it’s hard to deny a competitive price.

On the other end of that spectrum, European brands’ electric cars are seen as prohibitively expensive in a lot of cases and some are still facing teething issues, such as Volvo’s recent admission that redesigning the computer architecture of the EX90 caused significant delays in development.

Then there are the rivals from Japan, who have either arrived very late to the EV party or not at all in some cases. Toyota and Subaru’s bZ4X and Solterra siblings seem like they were built under duress; Mazda has no electric car available here; Honda’s leaning more into hybrids and Mitsubishi into PHEVs.

In the same way fax machines are still used in Japan, its car industry may take some time to catch up.

So the source of what seems like just about everyone’s car in Korea, Hyundai Motor Company (which includes the eponymous brand, Kia and Genesis), is in prime position.

Its offerings aren’t prohibitively expensive (for electric cars) and its brands have done a lot of work in building a more premium feel and more perceived value over the last decade. 

Plus, and this is very important for EVs, their models have a decent reputation for being able to get close to (or achieve) their claimed driving ranges.

All this is not to say they’re now within reach of most car buyers, but once the new Kia EV3 and Hyundai Inster arrive it seems like there will be an option for EV hopefuls regardless of the size of car they’re looking for.

From the tiny Inster and slightly larger EV3 at the lower end, the brands offer typical family vehicles like the mid-size EV5 SUV, overgrown Ioniq 5 hatch, EV6 coupe-like SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan with the EV9 seven-seater crowning the group's mainstream range. Kia has electric vans on the way and has even teased a sedan with the EV4 concept.

Let’s not forget Genesis for the more premium end of the scale, too, with the GV60 electric small SUV, plus the larger GV70 available as an EV along with the G80 large sedan.

While it’s clear there’s still demand for the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, those two options don’t cover nearly as many market spaces.

Perhaps more importantly than we realise, the Kia and Hyundai brands aren’t as likely to flare up opinions in general conversation. Their designs might be a little more out there than Tesla’s but there’s no celebrity Hyundai or Kia executive that also happens to own a social media platform, or launches rockets into space, or treats significant moments like meme opportunities.

It certainly makes the South Korean group a little more ‘small talk-friendly’ than its American rival.