Hyundai Kona N almost sold out in Australia

Hyundai is bidding farewell to the Kona N performance SUV.

The final batch of cars has arrived in Australia, with around 25 cars unspoken for at the time of publish across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia.

The mainstream Kona range has already been superseded by a bigger new model – but at this stage, there’s no word on whether the more powerful Kona N will be replaced.

Hyundai has said the Kona N was the least popular member of the N range, sitting behind the i30 hatchback and Sedan N and the smaller i20 N.

Hyundai closed order books for the i20 N late in 2022, and took the i30 N hatch off sale in February 2023. When it shut the order books, there were around 1600 undelivered i30 N hatchbacks for Australia.

The company’s local chief operating officer in July told media a “solution” is coming for the hatchbacks before the end of 2023 – although exactly what that looks like isn’t clear.

“i20 N and i30 N are important vehicles for our portfolio,” Hyundai Australia COO John Kett told media.

The Kona N is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 206kW of power and 392Nm of torque between 2100 and 4700rpm, mated to Hyundai’s new eight-speed wet dual-clutch automatic transmission.

There’s an electronically controlled mechanical limited-slip differential on the front axle to help get the power down, which offers both Normal and Sport settings.

The new Kona range doesn’t feature an equivalent; the most powerful version of the new line-up features a 1.6-litre turbo engine with 146kW of power and 265Nm of torque.

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