Hyundai KONA Electric Now Qualifies for Full £3,750 Government Grant

Hyundai’s KONA Electric now qualifies for the full £3,750 Electric Car Grant, up from the £1,500 it was previously awarded, cutting its effective UK starting price from £35,000 to £31,250.

Why the Grant Went Up

The Electric Car Grant, run by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, pays point-of-sale discounts on new electric cars and splits eligible models into two bands. Band 1, the higher £3,750 tier, goes to vehicles that clear the scheme’s strictest environmental supply chain checks on top of the standard price and eligibility rules. The KONA Electric had been sitting in Band 2 at £1,500 until Hyundai resubmitted evidence on its supply chain and manufacturing process, which the government has now accepted, moving the car up a tier with immediate effect.

Ashley Andrew, President of Hyundai Motor UK, said the KONA Electric “has always offered one of the most compelling combinations of range, practicality and value in its class, and now it’s greater value than ever,” adding that the upgrade is “the first step to welcoming more models from our line-up into the scheme as the year progresses.”

What Buyers Actually Get for £31,250

The current, second-generation KONA Electric comes with two battery choices: a standard-range 48.4kWh pack producing 156PS, and a long-range 65.4kWh pack producing 218PS with a WLTP range of up to 319 miles. More than 100,000 have sold across Europe in the years after the model’s 2017 launch, making it one of the continent’s best-selling electric SUVs. Hyundai is keeping its existing 0% APR finance offer running alongside the enhanced grant, so the discount stacks with the finance deal rather than replacing it.

Warranty Cover Adds to the Value Case

Every new Hyundai, KONA Electric included, comes with the brand’s five-year unlimited-mileage warranty, a roadside assistance package, five years of vehicle health checks and an eight-year or 100,000-mile warranty on the high-voltage battery itself. Buyers looking at used stock get similar protection through Hyundai’s Promise Approved Used Cars programme. Combined with the lower purchase price the enhanced grant now delivers, the KONA Electric’s total cost of ownership case gets stronger without any change to the car itself.

Hyundai’s Wider Electric Push in the UK

The KONA Electric sits inside a UK electric lineup that already includes the INSTER, IONIQ 5, IONIQ 5 N and IONIQ 6, with the IONIQ 9 arriving in 2025 and the IONIQ 6 N and all-new IONIQ 3 joining for 2026. Hyundai Motor UK finished 2025 as the country’s sixth best-selling car manufacturer, climbing three places year on year, with alternative-fuel vehicles making up 58 per cent of its total sales and electric vehicle sales growing more than 10 per cent, driven largely by demand for the KONA Electric and the smaller INSTER. Andrew’s comment about “welcoming more models from our line-up into the scheme as the year progresses” suggests the KONA Electric’s upgrade to Band 1 is a template Hyundai intends to repeat across other models still sitting in Band 2 or outside the grant altogether.

The Grant Scheme Is Reshaping the Bottom of the EV Market

The KONA Electric joins a small but growing list of models that have secured Band 1 status over the scheme’s short life so far, following BMW’s iX1 and iX2, which reached the top tier earlier this year and now start from £33,315. Every manufacturer has to make its own supply chain case to OZEV rather than receiving blanket approval across a model range, which is why some Hyundai models still sit in Band 2 or outside the scheme entirely while the KONA Electric jumps ahead of them.

For a buyer cross-shopping the segment, the KONA Electric’s £31,250 effective price now lands close to the Renault 5 E-Tech’s range-topping Iconic Five trim and comfortably below most rival electric SUVs of a similar size, even before accounting for the KONA’s larger battery options and longer real-world range. Hyundai’s promise of more models joining the scheme through the rest of the year suggests this grant upgrade is the opening move rather than a one-off, and buyers comparing electric SUVs now have a concrete reason to check whether their shortlisted model’s grant band has changed the last time they looked. Grant bands are not permanent labels attached to a model at launch; they depend on a rolling review of supply chain and manufacturing evidence, which means a car that misses out on Band 1 today could still qualify later once its maker submits stronger data. That leaves room for surprises on both sides: models currently outside the scheme could join it, and models already inside Band 2 could move up, exactly as the KONA Electric has now done. Hyundai’s own comments suggest the brand plans to keep pushing other models through the same review process, which means today’s Band 2 cars from any manufacturer are worth rechecking every few months rather than writing off once.