If you remember we just recently covered the teaser image of the Hyundai’s new small SUV appropriately named 2018 Kona, and now we have new photos of it testing on Nurburgring, with camo on and what seems to be a dual headlight design. As we already wrote, Kona is supposed to ride on a modified version of the platform found under the Hyundai i20 (or Hyundai Accent which is closely related to i20 if you are a US customer). For more details keep reading.
As you can see in the spy shots, the prototype has a rather unusual front headlight housing. As far as we can notice it has a dual cluster layout which instantly reminded us of the one that Nissan Juke, main competitor for the rest of cars in this segment, has. Since we brought up the rival, we couldn’t help but wonder with what Hyundai exactly expects to “beat” it? We all know that a lot of vehicles in this segment offers a driving experience that has absolutely nothing to do with that of an actual high-riding model and that there is what Hyundai is trying to surpass with their talks about “true SUV genes” they use to describe Kona. We can only hope that this means one of those genes will bring all-wheel-drive in the mix at least as an option, while the lower trim levels will probably be FWD only.
But Kona’s main competitor will not only be the Juke. This vehicle has to look out for its inevitable Kia sibling. Kia’s Stonic has also been spied lately, and it also wears a lot of camo as it fits a testing model that is yet to be shown to general public. This, unfortunately, makes it hard for us to compare them at any level. Knowing that both of these South-Korean brands have their unique styling differences, and when we take into consideration those small distinctions between them, we will have to be obvious here and tell you to expect a somewhat tamer design for the Kia model.
It is clear by now that both the Kona and the Stonic will offer something new and tempting which is highly needed if they want to stand against the competitors like the Chevrolet Trax, Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3 and Toyota C-HR. When it comes to the release, we know that the Big Apple debut is out of any question and we presume that some later auto show might be more appropriate for both models, so expect an official introduction sometime later this year.
