by Paul Blank

The latest addition to Hyundai’s extensive range in Australia is aimed at the most competitive electric car sector. At just under and over $60,000 for the two variants, the Elexio is built in the Korean company’s Chinese factory.

Powered by a single 180kW motor driving the front wheels, the Elexio has decent if modest performance, even with the Sport button pressed. Claimed range is 546km. It handles nicely and is notably quiet, at its best on smooth roads.

Inside, it boasts a plush cabin made with a high-quality finish. But it’s other aspects inside where the car falls down the most. To the centre and left of the dashboard is a wide screen, which many people commented looked like the car had been left hand drive. Nothing in front of the driver except a little head-up display which is completely unreadable if you wear polarized sunglasses.

Aside from a few controls on the steering wheel, the car is button-less. Have Hyundai designers not learned anything about this? You have to go through several screens to activate or adjust anything and much of it is reached on a section of the screen directly in front of the passenger – an unreasonable reach from the driver’s seat. And a few seconds of looking away sets the driver attention monitor into panic mode. It’s just poor design masquerading as being cool.

Fortunately the warning beeps for everything and tugs on the steering wheel if the car thinks you may be heading off course are far more subtle than the intrusive systems in Hyundais of a couple of years ago. A big improvement.

The lane-assist struggled, confused by long shadows across the road on an early morning drive.

I liked the readout on the screen when parking closely which shows distance in centimetres. And there’s good storage space in the cabin.

Being a wagon shape, there’s a decent boot, but with a high floor and no spare wheel – typical of EV SUVs.

The Elexio is well-equipped, which is important in such a competitive market sector.

Twice I had the tailgate open when near the car and nothing was activated. Perhaps it’s a bit too sensitively set.

This is a competent, well-built, comfortable and nicely equipped car which is unlikely to excite anybody, but is sure to carve a niche for itself. However it’s competing in a market sector against increasingly ever more brands. With recent fuel prices boosting EV sales to an unprecedented 15% of the new car market, divide that into so many makes and models and the volume of sales of any model is sliced pretty thin. Being a Hyundai, with excellent backup and high quality of build will work to the Elexio’s benefit. But will an unknown Chinese brand selling the same size vehicle for $10,000 less be more attractive to most buyers?