Hyundai Elexio 2026 review | BYD Sealion 7 rival tested

Facing the competitive vortex created by more than a dozen new brands from China arriving in the local car market in the last couple of years, Hyundai has clearly embraced the adage ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join em.’

That’s because its pure-electric Elexio mid-size SUV is made by Beijing Hyundai, a Chinese joint-venture company the South Korean giant operates with state-owned carmaker, BAIC.

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And now it’s been joined by an entry-grade version, simply called Elexio, that drops cost-of-entry from $61,990 to $58,990 (both before on-road costs) bringing it closer to similarly priced, sized and specified alternatives like the previously mentioned BYD Sealion 7 (from $54,990) and Tesla Model Y (from $58,900) as well as the Deepal S07 (from $53,990), KGM Torres EV ($58,000, drive-away), Mazda CX-6e (from $53,990), Renault Scenic E-Tech (from $55,990), Cupra Tavascan (from $60,990) and Zeekr 7X (from $57,900).

The good news is, while saving three grand you’re not giving away much in terms of standard features. Big ticket items like dual-zone climate control, a six-way power driver’s seat, all LED exterior lighting, a giant 27-inch multimedia touchscreen (more on that later), Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, wireless charging, a head-up display, six-speaker audio, alloy rims and a full-fat safety suite are all included.  

For an extra $3.0K the Elite adds heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a power tailgate, 20-inch rims, leather-appointed seats, extra power adjustment for the driver’s seat and power adjust for the front passenger seat.   

Proving a car’s looks are always subjective, I read the Elexio’s design as 1990s concept car. There’s something about those slim horizontal headlights with four cube-like LED units across each that says retro-futurism circa 1993.

Other than that the car doesn’t stray far from the typical mid-size SUV template although a broad grey band running up the D-pillar and across the roof above the tailgate adds some visual pizzazz to the rear end.

The interior is clean and functional but kinda boring, at least for me. The gigantic screen, filling around half the dash dominates things visually, but the otherwise predominantly grey colour palette feels flat.

There’s plenty to like in terms of practicality, though, with lots of head, leg and shoulder room for me (at 183cm) front and rear and plenty of storage including generous door bins, a centre oddments box, glove box and a flying buttress style front centre console that creates additional space underneath it. There are multiple USB-C ports and a 12V socket.

Also worth calling out is a simple device attached to the centre console cupholder unit. A frame with cup-sized detents in the centre either sits over the two cupholders on the left or flips over the storage tray to its right to create another pair of cupholders. Genius.

The boot is a useful 506 litres with the 60/40 split-folding rear seat upright, expanding to 1540 litres with it lowered. No spare wheel, though, just an inflator repair kit, which isn’t good enough in Aussie conditions.

The Elexio is powered by a single electric motor sending 160kW/310Nm to the front wheels. Decent outputs, although in a car weighing around 2.1 tonnes acceleration isn’t eye-widening. But this SUV has ample oomph in the city and suburbs as well as for easy highway cruising and overtaking. 

Ride comfort is more than acceptable, which is a stand-out in the EV era where newcomers often miss the mark on compliance and chassis dynamics. And even the steering passes muster with decent road feel and accuracy.

But… then there’s ‘the screen’, confirming bigger isn’t always better.

IMAX-like in width, it’s markedly offset to the left with key readouts like speed, battery level, time and climate settings located towards the right-hand end. There’s also a slender head-up display in front of the driver repeating key functions.

But if, for example,  you need to adjust the air con on the move you have to take your eyes well and truly off the road and fiddle with on-screen controls. At which point the driver distraction warning slaps you over the wrist with an audible ‘bing’ and visual alert. Grrrr. 

Physical dials for at least the climate control would be a more user-friendly, safer set-up. An audio volume knob (other than the steering wheel scroll wheel) would be welcome, too.  

And speaking of bings and bongs, safety is an Elexio strong suit with a maximum five-star ANCAP rating and nine airbags as well as every monitor, assist and warning known to human kind. But the lane-keeping assist and overspeed warning are overly intrusive, although amazingly, if you decide to switch these features (including the driver fatigue monitor) off, they stay off. No default reset on start-up. Hallelujah!

Just to keep the whinging going for a minute, I’m not a fan of the flush-fitting exterior door handles. They pop out at an angle and are awkward to use. And I banged my left knee more than once on the chunky gear selector unit on the right-hand side of the steering column when exiting the car. Annoying and painful.    

Claimed range from the 88.1kWh LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery is 562km (WLTP), with a 150kW DC fast-charge time from 10-80 per cent of 38 minutes. The Elexio also has 10kW AC charging capacity and V2L (vehicle-to-load) capability onboard, the latter accessed via a three-pin connector in the boot.

Hyundai’s official combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle energy use figure is 18.2kWh/100km and over a week of city, suburban and freeway running we saw a real-world average of only 15.1kWh/100km, which is as unusual as it is impressive.  

Warranty is a competitive seven years, unlimited kilometres and service intervals are two years or 30,000km. Hyundai’s service plans will see you paying $779 at the two-year mark, and another $1118 at four years, which puts your average annual cost at a category competitive $475.