Hyundai Kona vs Chery Omoda E5

What's the difference?

The Hyundai Kona is the Korean car giant’s best-selling model in Australia, by a reasonably comfortable margin. And in 2025 it managed to battle its way to the top of the ludicrously competitive ‘Small SUV under $45K’ new-vehicle sales category.

Chery’s breakthrough Tiggo 4 Pro, GWM’s Haval Jolion, the MG ZS and close to 20 other well-credited segment rivals can all dream on because currently the Kona has their measure.

So, what’s all that about? Why are so many Aussie SUV buyers choosing to put a Kona in the driveway?

In an attempt to answer that question we slotted a Kona Hybrid into the CarsGuide garage, in this case a new mid-spec Elite version, to explore its relative strengths and weaknesses.

So, if you’re in the market for a compact SUV, with the Kona on your shortlist (and odds are it already is) stay with us for a detailed examination.

Okay, this is getting crazy. It feels like barely a week of 2024 is going by without another value-focused, pure-electric SUV hitting the Australian new-car market. 

And this is the latest, the Chery Omoda E5, a compact, five-seater with the performance and range to challenge some other relatively recent arrivals.

It joins the internal combustion Omoda 5, variations of which have proliferated in the roughly 18 months it’s been on sale here.

This is CarsGuide’s first look and we’ve assessed everything from value and practicality to safety and driving performance. So, stay with us to see if this EV could be your entree into the world of battery-electric SUVs.