Hyundai Kona vs Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross

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.

The 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross has a new high-tech powertrain that allows it to run as an electric car, or run using the petrol engine, or even use both at the same time. 

But the new hybrid SUV is not like a Toyota hybrid - because this one can be plugged in at home to recharge the batteries, and you should be able to get at least 50 kilometres of EV driving out of just a few dollars worth of electricity.

We’re talking about the new 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross Plug-in Hybrid EV, or PHEV as we’ve called it in the past. The brand has renamed it to include both ‘Hybrid’ and ‘EV’ in the name because, well, it reckons those terms have a bit more cut-through today than when the company first launched its Outlander PHEV back in 2014.

But with the new Eclipse Cross PHEV variants attracting a huge premium over the regular petrol-turbo models, does the extra money buy you a better car? Let’s find out.