In the period from March – when the first all-electric Hyundai SUV in the Australian market was made available – to the end of May, the company sold 140 units.

But Hyundai Motor Company Australia (HMCA) has told GoAutoNews Premium that to the end of May, there were still 167 units on back order.

HMCA spokesman Guido Schenken said demand for Kona EV in Australia has been higher than the company anticipated.

“We are limited by factory production and obviously global demand,” he said.

“Ioniq EV also has a wait list in Australia, though it is about half the size of Kona EV.

Kona Electric

“There is no wait list on Ioniq Hybrid and a small wait list on the plug-in hybrid Ioniq PHEV.”

Demand is as strong at Nissan which will launch its new-generation all-electric Leaf in August.

Nissan Australia spokesman Tony Mee said that even before the company opened its pre-sale program, it had received more than 12,000 expressions of interest.

“These transferred to several hundred buyers registering for pre-order,” he said.

“With high interest in the Leaf, some of these pre-orders have become confirmed sales.”

Mr Mee said Nissan was managing buyer interest and expectations.

“We have a steady flow of vehicles arriving over the next several months to meet demand,” he said.

“Leaf deliveries begin in August and while some buyers may be required to wait for their car, we don’t envisage wait times for most to be overly lengthy.”

The situation for the Hyundai Kona EV is worse in the UK with Hyundai giving buyers on the wait list access to a short-term lease on Ioniq hybrid hatchbacks.

The Kona EV in the UK has more than 2000 pre-orders that are expected to take more than 12 months to clear.

Hyundai UK managing director Ashley Andrew told AM Online that the company was in “a nice position” with the pre-orders placed and a corresponding uplift in dealership footfall.

But he conceded that the situation, together with an estimated lead time that the company has stated would be “in excess of 12 months”, had created problems.

These customer-driven problems have led to the suggestion of a lease solution from one of Hyundai’s UK dealers.

“It was actually a suggestion from Adrian Wallington at Endeavour Automotive that we might be able to offer some kind of short-term mobility solution to customers who have placed a deposit for a Kona EV,” Mr Andrew said.

“The result is that we are now rolling out beneficial rates for the short-term lease of an Ioniq to customers in that situation.”

While the short-term lease scheme offers Kona EV customers access to an Ioniq Hybrid, Mr Andrew said that Ioniq Electric is available with no waiting time.

He said that the lease concept was one of the benefits of “a very entrepreneurial retail network” and he was “always keen to hear suggestions from his retail network”.

On the plus side, he said the Kona EV had provided “phenomenal interest” in the brand.

“In recent months we’ve launched the i30 Fastback N, N-line models and the Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle,” he said. “The i30, launched in November, is now the oldest car in our range.

“The footfall that the Kona EV has brought into showrooms gives our retailers the opportunity to get eyes on a wide range of products.”

He said that when the Kona EV was launched in the UK in November last year, 30 per cent of incoming phone call enquiries were about that model.

Dealer Adrian Wallington at Endeavour Automotive added: “It’s been a huge lure for potential customers and has helped to drive a footfall of customers that we probably haven’t seen before and wouldn’t have done otherwise.”

By Neil Dowling