Sponsored From Downtown to Upstate Kona Is a Vibe

Summer in the city is always a special time of the year. The sounds of basketballs ringing in the park, kids screaming in front of a fire hydrant, the music of bucket drumming and loopdecks and saxophones on street corners, the sidewalks reflecting blistering heat as you try sweating to find shelter on the grass of a city park or inside a coffee shop — it all reminds you just how special the air conditioned bedroom in your apartment is. And how jealous you are of everyone who can drive around in their own car, and how they can take that sweet air conditioning with them wherever they go, not just when they decide to spring for a rideshare.

It comes up every summertime: you tell yourself a car’s not feasible, that in fact it’s better this way. You remind yourself you don’t have to deal with congestion, parking, or monthly payments as you wait for the bus that’s running late (again). Besides, cars aren’t meant for the city, not really. But then why are there always so many people driving them? 

If you’re scrolling while waiting for someone to accept your ride request during surge pricing or stopped on the tracks waiting for the station ahead to clear, you need to know: a city car is not only possible, but it’s your secret weapon to getting those summer vibes back. But it can’t just be any car — it needs to be adventurous, resourceful, flexible, stylish, tech savvy, and surprisingly capable (like you). It has to be able to handle an actual summer weekend in the city. That car is the Hyundai KONA.

A CUV That Knows How to Stretch a Dollar
(And Keep Its Phones Charged)

The 2026 KONA is Hyundai’s modest-sized SUV with a stylish exterior, ultra-connected interior, and a ton of features that are giving big city sophistication. But before we get into all that, let’s start with the question that matters most: the money. 


The KONA is a solid budget-conscious ride with a starting price of $25,350 MSRP¹ for the gas-powered model, with the highest trim-level coming in at $34,150 MSRP². It also gets an EPA-estimated 29 mpg in the city and 34 mpg on the highway³, so if you’re, say, heading back to your house in Brooklyn that daily commute isn’t going to break the bank. 


But if you really want to save money, the 2025 KONA is also available as an all-electric, which starts at $32,975⁴ MSRP and gets up to an EPA-estimated 261 miles per charge. The 2026 KONA Electric will be available at dealerships in late 2025.



And while you’re cruising back and forth between work and home enjoying some frugal you-time, you’ll be enjoying a cabin experience better than many of our first apartments. Available ventilated and heated seats with heating and cooling, wireless phone charging, wireless Apple CarPlay® and Android Auto™⁵, 12.3” touchscreen infotainment display, and available Dynamic Voice Recognition are all perfect for turning crosstown travel into a cool⁶, connected moment of zen.

A Crossover That Can Help You Manage the Crazy City Streets

Doesn’t matter whether you’re headed home on the interstate or cruising city blocks — that commute can be nerve-wracking. KONA has you covered while you’re heading back home with innovative Hyundai SmartSense™ safety features that can help give you peace of mind. For example, the Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist with Pedestrian Detection⁷ will detect when a vehicle or daring crosswalker is in the path of your vehicle and give you a warning, even applying the brakes for you. Junction Turning and Direct Oncoming Forward Collision Assist can do the same thing when you’re turning left through an intersection.

Even Downtown, KONA Is a City Parking Hero

Park in the city? With the KONA it’s not madness, it’s a breeze. Thanks to the KONA’s available Remote Smart Parking Assist⁸, when you’re faced with an open spot you’re not sure you can finesse, you’ll be able to get out of the vehicle, hold the smart key button, and watch as the KONA parks itself. Applause and impressed passerby comments are normal (especially if they stopped to see if you could park it). 


Having found your parking spot, with available Digital Key 2 Touch⁹, just lock it with a tap of your smartphone on the handle. Because all the KONA needs to run is your phone, you could even share a valet-configured smartphone key via text, if you eat at any of those fancy places. And when the check lands, using your smartphone and Bluelink+¹⁰ you’ll be able to pre-cool your KONA down right from the table, so your refrigerated refuge will be climate ready for your drive home.

When You’re Over It, KONA Can Help You Skip Town

The KONA’s street-smarts, chic, and tricked out safety and driving tech will have you driving around with confidence and enjoying a private summer escape with every excursion. And that would be enough from most vehicles. But the KONA isn’t just a fancy ride: it’s also a crossover utility vehicle ready to take on big Saturday plans outside the city limits, whether you’ve got a friend with a country lakehouse or not. With a quick fold of the rear seats, you’ll expand up to 63.7 cu. ft. of cargo space, more than enough room for you to load up with your tent, cooler, guitar, mountain bike, and head upstate to a National Park for some camping and a little more definitive escape from the city’s sweltering heat. 


And if you need to make a few trips up and down from your apartment to the street to load up with your bags and boxes, the KONA can stay locked while you make the trips: with the automatic rear liftgate, all you have to do is approach the vehicle with your hands full and the fob in your pocket, wait three seconds, and the lift gate will open automatically. Now your only worry is how long you think you can afford to keep the other guy double parked.

Live Your Best Life: Off-Road, On-Grid

But if you happen to get to the trailhead and find that more than a few other downtowners had the same idea, the KONA is built to make sure your secluded sojourn into the great outdoors isn’t ruined. The KONA is a subcompact SUV that can help you go wild with an available 190-hp turbocharged 1.6L GDI 4-cylinder engine with 195 lb-ft of torque for off-roading power. Combined with the KONA’s available HTRAC All-Wheel Drive (AWD), you’ll be able to have your wilderness moment with confidence. And after you’ve got all that hiking out of your system, you’ll be able to check your reels as soon as you get back to the KONA thanks to its available in-car Wi-Fi hotspot capability¹¹. 

To help coast out of the week, after you return home on Sunday maybe you decide to meet up with friends to check out a jazz quintet playing in the park to cap off a weekend of adventure. But you’ll have one more advantage from going for the EV: because you went for the 2025 KONA Electric, you were able to do it all in a single battery charge. From Friday dinner, to upstate adventure, to summer music, since your KONA Electric gets an EPA-estimated 261 miles on a single charge¹² — no need to stop back at home or anywhere to keep the adventure vibes going. And best of all, since the KONA is able to take advantage of the Level 3 charging, in as little as 43min you can go from 10% to 80% battery charge¹³.

From City Car to Country Car, KONA Can Kickstart Your Summertime

So for those keeping score at home, technically the KONA isn’t a city car —it’s a city car and a country car. While it might not seem possible that there’s a vehicle that can manage ducking and weaving through busy streets with the ease of an off-duty bike messenger, as well as it can charge the (designated) unpaved trails of your favorite national park, that’s the KONA. It belongs downtown as much as it belongs upstate, and that’s the kind of flexibility that can make summer in the city manageable. Chill, even. And dear Reader, that’s exactly the kind of summer we’re vibing this year.