My Hyundai Kona, Impressions And Waffle.

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Ok, Here I am going to waffle about the Kona.

1st Impressions etc, and will add to the thread as things change.

Got the train up to Morecombe to collect it this morning as the Zoe had been sold a few days ago, Reminds me why I hate bloomin trains. Yuk!

Anyway dealer met me at Lancaster station in his Kona, so got to experience it first from the passenger seat. Having sat in a petrol one, all I can say is the EV is leagues and leagues different inside, the little touches and trim upgrades really help. Its lovely, and a real step up from the Zoe. (Not as funky as the i3, but very business like and calm).

Arrived to find my Acid (Dayglo Yellow) all charged up and ready to go,

Left Morecombe and headed to Blackpool as SWMBO wanted to pick up a new pin badge from the tower (She collects them), then off down the M6 and into Wales to visit friends in Prestatyn, and test the regen on the great 33% hill.

Regen is lovely, but I need to reprogram it to be in a higher level at start, I hate having to remember to move it up from 1 every time the car starts.

Its also a bit of a bugbear that the Auto Hold (NO Creep) has to be selected every time you switch on and is not remembered. but a minor thing.

Not tried the heated seats or wheel, but the cooled seats were put to good use strange feeling at first but very nice, and the electric seats adjust well, as does the electric lumbar

The Head Up Display is very good, despite being the project on plastic type. Plenty of info shown.

Not got to grips with the tomtom yet, stuck to androidauto for now, but may try the tomtom as androidauto does not give navigation in the heads up display.

From Wales headed off via Chester to Manchester, and from there to Sheffield before heading home, so plenty of miles to give it a good shake down.

The Real Positives.

The Adaptive Cruise is the best I have ever used, really quick to react to merging traffic and as it works from 0mph up, it is fantastic in traffic jams, stops with the traffic and moves of with them again, taking away all the work.

The Auto Steer is great so much better than the old lane keep assist, lightest touch on the wheel and it managed 40miles on the m6 without any other interaction, it reminds after 15secs if it cant feel your hand.

The Range, 300 is easy, even with the temptation of sport mode. It does not seem to have the mad as a box of frogs urgency but it certainly gets up to speed very very quickly. And unlike my other EVs it pulls easily into 3 digits. So need to keep an eye on that in future.

The Leather Seats seem very good quality and the electric motors are smooth and silent,. Why no memory tho, would have cost pennies.

The Negatives So Far
2 Wheels were damaged in transit, looks like they had a strap rubbing on them and its taken the laquer off and left fine lines in the alloys, both Front and Rear Offside, so got to go back next week dealer is giving me 2 wheels off his car, and will get these refurbished, so thumbs up for that.

Charging Issues, I have tried 5 Ecotricity CCS Chargers during the day and the car would not charge on any, it worked fine on Polar, Engine, Inmotion and every other network, but crashes the Ecot chargers, it seems the car starts to charge then stops for a second before carrying on, this does not upset any of the others but it crashes the ECOT ones. So hopefully a software issue Hyundai can sort as at the moment Ecotricity is a no go, which is a pain..

Will Look at the destruction books tonight. and do some proper setup of sound and nav tomorrow. If you think I am saying there are 2 books the size of telephone directories, I jest you not see the photo

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Did you visit the Polar charger at the Holiday Inn Express in Chester on Wednesday?
 
My wife and I were staying at the hotel for a few days and I'd been keeping an eye on the EV Charging spots even though as probably the only EV owner there I wasn't going to use it.

The good news is that it was never ICE'd and seems especially popular with Leafs; we saw three charging there.

I was going to come over and introduce myself and have a nosy at the car but you were having an animated conversation on the phone so left it.

Maybe next time our paths cross.

John
 
My wife and I were staying at the hotel for a few days and I'd been keeping an eye on the EV Charging spots even though as probably the only EV owner there I wasn't going to use it.

The good news is that it was never ICE'd and seems especially popular with Leafs; we saw three charging there.

I was going to come over and introduce myself and have a nosy at the car but you were having an animated conversation on the phone so left it.

Maybe next time our paths cross.

John

Hi John,

Cheers, yes should have come over,

I was trying to get in touch with the dealer as we were having issues, (For some reason car wont charge on any Ecotricity Chargers), and we had also just found damage to both the offside wheels from transit straps.

Yes the Polar chargers are great, very reliable and not iced too often, just wish they would put two in at a site (Or allow them to charge two cars at once), as its always a bit of a gamble if they are in use.

After being Bitten with bad charging relaibility when we bought the Zoe, we decided the first thing we would do was to check each charging network to see if the car had issues on a particular network or charger.
 
It must have been AVF week at the hotel. Looking on PlugShare, Gordon Fraser (Convergent AV) used the charger Thursday evening.
 
Small world :thumbsup:
 
Car started to earn its keep yesterday as the Congestion Charge exemption came through, so a work trip to London for a quick assignment for me followed by some Merlin Sites for Vicky to audit.

4.45am start to be in Westminster by 8.00am
Then on to Chessington
Then on to Thorpe Park
Then on to Legoland
Then on to Warwick Castle
Then Home

Its 350 miles so a bit over even Eco range, as I will only be in Westminster 90mins at most not really worth hunting for a street charger, The onsite chargers at Chessington and Thorpe are only 3kw posts, so will probably stop at the Shy Horse pub after Chessington have a quick bite and put it on the Polar rapid for 30mins, which should get it back up to the level to get me through the rest of the trip and home easily.

350 Miles with a quick splash and dash at lunch, now thats the way to get a work day done.
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The 1st leg of the day done the results were

145 miles from home to Westminster

135 miles on M1 at 70mph all the way
10 miles of urban speeds into central London

Parked up with 54% battery left after 145 miles and the heating on at 22c

This car is a miracle on wheels


Made it to my lunchtime recharge stop in Warwick

271 miles driven
GOM says 25 left
9% battery left

220 miles on motorway at 70mph
51 miles central and outer London roads

To say I am pleased with that is an understatement

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Made it home after 350 miles with plenty of energy left after the 30min topup in Warwick

Again stuck to 70 on the motorways, feels odd driving at "Normal" speeds again.

10 days in and 2100 on the clock now car really feels like home.
 
Fantastic range there...puts my Leaf 30kwh to shame :(

Yes the range at speeds above 60 has caught me by surprise. The Zoe dropped like a rock over 60. The Kona falls off as you would expect due to increased drag but nowhere nearly as badly as the Zoe. Maybe because the Zoe motor was running near its maximum at those speeds and the Kona has a lot more to go its more efficient I don’t really know. But so far it seems better to drive at 70 rather than 60. Based on the amount of extra power it uses you can recharge is less than the time driving slower which is opposite to the Zoe.
 
I’ll certainly bear this car or it’s newer versions when my contract ends in a couple of years...or in fact I was wondering about going back to a petrol engine, as I’ve not been impressed with the charging infrastructure...but that MAY change in two years though:cool:
 
Well car is 2 weeks old today, just tripped over the 3000 mile mark!

Hows it been, Wonderful.

Best part of course is the Range, still averaging between 310-320 at 60mph and more importantly 260-270 at a solid 70mph

Still wont charge on any Ecotricity chargers, although we did find out today if you arrive at an Ecotricity charger with more than 75% battery it works fine (As the car only requests 30kwh from the charger), any lower state of charge and the car asks for more power and the charge fails. So pointless as who would want a rapid at 75%.

Anyway Hyundai are taking a Kona to the Ecotricity Engineers tomorrow to see if they can work out a solution. Although tending to avoid them now and sticking to Polar and Instavolt which are both rock solid with the car.

Whats Good
Range (Of Course)

Autopilot, great system really useful in slow traffic where it follows stops and follows again without driver intervention. (Lifesaver on the M1 in rush hour)

Interior, Seats are super comfy and even in this weather the Air conditioned seats are lovely.

Heads Up Display. Thought it would be a fad device but actually very useful

Speed Sign Recognition, really improved since the one in my Volvo, now no false speeds from signs on back of lorries, and it can tell difference between single and dual carriageways to display 60 or 70 correctly rather than a National Speed Limit Sign.

Speed. It does not feel so fast, but its quick off the mark and the midrange is superb it just pulls and pulls. From the traffic lights the limiter at 110 arrives disturbingly quickly.

Whats Bad
No Connectivity. Stupid Stupid oversight. No app to precondition or check if a charge fails. the actual hardware is not there in Euro cars, so will not be an upgrade that can be done, very disappointing they left this out. Not even a preheat button on the keyfob so you can preheat from house before leaving. Has to be set in car.

No seat memory, first world problem but having electric seats and no memory is crazy Vicky and I change drivers multiple times a day, and its a pain

No Cooling vents or USB in back, again a cheap oversight but makes the already cramped back a less attractive place to be (Not my problem I will never sit there but!)


So.
It really is a "REAL" car as our ICE friends like to think of them. 300 miles on a charge 500 with a 30 min rapid stop for a pee. Its solid as a rock, it is not a huge family car, but its great for a couple or with one kid or a dog. Its rated to carry 80kg on the roof, so roofboxes and bikes. Its bloody expensive if you compare it to a Petrol Hyundai Kona, (Basic Model) as all the naysayers tend to do, and about £6k more than a top of the range ICE version, but if you consider in 3 years it will have saved you that in fuel and be worth a lot more in resale than a petrol one, its a no brainer. And lets face it compared to other EVs I really dont think there is (At the moment) anything else that touch it for kit/range/price.

Am I happy. YES.
Would I have preferred to spend less YES.
Will I keep it 3 or 4 years. (Yes same as the Zoe) so probably NO if a new toy catches my eye

Would I recommend it.
Yes if you are not Lanky.
Yes if you dont have a family larger than 3 people. (Ok for more for the odd trip)
Yes if you want a good practical car with the range to outrun the bladder.

No if you are a badge snob, its a Hyundai get over it.
No if you cant charge at home, even with 300+ range if you cant charge at home it will be a real PITA
 
Good post.

EVs like the new Hyundai Kona are beginning to reach the stage of development where I am seriously interested.

Finally the range is OK for nonstop intercity trips without the worry about stopping for hours to recharge. I travel Northampton to York quite often and enjoy doing the journey nonstop late evening or very early morning.

I quite see the Kona electric could happily do the journey at night mid-winter and have enough charge to do a bit of business travel in York city before parking up and recharging.
 
Bjorn Nyland said in his reviews that there are rear seat vents.

Not on the centre console but under the front seats facing back.

There are but they are a bit pathetic .Even with the air flow on high there is no real force to them. They keep it livable in the back but it is not what you would call pleasant
 
Just a quick update

Not really posted anything about the Kona as being honest there is nothing to post. Nothing gone wrong it works exactly as it should range is as promised

So in short it’s just a great car

10 weeks old now and just hitting 11k miles

Total out of pocket running costs so far £9. For a few home topups and a bit of street charging

I have been using the free Instavolt rapid chargers for the majority of charging So a cost of £9 to drive 11000 miles. Rather bonkers really

I have started driving faster than I used to in my i3 or Zoe and average 65 on motorways if I am being good. More if I am not

Even giving it a good kicking it’s seems impossible to get less than 250miles out of a charge.

Nothing has gone wrong and nothing had to be looked at under warranty

So far it’s saved.

11k miles fuel @ £1.30 litre
23 days congestion charge at £11.50 a day
23 days London Parking at £40 a day

Very lucky to have a free rapid next to home and it won’t last forever but for now making the most of it

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