Two Years in the Hyundai Kona Electric EV

Interesting read, I'm waiting on delivery of a 64K Ultimate

You will love it as a car, at first I was disappointed in my 2018 one when I first got it as i felt it was boring. That was coming from bmw i3 which was really out there and a Zoe which was well french'.. The Kona just felt like a normal car and a bit boring. But after a while I realised I was confusing boring for normal, it was just like any other normal car you don’t have range anxiety or a lot of those other issues you got with early EVs. It was just like going back to a decent reliable normal car.

The Ultimate like the PSE it replaces has so many toys it’s great and things like the cooled seats are a godsend in summer, head up display is brilliant and the infotainment is one of the best.

The only thing that is holding it back now for high mileage drivers is the charging speed at 77kw max it’s slower than most of the new stuff. But the long range and high efficiency make up for it
 
It does seam amazing the this issue with these battery is only coming to light now. Mobile phone company has issues with them catching fire, Boeing had issue with them catching fire, one of top gears Richard Hamonds famous crashes took a week to put out the car due to the batteries etc etc.

I had assumed these issues had been resolved but seams not. For sure LG Chem have an issue and the scope of the issue???

I am think it's better to be sitting on the fence right now.
 
I hope this isn't a sign of something bad coming for LG!!


@ashenfie The number of fires relative to car totals isn't massive, 10 per 100k+ currently. The biggest issue is these packs can spontaneously combust where as petroleum is actually very stable until exposed to a heat/ignition source.

So although combustion cars catch on fire its usually during operation or at least when electrical systems are on, so someone is around. Thermal runaway however can occur at any time, and the headline GM will be dreading is fatalities in a house with the EV pack been the cause of the fire, hence the drastic action to stop Bolt production and now telling owners to park 50 yards away from other cars!!!

Hyundia are taking a risk with not pushing the same message for the Kona, or else they are confident the BMS can detect potential thermal runaway quickly enough to isolate the cells.

Tesla does seem to have managed to mitigate the risk via software changes to the BMS, but vertical integration Tesla has interms of understanding cell construction and than car production/usage is a luxury most EV manufacturer don't have.

We'll have to see how all this plays out for LG, Nissan/Zoes have no such issues, so batteries can be made very robust.
 
You've just reminded me that one of my old phones has swelled up like a balloon, probably best I don't keep it amongst the important paperwork on my desk :facepalm:
 
I hope this isn't a sign of something bad coming for LG!!


@ashenfie The number of fires relative to car totals isn't massive, 10 per 100k+ currently. The biggest issue is these packs can spontaneously combust where as petroleum is actually very stable until exposed to a heat/ignition source.

So although combustion cars catch on fire its usually during operation or at least when electrical systems are on, so someone is around. Thermal runaway however can occur at any time, and the headline GM will be dreading is fatalities in a house with the EV pack been the cause of the fire, hence the drastic action to stop Bolt production and now telling owners to park 50 yards away from other cars!!!

Hyundia are taking a risk with not pushing the same message for the Kona, or else they are confident the BMS can detect potential thermal runaway quickly enough to isolate the cells.

Tesla does seem to have managed to mitigate the risk via software changes to the BMS, but vertical integration Tesla has interms of understanding cell construction and than car production/usage is a luxury most EV manufacturer don't have.

We'll have to see how all this plays out for LG, Nissan/Zoes have no such issues, so batteries can be made very robust.
Good explanation. Also combustion engines don't usually catch fire, it is down to normally an electrical fault or a fuel line rupturing. Vauxhall are infamous for fires.
 
Good explanation. Also combustion engines don't usually catch fire, it is down to normally an electrical fault or a fuel line rupturing. Vauxhall are infamous for fires.
Made me chuckle that. A few years back I had an Astra. After loads of problems and weeks in the garage I got it back. Drove from the garage to an RAF airfield with my boss in the car. We were both commenting we could smell fuel but just assumed it was because the Vauxhall dealership had left the car in a right mess. We pulled up at security and flames appeared from the bonnet. By then we were just a couple of meters from a fuel bowser so it got real very quickly. Fortunately the RAF fire engine was there in seconds and I mean seconds. In less than five minutes from us stopping they had the bonnet up and loading it with foam. Seem the garage crimped the fuel line between the head and the block so it was spraying fuel. Car written off in the end, it was a company car.

Speaking to the insurance company I was told that fires accounted for about 17 per 1000 write offs, quite a high figure. There were EVs back then so they were not in the count. Would be interesting to know what the figures are these days for ICE cars. Hopefully lower now. Just a couple of years back two young girls died trapped in their car after hitting a deer. The car caught fire and despite people trying to help it was too rapid. That is the big difference, EV fires tend to be a lot slower, fuel often engulfs very rapidly.
 
.... fuel often engulfs very rapidly.
Petrol, certainly - but diesel? I recall my BIL selling my wife on diesel years ago, as he considered diesel much safer than petrol - unless you were working on it ;-)
 
I highly doubt there is any use for those batteries beyond been scrapped, do you want to own/touch anything that has the potential to literally spontaneous combust?? The worrying thing for LG is as far as I understand they still don't know the reasons for the fires apart from its thermal runaway!!! I believe GM has stopped Bolt production but LG are still putting the same packs into other cars??!!

Tesla went through a similar thing with the older 85kWh packs about 18 months ago, but because Tesla makes the pack and the cars they seem* to have solved the issue with changes to the BMS.

The Cells LG supply for the Bolt and Kona is whats in the iPace, ID3, eTron etc pretty much everything that isn't a Tesla or made in China.

Given chronicty is clearly an important factor in thermal runaway for all EVs the executives at LG must be bitting their nails at the moment. The iPace does seem to suffer from cell block failures- isolating the bad cell is much safer than burning the car.

*Tesla 85 packs are suffering higher rate of cell block failures than before, and at low mileages. I suspect the Tesla BMS is now super aggressive in disabling the car at any hint of cell block imbalance. The trend seems to be one warning, and within days the car essentially disables the entire traction battery whilst gradually reducing usable range, presumably allowing the owner to get home rather than been abandoned by the side of the road.

There are also reports when Tesla investigated their fires they found something fundamentally flawed with the 85 packs they didn't expect to find as the packs aged but have to date not disclosed that information to the public and have threatened to sue the few private individuals who knows what the issue is to keep them quite.

I also park my car well away from the house these days. EV fires may still be rare but it clearly is an issue, and may get worse before it gets better.

Batterygate 2.0 has the potential to make dieselgate look pathetic, in retrospect the signs where there even as early as 2015 with unexplained Tesla fires, but ignored by most (my self included).

Can anyone help me? - My one year old (almost exactly) Kona battery failed at the beginning of November 2022 and I am still without my electric car 6 months later. Hyundai took the car down to Tilbury but despite saying its repair is a priority, still cannot tell me when they will get a replacement battery. I have been supplied with a rental car (non electric!) and despite verbally advising that they would pay the fuel costs wat the outset of the rental, they are now asking me to supply an estimate of what it would have cost me to charge my car. They have offered to buy back the car at its 1 year, used value but i want a my car fixed or a new (or even equivalent) replacement. I dont think that is in the spirit - or otherwise - of the warranty?
 
Can anyone help me? - My one year old (almost exactly) Kona battery failed at the beginning of November 2022 and I am still without my electric car 6 months later. Hyundai took the car down to Tilbury but despite saying its repair is a priority, still cannot tell me when they will get a replacement battery. I have been supplied with a rental car (non electric!) and despite verbally advising that they would pay the fuel costs wat the outset of the rental, they are now asking me to supply an estimate of what it would have cost me to charge my car. They have offered to buy back the car at its 1 year, used value but i want a my car fixed or a new (or even equivalent) replacement. I dont think that is in the spirit - or otherwise - of the warranty?
They will do everything to get you to take a buyback

With us they started by trying to restrict the mileage we could do in the loan car. And just generally started causing issues

We were told the same that it was a oriority but after 6 months we decided we didn’t want to go through winter in the loan. Car

They tried offering a low amount but in the end caved in and paid a fair price and all our out of pocket expenses

Don’t let them push you around you are entitled to wait if you want to you are also entitled to get them to pay the fuel costs for the rental car and they will

Do what is best for you but with crazy EV prices at mo a buyback may leave you in the situation of struggling to find a new car
 
The law is on your side. Under the 2015 act you are now entitled to formerly reject the car. Depending on where I’m the country you live there is probably a BBC radio consumer advice show. They can be very helpful taking to the company on your behalf. It is amazing how a bit of bad publicity throws wheels in motion.
 
The law is on your side. Under the 2015 act you are now entitled to formerly reject the car. Depending on where I’m the country you live there is probably a BBC radio consumer advice show. They can be very helpful taking to the company on your behalf. It is amazing how a bit of bad publicity throws wheels in motion.

The problem with this. See is it’s a recall affecting over 10k cars in the UK over 290k worldwide all waiting for new batteries

Hyundai are backs against the wall on this they only seem to be getting a handful of batteries each month to replace.

We were told 6 months then a year the problem is now if it’s rejected trying to find anything reasonable to replace with without waiting another year

The offer they gave us was to buy it back at the price we paid less 45p for every mile driven.
 
Yeah, I understand the dilemma you face. Waits for so many things are silly long at the moment.
 
They will do everything to get you to take a buyback

With us they started by trying to restrict the mileage we could do in the loan car. And just generally started causing issues

We were told the same that it was a oriority but after 6 months we decided we didn’t want to go through winter in the loan. Car

They tried offering a low amount but in the end caved in and paid a fair price and all our out of pocket expenses

Don’t let them push you around you are entitled to wait if you want to you are also entitled to get them to pay the fuel costs for the rental car and they will

Do what is best for you but with crazy EV prices at mo a buyback may leave you in the situation of struggling to find a new car
Thanks for your thoughtful reply! What's the best place to get a value for my car ?(as I need to consider all options!) I agree that getting a new electric car may be tricky!
 
The law is on your side. Under the 2015 act you are now entitled to formerly reject the car. Depending on where I’m the country you live there is probably a BBC radio consumer advice show. They can be very helpful taking to the company on your behalf. It is amazing how a bit of bad publicity throws wheels in motion.
Thanks for your reply! I tried The Guardian a couple of months ago but they didn't respond. Will sleep on it and hopefully formulate a new strategy tomorrow......
 
The problem with this. See is it’s a recall affecting over 10k cars in the UK over 290k worldwide all waiting for new batteries

Hyundai are backs against the wall on this they only seem to be getting a handful of batteries each month to replace.

We were told 6 months then a year the problem is now if it’s rejected trying to find anything reasonable to replace with without waiting another year

The offer they gave us was to buy it back at the price we paid less 45p for every mile driven.
Gobsmacked at the scale of the problem - I'll be lucky to see my car back in years, rather than months!! Good to know what they offered to buy your car back! thanks S
 
Thanks for your reply! I tried The Guardian a couple of months ago but they didn't respond. Will sleep on it and hopefully formulate a new strategy tomorrow......
It is not really a Guardian type thing, but BBC local radio consumer shows, it is their bread and butter. I know of quite a few, like JVS in the three counties for instance.
 
Thanks for your thoughtful reply! What's the best place to get a value for my car ?(as I need to consider all options!) I agree that getting a new electric car may be tricky!
They offered me two options. (CAP Clean) Which was identical to WebuyAnyCar, or

Price we paid less 45p per mile driven. (May be good for some but not for us as we had done over 20k miles in the 5 months since buying it.

In the end we took the CAPCLEAN WBAC with another couple of grand on top we haggled to cover things that we classed as out of pocket expenses

It ended up costing us £2000 over 5 months and 21k miles. But it was a hard fight through MULTIPLE best and Final offers. They really try to grind you down.

If it was me now, I would grab a Kona loan car off them (They have a fleet of them specifically for this reason, we got one after a week in a petrol rental).. But you have to nag them for one, then camp in it till they finally fix yours, put the miles on thier car.

If you are not already I would suggest joining the SPEAKEV forum, there are loads of people in The Kona Section on their going through the same thing and may be able to offer more upto date help

 

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