Hyundai Kona EV pre orders open

slave1

UK Autotrader, JustEVs is the seller and they are £39,995 ready for delivery now according to ad, they have a decent rep JustEVs so doubt clickbait

eagerv

My first drive of an EV today..


Was in Kildare this morning, dropped into Hyundai .


Met Brian who I must say was an absolute gentleman to talk to, almost seemed that I already knew him after seeing him many times on YouTube.


Told him I wasn't particularly interested in The Kona until the spec improves..
However he offered me the car straight away for a run on my own, so it would be rude to refuse.:)


I brought it for a good run, mainly on the back roads of the Curragh, so a good mix of both bumpy and smooth roads. I should have brought it back via the Motorway, so no idea of higher speed driving.


I was generally very impressed with the car. Yes, not much room behind me, but very roomy and comfortable in the front. Seats supportive and everything looked nice. Some of the plastics feel a bit cheap, but generally look fine.



Noise was naturally very low at slower speeds, but quite a lot of road rumble on some surfaces. Wind noise at up to 100 kph seemed low.


Instant torque was a pleasure, no problems with torque steer or wheel spin. I made full use of the power without being aggressive from a standing start.
I drove both in comfort and sport mode. I preferred comfort, throttle responses being more what i am used to. Sport didn't feel any faster, just sharper throttle.


Suspension was comfortable, better than I expected on some of the very bad surfaces. Steering perhaps a tad lighter than I am used to, but not a problem.



I preferred the regen level at 0, car glided very nicely. Then when using foot brake, if needing to slow up, seemed to produce the same level of regen as if in regen levels 1 and 2. Seemed more natural to me; didn't like regen 3.


It's very expensive for what is a small not particularly well equipped car. About 8K more than my present Honda Civic S GT Spec which has more HP/ Tonne and has far better standard equipment with niceties such as Adaptive suspension, glass opening roof, LED headlights, Sat Nav, LFA, Adaptive Cruise and a great 450Watt sound system. The Honda generally has a sportier driving feel also.



However I really liked the car, far more than I expected.
I drive a good few cars and it's definitely one of the more interesting ones.



Going to have a long think. Not in a rush..

unkel

Take an Ioniq out for a test drive too. Kona is almost 50% more expensive than Ioniq. That's a lot. With the only two positives that Kona has over Ioniq are acceleration and range. Most people who have been in both rate Ioniq the same or higher at every other level.

eagerv

unkel wrote: »

Take an Ioniq out for a test drive too. Kona is almost 50% more expensive than Ioniq. That's a lot. With the only two positives that Kona has over Ioniq are acceleration and range. Most people who have been in both rate Ioniq the same or higher at every other level.

Will do unkel. Brian is keeping a lookout for one...As are a few others..

gizmo555

unkel wrote: »

Kona is almost 50% more expensive than Ioniq.

It's 28% more expensive, based on the RRPs on the Hyundai website

unkel

gizmo555 wrote: »

It's 28% more expensive, based on the RRPs on the Hyundai website

Yeah except you pay the full RRP on Kona and you can get an Ioniq on the road for €26k

Just read yesterday that US Hyundai dealers are now charging MSRP + USD5000 for Kona :eek:

I thought it was bad enough they charged MRSP + USD3000 for Ioniq almost since day one in CA (only state the Ioniq EV is sold)

gizmo555

unkel wrote: »

you can get an Ioniq on the road for €26k

How?

unkel

Have a look at the Ioniq thread. Several people have managed to get a 191 on the road for €26k by going the scrappage route. Now before you say you don't have a car to scrap. Yes you do. Some dealers will even get you one, or you can buy a €50 "company car"

The €26k is the solid white colour though. That said, I paid €25k for mine with metallic colour (a €700 or so extra) two years ago

amcalester

So, I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger and buying a Kona. I've happy enough with my calculations on the cost of it versus the potential savings on fuel and tolls.

What I'm not sure about is the home charger, what do I need to consider here? I live in a semi-d with off-street parking so it should be simple enough to get one installed I just have no idea what to look for in a charger?

Any suggestions?

amcalester

Cheers, I'm not going to join Facebook for that but I see that there's a Zappi thread so I'll have a read of that.

peposhi

amcalester wrote: »

So, I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger and buying a Kona. I've happy enough with my calculations on the cost of it versus the potential savings on fuel and tolls.

What I'm not sure about is the home charger, what do I need to consider here? I live in a semi-d with off-street parking so it should be simple enough to get one installed I just have no idea what to look for in a charger?

Any suggestions?

Once you have an off street parking and the car is parked near enough to the house, you’re sorted.
A good few good installers out there to help if you don’t need the bother of buying the charger and getting a RECI electrician yourself...

amcalester

Anyone know if people are getting any discount from the dealer on the purchase price?

unkel

peposhi wrote: »

Once you have an off street parking and the car is parked near enough to the house, you’re sorted.

Not as easy as that I'm afraid. You can get it done. People in this forum have had it done, but you need permission for it. And even if the car parking space is right in front of your house (across a public foot path) you are easily talking a 2 grand job

amcalester

unkel wrote: »

Not as easy as that I'm afraid. You can get it done. People in this forum have had it done, but you need permission for it. And even if the car parking space is right in front of your house (across a public foot path) you are easily talking a 2 grand job

My parking is inside the footpath, I assumed the chargepoint would be attached to the side of the house beside the existing meter and about 2 meters from where the car would be parked.

Will I have issues installing one?

spakman

unkel wrote: »

peposhi wrote: »

Once you have an off street parking and the car is parked near enough to the house, you’re sorted.

Not as easy as that I'm afraid. You can get it done. People in this forum have had it done, but you need permission for it. And even if the car parking space is right in front of your house (across a public foot path) you are easily talking a 2 grand job

He said off-street, so it's not across a public footpath.
If it's in your own driveway and can place the charger within 5 (or 8) metres from the chargepoint on the car, you'll have no problems

Dglflyer

Worse case scenario , get an extension lead and plug it into the wall..... am guessing the car sits in the drive for at least 8-10 hours a day

ELM327

unkel wrote: »

Not as easy as that I'm afraid. You can get it done. People in this forum have had it done, but you need permission for it. And even if the car parking space is right in front of your house (across a public foot path) you are easily talking a 2 grand job

Mine was just over half that after the grant.

Old diesel

Kona review from Cars Ireland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVV7377AJN8

I was just about to raise the hand for facepalm moment when she said it was very well equipped - before she immediately addressed some of the missing features the UK get that we dont.

I really wish one of these reviewers would actually try a decent distance drive in a Kona - like Cork to Dundalk, or Dublin to Galway or Killarney to Wexford etc.

Would be an interesting range test and show the usage of charging etc.

unkel

Have they had the car long, they like it?

ELM327

What did they change for it? (IE was it another EV or a banger etc)

IrishHomer

Anybody know would you fit a Labrador sized dog in the rear boot of a Kona EV or else a new Nissan Leaf?

ELM327

IrishHomer wrote: »

Anybody know would you fit a Labrador sized dog in the rear boot of a Kona EV or else a new Nissan Leaf?

Probably not in the Kona, New leaf yes you would.

unkel

OSI wrote: »

A month now and they're certainly favourable of it, only real complaint is the smallish boot and the tyres it comes with are very easy to spin up. The other car in the house is a Mustang so it's very much a Ying/Yang situation going on :pac:

Beside the family car, our Hyundai EV, I have a classic Porsche (youngtimer) myself

slave1

OSI wrote: »

A month now and they're certainly favourable of it, only real complaint is the smallish boot and the tyres it comes with are very easy to spin up. The other car in the house is a Mustang so it's very much a Ying/Yang situation going on :pac:

All EVs will wheel spin at that price range, the torque does it...

bonoman66

IrishHomer wrote: »

Anybody know would you fit a Labrador sized dog in the rear boot of a Kona EV or else a new Nissan Leaf?

I know its not a Labrador but just gives you an idea of boot size maybe...

Smcani

Old diesel wrote: »

Kona review from Cars Ireland

I was just about to raise the hand for facepalm moment when she said it was very well equipped - before she immediately addressed some of the missing features the UK get that we dont.

I really wish one of these reviewers would actually try a decent distance drive in a Kona - like Cork to Dundalk, or Dublin to Galway or Killarney to Wexford etc.

Would be an interesting range test and show the usage of charging etc.

Hello, Sinead here. Many thanks for sharing the video. I did document some longer distance journeys over on my Instagram (username: whatshedrives, saved under the highlight ‘Kona EV’). I would have quite liked to do a long distance trip for this one too but unfortunately we couldn’t make the logistics work this time, and we also wanted to get a standard review out there first. May well look in to getting it back for a similar feature in the future.

I also just wanted to officially introduce myself on this forum as I’m a long term lurker. Have found it so helpful in researching and addressing the type of questions people might have. Fascinating to read real life owner experiences too. And promise I’m not just here to plug my videos! 👋

(Had to remove the link but it was a Youtube video review I did for CarsIreland on the Kona EV)

unkel

Hi Sinead and welcome to boards!

FWIW, I felt it was a decent and professionally made review. You clearly did your research on EVs in general and the Kona EV in particular and I did think to myself when you mentioned the spec difference between here and the UK that you might have picked that up from some (prospective) owners bitching on social media

Smcani

unkel wrote: »

Hi Sinead and welcome to boards!

FWIW, I felt it was a decent and professionally made review. You clearly did your research on EVs in general and the Kona EV in particular and I did think to myself when you mentioned the spec difference between here and the UK that you might have picked that up from some (prospective) owners bitching on social media

Thank you. Ha, you are right there. I do usually throw some questions out on social media on what people want to know when I’ve got an EV or anything out of the ordinary. The spec issue did come up quite a bit with the Kona. Hopefully we’ll see more choice for 192. Always open to feedback good and bad so that and any other tips from this side of the fence are always welcome. Likewise having driven a few more of the current models on the market (e-Golf, I3s, Zoe, Leaf, and short spins of model S and X), I’m more than happy to share my experiences if anyone had any questions where a direct comparison might be useful.

unkel

Smcani wrote: »

The spec issue did come up quite a bit with the Kona.

It's a bit of a painful issue. Whereas the Ioniq only came in the lower spec version to Ireland (in the UK they have two spec levels), this spec was already huge and Ioniq could be had from €25k on the road. No leather seats though and no optional extras were possible. Which most buyers could live with

Then Kona came along. Long range, but the car is smaller than Ioniq, the spec is significantly less and you won't have it on the road for less than €37k. That's 50% more than Ioniq. A lot of people rightly thought that Hyundai Ireland was taking the p1ss with that. And to add insult to injury, Hyundai dealers were offering Ioniq owners wanting to upgrade quite shameful trade in prices. Even though they knew that the scarcity of Ioniq would make it easy for them to sell them on quickly and for a profit.

ELM327

unkel wrote: »

It's a bit of a painful issue. Whereas the Ioniq only came in the lower spec version to Ireland (in the UK they have two spec levels), this spec was already huge and Ioniq could be had from €25k on the road. No leather seats though and no optional extras were possible. Which most buyers could live with

Then Kona came along. Long range, but the car is smaller than Ioniq, the spec is significantly less and you won't have it on the road for less than €37k. That's 50% more than Ioniq. A lot of people rightly thought that Hyundai Ireland was taking the p1ss with that. And to add insult to injury, Hyundai dealers were offering Ioniq owners wanting to upgrade quite shameful trade in prices. Even though they knew that the scarcity of Ioniq would make it easy for them to sell them on quickly and for a profit.

I was offered 18k for my Ioniq by a private dealer and by a couple of Hyundai dealers. One of whom had advertised and sold a white model for 25k.


This and the crappy spec in Ireland would turn me off Hyundai, like the shameful dealer network turned me off Nissan. (With the notable exception of Mullingar Nissan who were very helpful with facilitating a long test of the leaf 40)