Hyundai Kona EV test drive.

Arranging for Monday, the plan is to take it from Michael Lyng in Carlow to Dublin, possibly to Blanchardstown and back.

I will drive to the max motorway limit of 120 and max limits where I can and also some acceleration tests. There will also be some short stints above 140 to get feel for acceleration above 120 these will be short as possible.

I'm interested in Steering feel, handling and acceleration, Grip, hopefully I get some wet stretches of road.

They seem a lot keener to let me have it out alone this time , People must be loosing interest. Though it is also June, and it's the longest day today imagine that ? :eek:

Looking forward your analysis but don't dwell too much of the wheelspin in wet Mad_Lad when you mash in the pedal. There will be loads as you already suffered from the same on the L40.

samih

samih wrote: »

Looking forward your analysis but don't dwell too much of the wheelspin in wet Mad_Lad when you mash in the pedal. There will be loads as you already suffered from the same on the L40.

Ok sure I'll have a free trip to Blanch

Not much time though so probably just get to blanch, go somewhere for coffee and back down.

It will be *really* intersting to see how far they go in real life situation.

unkel

I hope the weather behaves and you don't encounter violent thunderstorms and gale force head winds. Otherwise we'll be hearing on here for a long time that Kona only has 250km real life motorway range :pac:

Good luck with the test drive

unkel

unkel wrote: »

I hope the weather behaves and you don't encounter violent thunderstorms and gale force head winds. Otherwise we'll be hearing on here for a long time that Kona only has 250km real life motorway range :pac:

Good luck with the test drive

well if that's the conditions I encounter then there's not a lot I can do about it , you'll just have to grin and bear it mate !

The warmer weather will in no doubt be favourable to the Kona.

peposhi

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Arranging for Monday, the plan is to take it from Michael Lyng in Carlow to Dublin, possibly to Blanchardstown and back.

I will drive to the max motorway limit of 120 and max limits where I can and also some acceleration tests. There will also be some short stints above 140 to get feel for acceleration above 120 these will be short as possible.

I'm interested in Steering feel, handling and acceleration, Grip, hopefully I get some wet stretches of road.

They seem a lot keener to let me have it out alone this time , People must be loosing interest. Though it is also June, and it's the longest day today imagine that ? :eek:

Hope they have it fully charged up for you, Mad_Lad

Have you persuaded your better half to leave the ICE team and join the Dark EV Side?

peposhi

peposhi wrote: »

Hope they have it fully charged up for you, Mad_Lad

Have you persuaded your better half to leave the ICE team and join the Dark EV Side?

Lol no she won’t change to ev until she has to , the Kona is fairly small inside for her, she likes the space of the Outlander.

Yes I hope it’s fully charged too if not I’ll have to take it out another day.

I’m in two minds now whether to go to Waterford or Blanch.

ckeng

I found the range very realistic but the road noise and the firm suspension made me like it less than I wanted to like it. Interested to see if someone who's used to EVs has the same negatives or if it's just that my expectations were off.

ELM327

you should vlog this and put it on YT

ELM327

ELM327 wrote: »

you should vlog this and put it on YT

I don't have the time for video and editing and all that lol. I Don't have the cameras or mounting hardware required either.

Lumen

ckeng wrote: »

I found the range very realistic but the road noise and the firm suspension made me like it less than I wanted to like it. Interested to see if someone who's used to EVs has the same negatives or if it's just that my expectations were off.

What size wheels did it have?

The ride on the top end ICE Kona is crap too, probably largely due to the enormous wheels. I find it irritating but not unforgiveable.

The perceived road noise issue seems to plague EVs.

The road surface in Irish roads is poor on most roads even on the majority of new motorways. The exception being the new surface on the M7 upgrade which in my option should be everywhere. It’s a pleasure to drive on. I see this surface everywhere in Germany.

Anyway got the green light from the garage and the insurance is ready to go and the garage cc in the email from insurance so all I got to do is get the car when I get there.

Still not sure whether I’ll go to blanch or Waterford , there’ll be no real slow down all the way to Waterford unlike the M7 at bass and the usual holdups in Dublin.

ckeng

Lumen wrote: »

What size wheels did it have?

The ride on the top end ICE Kona is crap too, probably largely due to the enormous wheels. I find it irritating but not unforgiveable.

The perceived road noise issue seems to plague EVs.

No idea about the wheel size, whatever comes as standard I imagine. I'd live with the ride quality, it wasn't terrible and most of my driving is motorway and good national primary.

Hard to be sure about the noise issue though- is the road noise louder or do I just notice it more because the engine noise isn't there? If I had to bet I'd say at normal speeds the Kona is about as loud as my 10 year old diesel. I might try out the leaf for comparison.

Lumen

ckeng wrote: »

No idea about the wheel size, whatever comes as standard I imagine. I'd live with the ride quality, it wasn't terrible and most of my driving is motorway and good national primary.

Ah, apologies, I must have been half asleep wandering into this thread this morning. What I have is the Kia Sportage, and so the reports of poor ride quality for the Kia Niro do not surprise me. I haven't driven a Hyundai in a few years.

Still, oversized wheels are a bugbear of mine. I used to run a Citroen that was ruined by big wheels and spent a small fortune on a wheel swap to fix it.

ckeng wrote: »

Hard to be sure about the noise issue though- is the road noise louder or do I just notice it more because the engine noise isn't there?

Indeed.

Got to Mac D in blanch . 86.3 kms 16.3 kwh/100 kms not bad at all. Drove from M9 Carlow at 120 all the way to M7 Roadworks then 70-100 and 70-110 and some 120 kmh n7 3 lanes.

I can’t find charge % it had 1 bar missing when I got in hadn’t got full charge so no charge % makes it difficult.

Looks like 6 bars per segment was 1 missing and I got 1 left for first segment. So looks like I used 4 bars of the 18 I had to start got 13 left. Why no charge % ? That’s very annoying to say the least.

Will go grab a coffee and head back and maybe find a back road or two.

Silent Running

Deleted User wrote: »

Got to Mac D in blanch . 86.3 kms 16.3 kwh/100 kms not bad at all. Drove from M9 Carlow at 120 all the way to M7 Roadworks then 70-100 and 70-110 and some 120 kmh n7 3 lanes.

I can’t find charge % it had 1 bar missing when I got in hadn’t got full charge so no charge % makes it difficult.

Looks like 6 bars per segment was 1 missing and I got 1 left for first segment. So looks like I used 4 bars of the 18 I had to start got 13 left. Why no charge % ? That’s very annoying to say the least.

Will go grab a coffee and head back and maybe find a back road or two.

Is there a button under the screen with EV on it? That brings up the battery info.

Silent Running

Silent Running wrote: »

Is there a button under the screen with EV on it? That brings up the battery info.

? Not as far as I can see.

Ah yeah found it on the Mac unit. Got 71% left, pity I couldn’t see that at the start.

Today is nice and calm day with no wind so good day for testing if the roads are dry. 29 percent for 86.3 kilometers if linear means about 300 km range under the conditions today. The 16.3 kWh/100 km disagrees and you should get about 360 km from 60 kWh usable. Which display lies or maybe you didn't start with a full battery?

Savage_Henry

If you wish, you can rent it from gocar for 12 eur p/h - its located in Fitzwillam Hotel, Dublin
I rented for an hour just to test it how it is to drive.

unkel

He didn't start with a full battery. 16kWh/100km is about right for mostly 120km/h motorway driving in perfect weather like today in Kona. Ioniq in the same circumstances does about 14kWh/100km under those conditions

Silent Running

samih wrote: »

Today is nice and calm day with no wind so good day for testing if the roads are dry. 29 percent for 86.3 kilometers if linear means about 300 km range under the conditions today. The 16.3 kWh/100 km disagrees and you should get about 360 km from 60 kWh usable. Which display lies or maybe you didn't start with a full battery?

The Kona is the same as the Niro: 64kWh usable of a 67.something battery. I cam't remember the exact figure.:o

unkel

Savage_Henry wrote: »

If you wish, you can rent it from gocar for 12 eur p/h - its located in Fitzwillam Hotel, Dublin
I rented for an hour just to test it how it is to drive.

I signed up for free with Gocar a few years ago and I can rent any Gocar for free for the first 10 minutes

This was a concession to EV owners who might have to move a Gocar EV from blocking a charger. Not sure if this is still the case for new sign ups.

I wanted to go test drive i3 for a few hours, but all Gocars i3 are REx for which I have no interest. Maybe I'll go drive a BEV from one of the main dealers.

Silent Running

Silent Running wrote: »

The Kona is the same as the Niro: 64kWh usable of a 67.something battery. I cam't remember the exact figure.:o

Yes, and with 64 kWh usable the difference between the battery gauge and reported consumption is even further apart so definitely looks like the battery was not full at the start (which Mad_lad himself mentions, doh).

Mickeroo

unkel wrote: »

I signed up for free with Gocar a few years ago and I can rent any Gocar for free for the first 10 minutes

This was a concession to EV owners who might have to move a Gocar EV from blocking a charger. Not sure if this is still the case for new sign ups.

I wanted to go test drive i3 for a few hours, but all Gocars i3 are REx for which I have no interest. Maybe I'll go drive a BEV from one of the main dealers.

You could just not activate the ReX no?

bonoman66

Deleted User wrote: »

Got to Mac D in blanch . 86.3 kms 16.3 kwh/100 kms not bad at all. Drove from M9 Carlow at 120 all the way to M7 Roadworks then 70-100 and 70-110 and some 120 kmh n7 3 lanes.

I can’t find charge % it had 1 bar missing when I got in hadn’t got full charge so no charge % makes it difficult.

Looks like 6 bars per segment was 1 missing and I got 1 left for first segment. So looks like I used 4 bars of the 18 I had to start got 13 left. Why no charge % ? That’s very annoying to say the least.

Will go grab a coffee and head back and maybe find a back road or two.

Here's info I gave back in January related to my own driving experiences in cool, wet weather with a fully loaded car (lots of luggage), with lights, heating, wipers, streaming bluetooth audio on at the time & a lot of motorway driving etc..

Might be helpful if you missed it..

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=109129019&postcount=1928

unkel

Mickeroo wrote: »

You could just not activate the ReX no?

No, it's just I have no interest in driving a REx

The BEV is much faster. That is the one I want to drive

unkel

unkel wrote: »

No, it's just I have no interest in driving a REx

The BEV is much faster. That is the one I want to drive

Maybe the 64 Ah is a "bit faster".

The 120 Ah v 94 Ah Rex couldn't really tell the difference probably due to the extra weight of the battery.

The below review is my opinion only and is not a reflection on whether the Kona EV is good or bad, one should not base their decision to buy or not to buy based on my opinion


Ok so test drive over, thanks to Willie in Michael Lyng , I have to say impressive EV, drove 185.7 Kms and reported 49% battery remaining.

Pity I didn't discover what % it was at the beginning, one bar missing so was that 99% 90% or 95% ? I have no idea and I couldn't care less because even if I got what I got from 100% it's still very impressive.

185.7 Kmx at say 49% could suggest 372 Kms + or minus Kms and I won't argue with that for a boxy car like the Kona. I bet the Etron can't manage that !

I wasn't driving it easy, 120 km/h on the motorway from Carlow to Roadworks on the M7 the 8-100 through roadworks and 110-110 Km/h N7 and back home was slower on N7 and M9 roadworks , I drove 120 on the motorway from m9 back to Carlow Turn off then the rest was the usual local national roads 50-80 odd 100 Km/h stint, so say about 10-12 Kms by the time I picked up my Sons and then back road back to garage.

It was amazing getting home from Blanch with that much range and on the way back to Michael Lyng I took it on some back roads.

I heard rumours of a hard suspension, I thought it was fine.

Handling was also decent, I was surprised but the steering let it down badly , which , again, is my opinion, it just felt disengaging altogether, weighty at speed but very artificial.

The lane keep assist is a useless annoying gimmick and I turned it off, no point even talking about that.

At higher speeds road noise is an issue, it's quite annoying but at slower speeds it's actually not too bad, but a lot of that can be said for our rough cheap road surfaces even on Motorways , on the New M7 , on what I would call an actual proper road surface it's just fine. But road noise at speed is excessive.

Wheel spin, yep it's got it and a lot of it even on dry roads I didn't get any wet roads but I can only imagine, won't say any more on that.

Torque steer is annoying and it's got lots of that too !

I was surprised at the lack of Adaptive cruise which I would find far more useful than than that horrible lane keep assist.

The infotainment screen while adequate in size should be orientated more towards the driver, I stand by my opinion on touch screens in cars, I don't like them , BMW's Idrive if vastly superior , again , all my opinions folks.

Overall it's a very good car and highly recommended if you want max EV only range and are willing to spend the 40 K, spec could be better for the money. It's good to see manufacturers offering decent power in electric cars too because there's no high cost of fuel and they don't have to make under powered engines that sip fuel.

Pics to follow.

this is the charge I had left after getting back to the garage.

Sorry for the High Res images but lowering the resolution on so many pics is a pain

The engine bay , notice the amount of wasted space ? they could have packaged it together much more efficiently and made more interior room, larger boot etc. It's hard to see from the pic but the cover over the electronics, inverter or whatever actually disguises some of the wasted space because with the cover on it looks a lot taller, with the cover off the whole thing is very low down and it's rather shocking to see such poor design, probably ease and cost of assembly but surely in this day and age they can do better ?









Not a lot of leg room, I'm a short 5 foot 8 with short legs

krissovo

My 9 and 5 year old hated the Kona as they had no space. I didn’t remember torque steer from my spin but I guess any chassis that is common with front wheel drive ICE will suffer.

Nice write up.

bonoman66

Deleted User wrote: »

The below review is my opinion only and is not a reflection on whether the Kona EV is good or bad, one should not base their decision to buy or not to buy based on my opinion


Ok so test drive over, thanks to Willie in Michael Lyng , I have to say impressive EV, drove 185.7 Kms and reported 49% battery remaining.

Pity I didn't discover what % it was at the beginning, one bar missing so was that 99% 90% or 95% ? I have no idea and I couldn't care less because even if I got what I got from 100% it's still very impressive.

185.7 Kmx at say 49% could suggest 372 Kms + or minus Kms and I won't argue with that for a boxy car like the Kona. I bet the Etron can't manage that !

I wasn't driving it easy, 120 km/h on the motorway from Carlow to Roadworks on the M7 the 8-100 through roadworks and 110-110 Km/h N7 and back home was slower on N7 and M9 roadworks , I drove 120 on the motorway from m9 back to Carlow Turn off then the rest was the usual local national roads 50-80 odd 100 Km/h stint, so say about 10-12 Kms by the time I picked up my Sons and then back road back to garage.

It was amazing getting home from Blanch with that much range and on the way back to Michael Lyng I took it on some back roads.

I heard rumours of a hard suspension, I thought it was fine.

Handling was also decent, I was surprised but the steering let it down badly , which , again, is my opinion, it just felt disengaging altogether, weighty at speed but very artificial.

The lane keep assist is a useless annoying gimmick and I turned it off, no point even talking about that.

At higher speeds road noise is an issue, it's quite annoying but at slower speeds it's actually not too bad, but a lot of that can be said for our rough cheap road surfaces even on Motorways , on the New M7 , on what I would call an actual proper road surface it's just fine. But road noise at speed is excessive.

Wheel spin, yep it's got it and a lot of it even on dry roads I didn't get any wet roads but I can only imagine, won't say any more on that.

Torque steer is annoying and it's got lots of that too !

I was surprised at the lack of Adaptive cruise which I would find far more useful than than that horrible lane keep assist.

The infotainment screen while adequate in size should be orientated more towards the driver, I stand by my opinion on touch screens in cars, I don't like them , BMW's Idrive if vastly superior , again , all my opinions folks.

Overall it's a very good car and highly recommended if you want max EV only range and are willing to spend the 40 K, spec could be better for the money. It's good to see manufacturers offering decent power in electric cars too because there's no high cost of fuel and they don't have to make under powered engines that sip fuel.

Pics to follow.

Thanks for taking the time to take the drive & then capture all the details & pictures for us here. Good write up - well done.

I'm loving mine since last January.

In my case it was a super upgrade as I was coming from a 12 year old, lower spec diesel etc..

I easily get between 300 - 350 KMs (not an exact science as it depends on weather, load, traffic, speed etc etc) on a full charge for mainly motorway driving at full motorway speeds in Sports Mode with a Regen Level of 0 where the roads are flat & manually change Regen on the fly to 1 or 2 if roads not flat etc..

For all other Non Motorway Driving I typically drive in Sports Mode with Regen Level 3. 1 pedal driving when you get used to it & you can come to complete stop using left paddle on steering wheel. Very light usage of the actual brake pedal etc..

Average for Full Charge Currently (as indicated by the GOM which is based on my driving style) is 429KMs in Sports Mode (I do not drive this car with care from an EV perspective - eg trying to conserve / maximize distance - never even think about it).

I recently (2 weeks ago) did a 215 km trip with a mix of roads but majority was motorway from Birdhill up to the roadworks as you come into Naas. I did that in Eco Mode just to see what it was like. First time in 6 months of driving that I've used Eco Mode - I was curious. I was still driving at all the permitted road speeds, but in a more controlled manner and kept in Regen 3. My average for that trip was 14.8kWh/100km.

In a recent short trips again testing in Eco Mode (Non Motorway) at distances between 13 km to 43 km, in suburban areas, I average between 11.9kWh/100km - 14.7kWh/100km. Mostly at speeds between 50kmph - 80 kmph.

In a recent 'over the mountains backroads' trip in the Tipperary / Limerick Boarders Region, I travelled 14kms in Sport Mode with Regen Level 3, at max permitted road speeds (between 50kmph - 80kmph) & achieved 8.6kWh/100km (admittedly that was exceptional & would not hold over a longer distance I would imagine - but it was a sign of how efficient this car can be).


Charging with Granny Cable adds back approx 2.1kW per hour into the battery (or adds approx 12KMs range for my driving pattern).

Charging with my Zappi is just over 3 times faster (circa 7kW per hour etc..).

Hope that helps.

irishgrover

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The below review is my opinion only and is not a reflection on whether the Kona EV is good or bad, one should not base their decision to buy or not to buy based on my opinion


The lane keep assist is a useless annoying gimmick and I turned it off, no point even talking about that.


Pics to follow.

Respectfully, I think this is a clear case of you were doing it wrong. You said the exact same thing about the ioniq a year or two ago. I'm guessing you did not have the correct settings turned on

irishgrover

irishgrover wrote: »

Respectfully, I think this is a clear case of you were doing it wrong. You said the exact same thing about the ioniq a year or two ago. I'm guessing you did not have the correct settings turned on

Everything related to lane keep assist in the menu was turned on, I flicked through them but by all means someone someday show me what I'm doing wrong.

bonoman66

bonoman66 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to take the drive & then capture all the details & pictures for us here. Good write up - well done.

I'm loving mine since last January.

In my case it was a super upgrade as I was coming from a 12 year old, lower spec diesel etc..

I easily get between 300 - 350 KMs (not an exact science as it depends on weather, load, traffic, speed etc etc) on a full charge for mainly motorway driving at full motorway speeds in Sports Mode with a Regen Level of 0 where the roads are flat & manually change Regen on the fly to 1 or 2 if roads not flat etc..

For all other Non Motorway Driving I typically drive in Sports Mode with Regen Level 3. 1 pedal driving when you get used to it & you can come to complete stop using left paddle on steering wheel. Very light usage of the actual brake pedal etc..

Thanks for the kind words.

I only briefly used the various driving modes but most of the time I was in Sport and regen 0 on the Motorway, it's just more relaxing, I don't like max regen when I lift off the throttle. It's funny how different People prefer different regen settings lol and it's good Hyundai allow the driver to be in control of that.

Only when traffic gets heavier or in town do I use regen 3.

I did find myself using the paddles a lot, just press for level 1 on the motorway when I wanted to gently slow down a bit.

I couldn't imagine it that difficult at all to get 400 Kms.

I also didn't try to drive economically what-so-ever. Just got in and drove.

unkel

LKA useless as in what way? Did it not stay in the lane when there were obvious lines (motorway driving)? Did it go over a line, or very close to a line?

Are you sure you got it in the right settings, remember you had a similar experience in Ioniq, where you did not have it in the most active setting either?

I'm not sure if the system is the same as in Ioniq, I presume so. And I find it very useful on motorways. Particularly on very heavy traffic on the M50

unkel

unkel wrote: »

LKA useless as in what way? Did it not stay in the lane when there were obvious lines (motorway driving)? Did it go over a line, or very close to a line?

Are you sure you got it in the right settings, remember you had a similar experience in Ioniq, where you did not have it in the most active setting either?

I'm not sure if the system is the same as in Ioniq, I presume so. And I find it very useful on motorways. Particularly on very heavy traffic on the M50

It was ping pong all the time, over from line to line if I let go of the steering.

I found the Leaf system far superior. I'll look at some youtube videos later.

Go to about 1:20 Bjorn said bounce left and right left and right lol, so same as what I experienced and even mentioned ping pong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OopwA0ZTDBE

irishgrover

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Everything related to lane keep assist in the menu was turned on, I flicked through them but by all means someone someday show me what I'm doing wrong.

I've put over 60Kkm on an ioniq and almost 500km on a loner kona and don't recognise what you are describing, which leads me to believe you are mistaken. 60+ % of my driving uses this feature. Not a big deal one way or the other, just don't want other readers to be potentially accidentally misinformed.

irishgrover

irishgrover wrote: »

I've put over 60Kkm on an ioniq and almost 500km on a loner kona and don't recognise what you are describing, which leads me to believe you are mistaken. 60+ % of my driving uses this feature. Not a big deal one way or the other, just don't want other readers to be potentially accidentally misinformed.

So if Bjorn experienced the same you'll believe me then ? look at the video .

Great writeup. FYI: The space in the engine bay allows the front to deform and stuff to move about without affecting the body shell in a bad crash. And there has to be plenty of space between the bonnet and any components for pedestrian safety also.

krissovo

This video shows what I experienced when I test drove, you can see the lane lines clearly. Scared me in a couple of places on the M8 out of Cork as there was lots of traffic.
Same thing happened in a Tucsan hire car recently on the A3 in London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoZNR3dCuEs

samih

samih wrote: »

Great writeup. FYI: The space in the engine bay allows the front to deform and stuff to move about without affecting the body shell in a bad crash. And there has to be plenty of space between the bonnet and any components for pedestrian safety also.

thanks !

What about my i3 then ? not a lot of room under the bonnet everything is well packed together but I suppose to be fair it's designed from the ground up to be ev, the Kona is also ICE so suppose like the Leaf it's a lot to do with production costs.

unkel

Deleted User wrote: »

So if Bjorn experienced the same you'll believe me then ? look at the video .

Video isn't working. Mind to fix the link?

unkel

Deleted User wrote: »

What about my i3 then ? not a lot of room under the bonnet everything is well packed together but I suppose to be fair it's designed from the ground up to be ev, the Kona is also ICE so suppose like the Leaf it's a lot to do with production costs.

i3 only has 4 stars in Euro NCAP. Ioniq and Kona have 5 stars. Might be related?

krissovo

krissovo wrote: »

This video shows what I experienced when I test drove, you can see the lane lines clearly. Scared me in a couple of places on the M8 out of Cork as there was lots of traffic.
Same thing happened in a Tucsan hire car recently on the A3 in London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoZNR3dCuEs

Hallelujah someone else believes me.

Don't get me wrong, I've had a few close calls coming home from night shifts and this system could prevent an accident, that's it's intended purpose, a driving aid not driver replacement.

amcalester

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Hallelujah someone else believes me.

Don't get me wrong, I've had a few close calls coming home from night shifts and this system could prevent an accident, that's it's intended purpose, a driving aid not driver replacement.

I did a couple 100kms in a Kona and experienced it too.

I’ve never used LKA before so I was pretty confused by it at first, in the end I just turned it off.