We’re awaiting delivery, late July. Haven’t been this excited about a new car for ages
We were initially looking at an XC40, then a top of the range Corolla touring sport
Our current car is a Kuga 180ps 4wd. Now, we do stooooopid miles, the Kuga might just tip over to 100,000 miles before changeover.
We wanted a diesel (for the economy on long journeys) but don’t like many on the scheme atm.
The Volvo PHEV is an amazing car, easily my fave, but we were worried about economy on long journeys.
The Corolla was great, and we were about to place an order when “circumstances” dictated we pull our belts in sharply and suddenly, so we decided to test the e-Kona on a whim because of the AP. We hadn’t considered an EV before because of the range – we can easily do well over 1,000 miles some weeks and while that was 2 fill ups, 5 mins a piece in the Kuga, it might have meant 4-6 fill ups, at 45-60 minutes a piece, in an EV. Not how I want to spend a weekend.
But, needs must, we tried the Kona, and ******* loved it! 5 mins into the drive I was smiling. A couple of sprints in sport mode and we were giggling like silly teens. A cruise along the motorway, dual carriageway and around town, encountering some heavy traffic along the way and we were utterly sold. And despite covering about 40 miles and not driving it like an EV is supposed to be driven, arrived back at the dealer with about 280 miles of range left – the Konas range meter is supposed to be one of, if not the most, accurate out there.
We practically frogmarched the salesman to a desk and demanded he sign us up there and then.
I’ve been out in a number of other EVs since then, and as much as I love to hear the roar of a sporty engine, and being limited to owning / keeping just one car, I don’t want to touch an ICE car again.
Conservatively, we stand to save around £350-400 / month in fuel costs even after accounting for the increase in utility bills. The inconvenience of having to use public charge points just pales in to insignificance compared to that. Think of that…. £13,000 saved in fuel over 3 years.
Just counting the days. 4 weeks, 6 days, 20 hours to go….