[Intranicity]

So, I’ve had the car nearly a week now, I think I’ve finally got to the end of the manual and all the options and really getting a hang of driving EV’s, so here’s my verdict so far:

Good
The car is really easy to drive, very comfortable and easy to get a great driving position, handles well, very little body roll and does a reasonable job over pot holes.

The Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) is really cool, love how it tracks vehicles in front, you have to watch their speed though as it’s so quiet, you don’t always realise that you’ve adopted their speed, on dual carriageways and motorway, just move into the next lane and it resumes the speed

Hidden in the menus is an Autorecuperate function, this is an awesome idea, basically, you don’t worry about regeneration, and leave the car to do it. It works similar to the ACC, but instead of controlling the speed, it controls the braking, a small box on the dash starts white, but when it picks up a car in front, turns blue, if that car brakes or slows down, and you’re in range, the car automatically applies regenerative braking and slows you, the car moves away and the braking stops, but if the car carries on breaking, it will gently apply more breaking, it works and saves wasted energy. You can also just about forget the foot brake, holding back the left flappy padel applies the regen braking and you can come to a complete stop with that.

Performance is stunning, 0-60 in 6.3 sec, mid range pickup for overtaking is better than my old BMW (190bhp, 400lb Torque, 4WD Automatic), starts tailing off over 80, but just to see what the car could get to, I did hit 109mph, but that’s really not the point of EV’s as the economy is killed by a heavy, even if enjoyable right foot.

The In car entertainment system is really easy to use and intuitive, the iDrive in the BMW was easier though, most functions are reached through physical buttons, so reduces time hunting in menus, The Krell stereo (Well 8 speakers not 2) is really good, loads of base and really well balanced, a vast improvement on the basic BMW set up. The Sat Nav is also good, and I love that the directions are projected up on the HUD.

Reversing camera works well, could be higher definition if I’m being picky, but makes reversing a breeze.

Aircon is also controlled with physical buttons and dials and works really well, mainly have it off or on driver only, the heated seats are great, with 3 heat settings (and 3 stages of cooling for the summer), the heated steering wheel though is either on or off and can get too hot!

BlueLink app seems to work well, great to be able to sit in the flat, find where I’m going, send the route straight to the car.  Can check the battery is charging while you’re out, and what range you have available.  Also gives you the ability to lock/unlock the car, and best of all start the car warming itself up/defrosting the car.  I thought that the car had to be plugged into the mains for this function, but no, it works even when not on charge.

LED headlights are really powerful, and the auto hi beam is really quick to function. The car also has extra lights that turn on to illuminate the edges of the road when you are turning.

Hyundai supply both a Type 2 cable and a Granny Charger as standard

Bad/Not so good
Still missing the firm clunk of the doors closing

I’ve turned off the lane keeping assistant, it’s just too sensitive

You need to wipe the ACC sensor clean every few days in this weather or it won’t work

Regen can be confusing to work out the best one to be in, but see Autorecuperate above
Shame some of the functions (Auto hold mainly) have to be reselected every time you turn the car off

Shame Apple Car Play need you to connect via a cable, I have one of the big phones, and that still fits in the QI charging slot, but not with a cable on, although it still charges as the cable provides that

No car mats, just ordered some online

Plastics inside are not up to BMW standards, but theres nothing wrong with them

Costs of driving
I can’t have a home charger, so forced to use public chargers, which potentially, can be much more expensive (Ionity chargers are 69p kWh but super fast).  My initial calculations were based on an average of 15p kWh, as long as I don’t pay more than 55p kWh, the car would be cheaper than my old one (Based on the current price of diesel at £1.26 ltr and 51.6mpg)

I’m amazed how many chargers are free, in fact, there is a free 50kWh charger 10 miles away, so far, I’ve covered 842miles, still have 226 miles in the battery and that has cost me…£15.88, less than 1.5p a mile

Verdict so far
It’s the most fun driving I’ve had in years, probably only beaten by track days at Silverstone or driving Scimiter AFV’s in the military.

Range anxiety hasn’t been an issue, even the cold snap we had a few days ago, I could have covered 260 miles without charging.  I think the difference is I’d run an ICE till it was nearly empty, now, if there’s a chance to charge, especially if it’s free, I plug it in.

Would I go back to an ICE, NEVER, but If I could afford it and had the space, I’d still love a TVR for those few summer days when you could enjoy it.

 

 

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

Topic

[Speedy James]

Great write up and interesting read. Thank you.

[Wigwam]

Quite impressive, Intranicity.  Where are these free fast chargers? Certainly not anywhere round here.

[Intranicity]

Wigwam wrote:

Quite impressive, Intranicity. Where are these free fast chargers? Certainly not anywhere round here.

Tesco, Waitrose, Aldi, pubs quiet often, Wiltshire County Council provided in the case of the 50kW charger.  I know Yorkshire has a load being installed currently that are free until the end of the year, Scotland too has free chargers I believe.

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

[Wigwam]

Hmm, I’m aware of the Scottish free chargers paid for by English taxpayers…

I didn’t know there were free high speed chargers in England. Thanks

[Intranicity]

Wigwam wrote:

Hmm, I’m aware of the Scottish free chargers paid for by English taxpayers… I didn’t know there were free high speed chargers in England. Thanks

No good to me, but these are the West Yorkshire ones, but seems lots of councils are or have put some in

https://ev.engie.co.uk/wyca.html

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

[Dante]

Great write up & real life perspective – I’m very keen to get a EV but had charging / range anxiety – also as I rent privately, my landlord won’t allow a charger to be installed at the house. But I’ll investigate further and look at where the public chargers are and any free ones to use – I know there are several in my town centre but not free & the new nearest Aldi to me has 2

thanks for the update much appreciated

[Mike Cooper]

Hi Intranicity

Do you get the necessary charging leads to use at charging stations for free,or you have to purchase them on top?

[Intranicity]

Mike Cooper wrote:

Hi Intranicity Do you get the necessary charging leads to use at charging stations for free,or you have to purchase them on top?

Hi speed DC chargers have built in cables, the car though comes with a type 2 cable for AC chargers and a Granny charger for 13amp plugs as standard

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

[gothitjulie]

https://www.zap-map.com/live/ will help anyone looking for a free charger, as of 12 hours ago the new Ionity chargers at Beaconsfield Services on the M40 were still free, although capped at 150kW, which isn’t a problem when your cars can’t charge that fast. New charger installations tend to be free for a while, some for a week, Ionity maybe 6 weeks in some cases. Some chargers are subsidised by councils (Glasgow are about to start taking payment for theirs so they don’t stay free forever (Glasgow 7kW 16p/kWh, 50kW 20p/kWh so not unreasonable).

Intranicity, a great write-up, & I’m glad you managed to make good use of that private road to test the car on thoroughly. It seems that once we drive these EVs we can’t imagine returning to the fossils, I think it’s the way the EVs accelerate, it’s horribly addictive simply dropping it into sports mode just before a roundabout & simply powering out & ending up at least 5 cars ahead of where you were, no gear changes, just relentless acceleration.

 

As an aside, Nissan juts dropped the price of the Leaf 62kWh e+ Tekna to £32,445, a drop of £5265 to bring it under that £35k cap for the EV grant, I’m hoping that the other EV manufacturers will also drop their prices & keep their EVs on the scheme.

 

[Rhodgie]

Wigwam wrote:

Hmm, I’m aware of the Scottish free chargers paid for by English taxpayers…

Getting a bit off topic here but I’m not having that… especially when it has been us Scots funding the english for years through our oil… ?

If it is such a hardship get onto your local MP and demand the break up of the union so that england will be better off financially not having to pay for us…  have you ever heard an english MP support our independence attempts… NO, and that’s because they know they couldn’t afford to let us go!

They wanted out of Europe because didn’t like being dictated to by a foreign government but quite happy to do it to us ???

Rant over

[Rhodgie]

Intranicity great write up and its a great car… it was the one I really wanted but wasn’t available when I was ordering ?

I went for the MG5 which is really good and I’m enjoying but as I do about 20k a year the extra range of the Hyundai would have been nice ?

[Richard]

Don’t think there’s any need for rants like that.

Scotland paid off all Britain’s WW2 debts with that North Sea oil.

This is a disability forum not somewhere for rants along the lines of this it’s very distasteful, rude & xenophobic

[Intranicity]

gothitjulie wrote:

Intranicity, a great write-up, & I’m glad you managed to make good use of that private road to test the car on thoroughly. It seems that once we drive these EVs we can’t imagine returning to the fossils, I think it’s the way the EVs accelerate, it’s horribly addictive simply dropping it into sports mode just before a roundabout & simply powering out & ending up at least 5 cars ahead of where you were, no gear changes, just relentless acceleration. As an aside, Nissan juts dropped the price of the Leaf 62kWh e+ Tekna to £32,445, a drop of £5265 to bring it under that £35k cap for the EV grant, I’m hoping that the other EV manufacturers will also drop their prices & keep their EVs on the scheme.

One advantage of flying, I have access to an airfield, I’d not be trying those speeds on public roads 🙂

I think the biggest advantage I’ve noticed is the instant power, not even having to wait for kickdown to kick in, it is addictive!

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

[Dave W]

Great review – thanks for taking the time.

The range (I do a fair bit of long distance) and performance of this is a bit of a game changer for me and is changing my view of all electric.

I’m about to change car in a few weeks so am really hopeful that my next change in three years time there will be something  electric suitable for me.

[Mike Cooper]

Thanks Intranicity.Your experience with the Kona has opened my eyes to the possibility of running an ev without being able to have a home charging box.The 280 mile range would last me about 2 weeks so no different than fueling up at the petrol station really,but with the ability to top up at different places like you are doing,dependent on wherever you might visit.Will be looking into this further and exploring the possibilities now.Thanks again.

 

[Richard]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I contacted Gary at Lings re the Kona got a very friendly reply & he’s happy to arrange a decent test drive after the 12th. We are in North Norfolk so bit of a drive but I’ll go where I’m going to get good service.</p>
Going to visit wife’s family at same time who live in Lowestoft.

Going to phone Motability next see if they’ll help out with the AP as could really use the heated wheel, hud & electric seats but if they can’t will have to go with the Premium instead.

[Chub]

Thank you for the review it was great!!!
Especially for any one considering going electric. I’m waiting for mine and after reading your review I’ve got just that little bit more excited

[fwippers]

A detailed and informative review, and in many respects far better than those in magazines/online. Electric will be my preferred option next time, provided I can have a fast charger installed, which should be feasible. There is nothing in your report which would dissuade me from going electric. The only thing which concerns me are reports that we are having to dredge the oceans for the raw materials to produce the batteries, which is hardly green.

[Richard]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Many new batteries coming along soon, John B Goodenough (best name ever) & his lab are working on glass based batteries so no liquid electrolyte & no fire risk.</p>
There are also batteries that use sea water & no exotics at all.

[Stuart]

Glad your enjoying the addiction lol, i too top up when i see the words FREE, i mean imagine driving down the road in an ICE and seeing cans of petrol at the side of the road lol.

In the soul i turned the auto regen off as it became a bind after a while, instead i set the driver modes up individually, ECO i left as is, NORMAL i set the aircon and heat settings the same as ECO but set regen to 2 and in SPORT again set the heat and air con to eco but the regen to 3. Now i just use the drive mode button to flick between depending on the driving situation, you can always override using the paddles if needed.

I agree with the bad points you list, very similar with the Soul. I bought some really good quality mats from a guy in Sheffield who makes them to measure, they are fantastic and a perfect fit. And yes the lane keep assist is a pain in the @***

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Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate trim
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Loves 3D printing & Plastic model kits
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[Intranicity]

Out of interest, set up a spread sheet to track running costs, so far, my ‘MPG’ based on what I’ve spent on fuel compared to Diesel at £1.26 ltr, I’m currently getting 338mpg…

Previous Motability Cars
2006 - 2009 Skoda Superb VR6 2.0tdi
2009 - 2012 Citroen C5 2.0tdi VTR Nav
2012 - 2015 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci tekna
2015 - 2018 Ford Kuga 2.0tdi Titanium X
2018 - 2021 BMW 220d X drive 2 Series Active Luxury
2021 - 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric Premium SE
2023 - Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate

[Wigwam]

That’s a good way of looking at it, Intranicity.

[Oscarmax]

Intranicity wrote:

Out of interest, set up a spread sheet to track running costs, so far, my ‘MPG’ based on what I’ve spent on fuel compared to Diesel at £1.26 ltr, I’m currently getting 338mpg…

You are so sad, I thought it was just me I started a Excel spread sheet 9 months ago my average running cost over the last 4500 mile 106mpg, you are putting me to shame.

Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.

[Author]

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