First Kona excursion out of town

Did about 400 kms yesterday out to Othello Tunnels (near Hope) and Lightning Lakes (in Manning Park). Was a beautiful day for both a drive and a little hiking in the mountains. Car performed well, and no problem charging (fast DC) along the way.

First stop was at the Hope BC Hydro fast charger, for a bathroom break, and grabbed a few kWhs. No one else there, so no wait. Just a half block away, saw another Kona charging at a Sun Country L2 charger. Not sure why, when the fast charger was available. Went on to do the Othello Tunnels hike. Great place to visit if you haven't been there, very scenic with the canyons and mountain streams. Hope is also where they filmed a lot of the Rambo scenes with SS.

Next hwy stop was at the Hope Slide for another break, and enjoy the viewpoints. Two DC chargers and one L2 there, none in use. Then on to Manning Park where we had a late lunch at the resort, and topped it up to 80% at the fast charger. It was in use (by another Kona), and had to wait about 10 min for him to finish. And there was an Ioniq lined up after us. But still allowed lots of time before we finished lunch to complete our charge.

Then we did some hiking at the Lightning Lakes, lots to do and explore there, so will have to come back. On trip back, stopped at Hope Slide again, but we still had 79% (mostly downhill). Again, nobody else there. It is a fairly new installation, and I noticed that BC Hydro and ChargeHub do not yet list it (PlugShare does), so chances are many don't know about it.

Then at Hope stopped for another break and some ice cream. Topped up (to 80%) at the fast charger, and again was surprised to see another Kona at the L2 charger down the street. Then back to the freeway for the final leg home.

One thing I noticed is the lack of Leafs, I3s and Kia Souls, which are very plentiful back in the city. I guess with their shorter range, they don't venture out very far. Only saw Teslas (at their Super Chargers), Konas and an Ioniq.

Had a chance to use the Smart Cruise Control and other Driver Assist features a little more. I set the SCC to the shortest distance and left the SSC Reaction setting to the default Normal. I found that it slowed down OK with the car ahead, but was too slow to speed up, allowing lane jumpers to cut in front. I am going to change the Reaction setting to Fast to see if that works better. My other car's ACC (SCC equivalent) is much more precise with speeds, following distance and reaction times. And I don't have to use the most aggressive settings. As a result, another car very rarely squeezes in front during stop and go traffic, and the ride is less stressful with just letting the car do its thing. So I am going to play with the Kona's SSC a little more, to see if can be more useful in heavy traffic. It works just fine on the open road, though.

The other thing I was not too happy with was LKA Active mode. This is supposed to keep you in the center of the lane. Works OK on a straight road, but not in the mountains with all the curves. I was constantly over riding it, because it would not stay in the center around a curve. It was easier to shut off the Active, and just use the LKA which warns and nudges you only when you near the edges of the lanes.

As for range, because I topped up more frequently and never let it get down too far, never really got a good handle on how accurate our GOM is. Obviously driving up the mountains used up a lot more range, while going down did a lot of regen. And I was going pretty fast most of the time (110 - 120 kph). Had to watch the corners though, as I notice the Kona is not as stable at higher speeds around corners, if there is any uneven pavement.

But overall, very happy with the car and had a very enjoyable outing. Nothing beats a free drive,... haha. This trip would have cost us about $50 in gas with our other ICE car.

 

Yup, first time in a long while that I didn't stop in at the Abbotsford Costco (cheapest gas in Lower Mainland) on the way home. And yes, that 15 - 30 min line-up was never fun...

 

Yup, sadly, I think you are so right. Best we can hope for (selfishly) is that EVs don't take off for whatever reason, cost, subsidies cut, battery shortage, etc.

So in the meantime, just have to enjoy it while it lasts...

 

Theoretically, yes, if I started with a 100% charge (I didn't). However, didn't want any range anxiety with the first time out. I also wanted to test the DC fast chargers along the route, and how busy they were.

Yeah, it was definitely a nice feeling to do that whole trip free. We are definitely driving more and doing trips that previously might not have done with an ICE car.

 

Went to Whistler yesterday, with a few side excursions along the way back (just over 400 kms total for the trip). Left Langley (Murrayville) with 93% charge. Stopped in to the Whistler Village conf centre lot with 55% charge left (uphill journey leg), and charged it up to 80% on the DC fast charger (free) while we had lunch there. Parking was a whopping $1.00.

On the way home stopped at Horseshoe Bay to see if we could get a top up there on the fast charger, but one car charging (i3) and another waiting (Leaf), so we continued on. Still had 32% left (about 150 kms) when we got home.

So based on that, I am quite sure I could have made the return trip without a charge (esp if I didn't do the side excursions). That is better than my son's Tesla M3 (extended range version) and he lives closer (Fraser Heights in Surrey).He always tops up at the Tesla SuperCharger (not free for M3s) in Squamish on the way back.

Most of my trip was 100 - 120 kph most of the way. So I was certainly not hypermiling. Tried using ACC, but again did not work well on the winding Sea to Sky mountain hwy. So just drove in my usual ECO mode. A little disappointed with that, as my other car's ACC works very well on that same road. But I certainly do enjoy the free ride with not having to pay for a charge anywhere.