Things to know when picking up our Kona Electric

Oh, and don't forget to sign up and get your RFID cards (Greenlots, ChargePoint, etc) to start the charging sessions. You can start them with a phone call at the station, worst case. But the little cards are so much more convenient.

 

That's a good way of thinking about it. Stopping more often is the safe bet. It will just kill me a bit inside to stop so much!

When we drive to Kelowna in a ICE vehicle we usually stop for food in Hope and then again in Merrit if my wife has to pee. So we would definitely stop in those two places.

It's a little range anxiety, but mostly just not knowing how far the car can go with me driving. Also with hills, colder weather and 120km speed limit who knows!

Oh ya. Didn't think about chargers not working or are busy. That's a good point.

I've checked abetterrouteplanner and it says I should only need to stop once. But it also has me getting home with 10% charge left which seems a bit low for me on the first trip. Hoping that 2 charges are enough.

OH! Definitely didn't think of that. Will do that. I guess I will have to see what all the charging stations are on the way so I register with them all.

 

Got our pickup time and date of feb 22nd. Sooner than I thought it would be. Now hopefully they don't try to change the price we agreed to when we go in and sign everything.

So let me know if I have this right.
For trip planning and finding charging stations there is plugshare and abetterrouteplanner
For charging I will need apps for: charpoint(seems lower mainland only), Flo, Greenlots, BC hydro app

That seems like a crazy amount of apps for a car... Plus the bluelink that you can use for the car itself.

 

For apps, all I use are ChargePoint, Greenlots and FLO. And only have ChargePoint and Greenlots RFIDs. BC Hydro uses Greenlots. ChargePoint also covers others. Anyway, these are the only ones I have needed in BC.

 

Would you be kind enough to give me the size and make of the spare wheel. I live in England and as yet haven’t been able to track one down. If I can go with correct size, make and reference number I could hopefully get a spare wheel ordered. Thank you very much. Jean

 

Jean, I got it off ebay, a 17 inch spare wheel take off from a late model Hyundai Azera 2018-2020 with 135/90/17 rubber(135/80/17 will work as well). My wife has the car right now and I am not sure of the tire maker, its either goodyear or continental.

 

Could you please share on how you secure your spare tyre, i.e. to prevent it from moving vertically when driving over a road hump.

 

Here is a link to a thread that has information on tire size on the second page of the thread. https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/has-anyone-else-tried-to-put-a-spare-tire-under-the-hood.7607/page-2

Checkout post # 25 it says the tire is
a 17 inch spare wheel from a late model Hyundai Azera with 135/90/17 rubber.

 

Thanks for pointing out to that thread but I was actually asking how apu prevented his spare wheel from moving around in the spare wheel well, potentially making a lot of noise while the car is moving. Sorry if my earlier post was not clear.

 

Thank you for your prompt reply, it is very much appreciated.

 

I don't having any securing devices or straps at this time. I have lined the wheel well with my car stock floor mats that I removed to install my all weather mats and the wheel is still partially retained by the wheel well sheet metal indentation, between that and gravity I have found no appreciable noise or shifting in the past 4000 km.

 

While apu's solution seems adequate, I don't trust ebay as a reliable source
that I'd be willing to point other people toward. In the meantime, I've found
another source which seems to be tackling the "no spare tire" problem
head-on, and in a fairly elegant way. It's all detailed in a new "donut" page
under my EV tree, and the people behind the better source are busy but
seem to know their stuff.

Tl;dr is: specialized 18" rim, with a reasonable slim tire mounted. Fits in
the under-floor area with a little creative padding. Optionally comes with
well-engineered tools, but I already had that stuff.

_H*

 

No need for ebay the 17 inch spare steel wheel is available at any Hyundai dealer Hyundai part no: 52910-2M910( at least in the US). Ebay just happens to be much cheaper.

 

Alright. We picked up our Kona in Coquitlam yesterday and drove it all the way back here to Kelowna. We ended up taking hwy 1 instead of the coquihalla to avoid the snow.

The trip was good for the most part. Adaptive cruise control is awesome! We stopped in hope, cache Creek and Kamloops.

Our first mistake was not checking if fast chargers were open in Kamloops. We assumed they would be like the ones in cache Creek and hope. But the only ones open were paid and my wife didn't want to pay... So we stopped for a bit at a level2 and charged just long enough to get home.

The last hour and a half of the drive was driving slow without any climate on... Very cold! We meant to stop in Vernon, but when we did the charge door wouldn't open. Turns out you have lock and unlock the car with they key-fob and then it will open. Very weird we didn't have to do this all the time. Made for a bit of a stressful drive home for the last little bit.

Other than that car was great.

 

Good first introduction to your Kona. Yeah, lots to learn and a few surprises sometimes along the way. We had a great week of weather, but of course the day you want to drive home it had to turn.

Unlike with your ICE car, taking a trip in an EV requires a bit of planning. Plugshare is your friend. And be aware of which charging stations are free and which are not. After a few trips though, you will be well aware, and not have to think about it too much.

Enjoy your new car!

 

I bought a little blanket off of Amazon that has a heater built in - you plug it into a cigarette lighter socket. I am hoping that that will make long drives with the heat off more tolerable (even without plugging the thing in, it ought to help). In reality that's the sort of thing that lots of people should probably have in their trunk if they are driving in cold conditions.

I bought a tire-plug kit, so if I ever have a flat that I can plug the tire myself. Don't know if I will ever need it, but if if I get a flat I would like an option other than calling for a tow truck.

The charge door thing took a while for me to get used to - I always hit the unlock button twice so it unlocks front and back doors of the car, and that always seems to also unlock the charge door and/or the charge cable. It took me a little while to get used to this - the first time or two I tried to charge, I hadn't quite worked out what it took to get it all unlocked, and it was kind of frustrating.

 

You can use the door unlock as well, but remember you just have 15 secs before it locks up again. And agree with the plug tire kit, have always had that in a car for 20 years or more ago. Saved me a few times...

 

We have plugshare. Our screw up was just going oh ya there's a bunch there we will be fine. When in reality 2 were at dealerships and only open during business hours and the other two were paid. I also didn't intend for my wife to be so against paying for a charger.

Good call with the heating blanket and patch kit. We have a heating blanket we can use in the car. We don't have a patch kit. Definitely something for us to look for next weekend.

Still working on when we need to lock/unlock the car to get to the charge port.

 

Congrats on the new car! Did the dealership stick to the price and have it fully charged and lights adjusted properly for you?!! I did the drive from Burnaby to Kelowna in June, didn't know what to expect and the hills and speed really take a chunk out of the range! Luckily I only had to stop once and charge up to 80%.
On the way back, there is one fast charger in West Kelowna, but I decided to forgo that one to see if I could make it further. I made it up to Merritt and paid for fast charging while having a coffee and exploring a city I haven't been to in ages. I'd still rather pay for charging then having to keep the heat off!! Good thing with fast chargers is you don't need to charge for too long! When you do use a Fast Charger, most people only charge to 80%. The charge rate slows down past this and as common courtesy!