Efficiency comparison, Kona vs. Tesla Model Y

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FloridaSun

FloridaSun

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I've driven over 300 miles with the Model Y and it does not come close to the Kona's efficiency.. Without AC, the Tesla holds it's own.. Best I got around town in my daily routine with the Model Y with the AC off was 196 Wh/mile which translates to about 5.1 miles/kwh.. This is in no way bad for a car of it's size BUT, the moment you turn the AC on in the hot Florida climate, the consumption shoots up. With the AC running, I'm getting closer to 280 Wh/mile with the Model Y around town which is just 3.57 mi/kwh.. The AC is sucking up a lot of power on the Tesla. It's most likely due to the much larger interior space that it needs to cool as also due to the glass roof.. I may get the roof shade and have my front windows tinted. Maybe that will reduce AC consumption.. With the Kona, I still get about 5.0 - 5.2 mi/kwh around town with the AC on..
 
The M3 isn't much better. My son avoids having it on during trips for that very reason.
 
R P said:
The M3 isn't much better. My son avoids having it on during trips for that very reason.
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Up north, you don't need the AC as much as you do here in Florida.. After like 11 am, you got to be suicidal to drive without AC when the temperature rises in to the 90's and the humidity is high.. It also seems that battery cooling on the Tesla comes on frequently.. On the Kona, I barely ever saw the battery cooling come on when not charging.
 
BlueKonaEV said:
Up north, you don't need the AC as much as you do here in Florida.. After like 11 am, you got to be suicidal to drive without AC when the temperature rises in to the 90's and the humidity is high.. It also seems that battery cooling on the Tesla comes on frequently.. On the Kona, I barely ever saw the battery cooling come on when not charging.
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Yeah, except in summer, it gets pretty hot here, too. You would be surprised. 90's is pretty common here, esp in the interior. Remember BC is the hottest place in Canada, both summer and in winter.

Yesterday I was at our lake cabin. It was 32C (90 F) there. Lytton (just 25 miles from there) was 34 C and is tied with Osoyoos BC as the hottest place in the country. And we are not into July and August yet, which are the hottest months (temps are into the high 30s and sometimes hit low 40s (>100F). Much of the BC interior here is quite hot all summer (long days). So, yeah, we couldn't live without A/C here either.
 
R P said:
Yeah, except in summer, it gets pretty hot here, too. You would be surprised. 90's is pretty common here, esp in the interior. Remember BC is the hottest place in Canada, both summer and in winter.

Yesterday I was at our lake cabin. It was 32C (90 F) there. Lytton (just 25 miles from there) was 34 C and is tied with Osoyoos BC as the hottest place in the country. And we are not into July and August yet, which are the hottest months (temps are into the high 30s and sometimes hit low 40s (>100F). Much of the BC interior here is quite hot all summer (long days). So, yeah, we couldn't live without A/C here either.
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I know the area pretty well.. Have been to British Columbia many times. I usually go late September/early October.. We did see quite warm temps near Kelowna, even early October.. Vancouver was usually in the 50's, 10 - 15C or so...
 
Temp efficiency Mod Y.webp
Your results are about the same for our Model Y. This is actual efficiency of our Model Y since it was new. Your Kona consumption is higher than ours. We are getting just under 5 miles/kwh regularly. We always use the air conditioning because of noise.

If you want to track your Model Y's efficiency, I would suggest signing up with Teslafi.com. It collects all data (from the car) on your drives, charges, trips and efficiency. Here is an example chart of efficiency vs Temp from my data. This is not a free site. It is amazing that I can collect this data on my car. There is a trial period if your interested.
 
BlueKonaEV said:
I know the area pretty well.. Have been to British Columbia many times. I usually go late September/early October.. We did see quite warm temps near Kelowna, even early October.. Vancouver was usually in the 50's, 10 - 15C or so...
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Weather in Vancouver itself is very local. Official temps are taken at the airport which is right on the ocean, very misleading. A few miles inland it is much warmer. But yeah, interior is downright hot in the summer. And when we get an outflow (summer high pressure system), the canyons are esp hot, like Harrison Lake (where our cabin is) and the Fraser Canyon (Lytton, Kamloops). But we also get mild winters, don't get a lot of below freezing temps. And not a lot of snow, just a few flakes and dusting a couple times this year. We laugh, when we see southern places like Texas, and even northern Florida get hit sometimes in the winter, way worse than here.
 
R P said:
Yeah, except in summer, it gets pretty hot here, too. You would be surprised. 90's is pretty common here, esp in the interior. Remember BC is the hottest place in Canada, both summer and in winter.

Yesterday I was at our lake cabin. It was 32C (90 F) there. Lytton (just 25 miles from there) was 34 C and is tied with Osoyoos BC as the hottest place in the country. And we are not into July and August yet, which are the hottest months (temps are into the high 30s and sometimes hit low 40s (>100F). Much of the BC interior here is quite hot all summer (long days). So, yeah, we couldn't live without A/C here either.
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Did not realize there are places in Canada that gets that hot, hot here in Sudbury is 35C.

Guessing when it is past 90F or 40C any car with air conditioning will have hard time ( both ICE and EV ) as my last Ford Mustang GT took about 15 minutes to cool down car in middle of the day in summer

Dan


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
GeorgeS said:
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Your results are about the same for our Model Y. This is actual efficiency of our Model Y since it was new. Your Kona consumption is higher than ours. We are getting just under 5 miles/kwh regularly. We always use the air conditioning because of noise.

If you want to track your Model Y's efficiency, I would suggest signing up with Teslafi.com. It collects all data (from the car) on your drives, charges, trips and efficiency. Here is an example chart of efficiency vs Temp from my data. This is not a free site. It is amazing that I can collect this data on my car. There is a trial period if your interested.
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I don't use heat or AC for most of the year and around town I get 5.7 miles/kwh with the AC OFF and about 5.0 - 5.2 miles/kwh with the AC on with the Kona. On the highway, I get about 3.8 - 3.9 miles/kwh with the AC off at about 70 mph. WIth the AC on, about 3.7 mi/kwh..
I don't have a lot of highway miles on the Model Y yet, so I don't have good numbers yet.
 
Range might be higher on other cars with bigger batteries, but honestly, it's going to be hard to beat the Kona for mi/kwh. Even the new Ioniq 5 won't be able to touch it, especially the dual-motor version.
 
Jamas said:
Range might be higher on other cars with bigger batteries, but honestly, it's going to be hard to beat the Kona for mi/kwh. Even the new Ioniq 5 won't be able to touch it, especially the dual-motor version.
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Ya, I'm kind of disappointed about how the latest generation of cars with bigger batteries are pissing away efficiency gains for AWD and larger tires. Style over substance.
 
Wildeyed said:
Ya, I'm kind of disappointed about how the latest generation of cars with bigger batteries are pissing away efficiency gains for AWD and larger tires. Style over substance.
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Nothing new about that. After the Prius demonstrated that hybrid technology could yield 50 MPG, a lot of manufacturers used it to add more power with minimal efficiency gain. Oh, and hybrid badging.

But if tires, features and AWD are what it takes to get people out of their ICE SUVs and into an EV, let's not fight the marketplace. Geeks and techies may lead the revolution but we aren't going to win it alone.
 
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Jamas said:
Range might be higher on other cars with bigger batteries, but honestly, it's going to be hard to beat the Kona for mi/kwh. Even the new Ioniq 5 won't be able to touch it, especially the dual-motor version.
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The Kona is a masterpiece when it comes to efficiency.. However, the Y is also incredibly efficient. No competitor in similar size comes anywhere close to the efficiency of the Y. E-tron, Mach E or I-Pace use significantly more power at similar size.. Despite being more efficient, the Y is quicker than it's competitors. The Kona really isn't in the same category as it's a sub-compact SUV while the others are mid-size SUV's...Size difference is significant.
 
Just to clarify.. I do think that the EPA estimate for the Y is accurate if it does NOT include AC/Heater use.

I get about 5.0 mi/kwh around town and I would assume that I'll get about 3.5 mi/kwh at 70 mph (no real life numbers), so a combined consumption of 4.5 mi/kwh is realistic. At 77.8 kwh available capacity from the battery, this would be around 350 mile range based on my driving style.. However, this is with the AC off.. AC on is MUCH worse.. That glass roof really heats up the interior..
 
BTW - learned from the Tesla forum that Teslas do not have any top end buffer, just at the bottom.. Their battery Voltage stays consistent as the pack degrades and range consistently decreases as the pack degrades unlike the Kona. The 4.5% buffer is at the bottom end and can be used, so it's not a true buffer.. Once you hit 0%, you still have those 4.5% available
 
BlueKonaEV said:
AC on is MUCH worse.. That glass roof really heats up the interior..
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That was a big minus for me with the Mach-E. Most trim lines have a huge uncovered non-opening glass roof that gets too hot to touch. I would have to get an aftermarket cover if I bought one.

BlueKonaEV said:
BTW - learned from the Tesla forum that Teslas do not have any top end buffer, just at the bottom.. Their battery Voltage stays consistent as the pack degrades and range consistently decreases as the pack degrades unlike the Kona. The 4.5% buffer is at the bottom end and can be used, so it's not a true buffer.. Once you hit 0%, you still have those 4.5% available
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Tesla in general is unusually trusting of technology and its customers. Kind of like Android vs. iPhone.

Kona engineering doesn't seem to be that trusting of, or even interested in, their customers. (I speak as one who has done for my Kona repeatedly draining its 12v battery what Darnella Frazier did for George Floyd, only to have a Kona corporate tech note that my carefully recorded "graph(s) provided by customer are normal operation." But I digress.)
 
Toolworker said:
That was a big minus for me with the Mach-E. Most trim lines have a huge uncovered non-opening glass roof that gets too hot to touch. I would have to get an aftermarket cover if I bought one.

Tesla in general is unusually trusting of technology and its customers. Kind of like Android vs. iPhone.

Kona engineering doesn't seem to be that trusting of, or even interested in, their customers. (I speak as one who has done for my Kona repeatedly draining its 12v battery what Darnella Frazier did for George Floyd, only to have a Kona corporate tech note that my carefully recorded "graph(s) provided by customer are normal operation." But I digress.)
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I ordered a double roof cover (total black out) from China via Ebay for $49.95.. Will take a couple weeks to arrive.. Tesla recommends charging 90% max unless you need the range for a road trip.. There is no regen at 100%, so the battery is really 100% full at that point. They also recommend not to drop charge below 20% if possible.
 
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