My challenges as a Hyundai Kona Electric owner

As much as Hyundai and Kia are pioneers in EVs, stepping out where others will not, I am sad for owners who bought into the unknown of an electric future and then faced so many safety problems. Im sure the company is internally reeling.

 

Seems like you have been through a lot... and I believe we had experienced some of those transitional hardship in one way or another. The concept of "Change" is always hard on a lot of people. But change is necessary in lot of situations that most of us should just deal with. I always see my move to EV world as a journey. The initial steps are hard and the road ahead can be bumpy. but there are also rewards along the way that keeps me in a positive side, and there seems to be a brighter future ahead with owning an EV at this time.

to my understanding, This battery situation is beyond Hyundai and I believe they are doing their very best and in to great lengths to fix the issues in the best way regardless of the big cost to them (offering to replace the entire battery). I have nothing against them at this time as I patiently wait for my turn to get my new battery. Kona EV is not the perfect EV but it is still one of the Best EV available in the market.

 

Look Mom. I can write. Look everyone, here's this thing I wrote. I don't care one tiny bit about anything you wrote so I'll just barge in and drop this turd of a non-sequitur on the table.

 

What's he complaining about? He hasn't even had to change his reduction drive and motor yet...

 

It seems odd that the OP titles this thread my electric lemon yet it appears one of his biggest concerns is poor corporate/dealer communication and an unreliable charging infrastructure that obviously Hyundai had little impact over when he purchased the car. He really needs to direct his ire at French authorities who typically have more power in influencing infrastructure policies even if its on private business level. Based on what the author of the article described he has a poor understanding of what a lemon is. Besides a visit to a dealer for the BMS update sounds like he has had zero service or reliability issues.

I will concur that Hyundai could do much to improve their communication skills on both a corporate and dealer level. I believe the corporate response has always been minimalized, guarded and generally skewed with an anti liability bias and at best has been a tad disingenuous. There is no doubt in my mind that one of the biggest historical financial recalls may have been delayed and minimalized indefinitely(i.e. see Tesla and GMs burning EV responses) if wasn't for influence of the South Korean regulators. To be clear Hyundai/LG are not dropping over a billion dollars of profits out of altruism or appreciation of their customers, Lol.

I personally think the engineering and manufacturing efforts to make the Kona EV is really quite remarkable. Despite my reliability concerns around things like vehicle bricking software updates, failing 12V batteries and motor bearing failures the car has been pretty amazing. The fire thing is not insignificant but likely low but yeah Hyundai corporate really does suck. That said I am afraid under similar circumstances most the other manufacturers would have acted similarly or worse.

 

^^^^
What a well reasoned response looks like.

 

He calls his car a lemon but hasn't experienced a single fault with it.
Instead he has issues with his home wiring and that a single network in France shutdown for a while. Then he moves on to the battery recall. Saying Konas "all over the globe" were bursting into flame. Yes, one car with a battery fault is one too many. But as I understand it the total number of fires is 14 out of over 80,000 vehicles manufactured during the period in question. Then he says that he can only drive within the range of the car. Totally ignoring that the original network is now active again and there are plenty of others to use in France anyway. Just doesn't sound like a balanced or reasonable view.

 

No, I'm in Spain. You might think your Kona has software problems, but strangely, mine is fine? Who would have thought eh? I'm actually in Spain but I think most people know there's more than just one charging network in France.

 

I’m approaching 45k kilometres on my Kona and it’s driven like a charm. I love driving it.

I haven’t been super thrilled by what seems like quarterly software updates. I also don’t like that my local Hyundai service desk is never able to explain to me what the recall updates do, beyond the canned Hyundai gobblygook which I am capable of reading myself. I also find communications from Hyundai Canada to be poor.

But the car? I love the car. I almost never drive my gas truck anymore. My Kona driving experience is great. Lemon? No way!

 

That pretty much sums up my mindset, along with Apu's note above about how other manufacturers might have handled things.

Personally I still love the car, it's wonderful to drive. My local dealer has been great, but they do have limitations especially since I think I'm the only Kona Electric they've ever seen. Corporate Hyundai is in a tough place right now, if the main fault lies with LG Chem (and I think it likely does) it's still Hyundai's name on the car and nobody is taking their car to LG Chem to have the battery replaced, Hyundai has to do it all. Logistics are hard. I'm giving them some time and space but I do obviously expect the issues to be resolved in a reasonable time and with a solid fix, nothing half assed. I remain open minded about the whole thing and probably will continue to as long as it doesn't burst into flame

 

I even bought a used small 4WD to remind myself of what ICE ownership and maintenance was really like. It's been an eye-opener. Spilt gear oil all over the driveway and $100 tanks of gas that cover the same range as the Kona. No thanks ...

 

Yikes people, take a deep breath. It’s okay to have different experiences and we can respect one another’s experiences. Obviously some of us are very pleased and others see issues that either don’t present or aren’t an issue to us. This is only an internet chat forum. Nobody here is running for parliament or recruiting a troll army.

 

What I find most amazing is the extreme reactions some people have to what I call little problems. A problem is only big if there is no solution and it is going to cost a lot of money. That is not the case with these recalls. Even the opposite, as my car will essentially be like new with the replacement battery.

Geez, how do they manage the normal challenges of life??...

 

Some problems are harder for others to deal with.

Thanks to COVID, each recall means bringing the car to a dealership and leaving there all day (I'm not sitting in the tiny lobby for hours with people and their chin diapers). The dealership does not give me a loaner. This means my wife has to also take time out of her day to come get me when I drop the car off. And he has to bring our two kids. One of my kids gets car-sick very easily. So I may have to clean up puke when we get home. Then, at the end of the day, the four of us have to drive back to the dealership so I can get the car. And then drive home. And possibly clean up puke again.

This isn't helped by the fact that the recalls haven't actually fixed the problem, and now we need to wait for the _actual_ solution.... at some point.

In the meantime, the resale value of the car has plummeted, so my options of trading up to a larger car for my family are diminished.

I agree that there is a lot of whining about some of these issues, but please be careful in just brushing them away as "no big deal" since fixes are (supposedly) coming at some point.

 

First off, get an electrician before you burn your house down. That's your fault not Hyundai's.
All electric car fires are dangerous and possibly take 100,000 litres to put out.