New Generation Kona EV

When I had my Kona, and drove in snow and ice, it became obvious very quickly that regen was dangerous. Brakes will invoke regen. But regen will not invoke brakes and ABS, just pressing the brake pedal will. On ice, it doesn't take a lot of regen to make your front wheels lose grip. They don't need to lock up to slip and slide.

On the flat, you can get away with regen on snow and ice, as long as you are not too aggressive with letting off the pedal. But on a steep downhill, you might as well have been riding a sled if you didn't use your brake pedal. The ABS brake chatter, however, did a decent job of keeping your front wheels attached to the ground as best as could be. I have even been in extreme ice conditions going down a hill, where I had to have two wheels off the main track close to the curb, to maintain control. We had one of those close to home, and what made it really bad is that there was a stop sign on the bottom!! Definitely had the pucker factor on strong a couple times.

 

I know they have winter in Korea...

 

A factor to add to the points above are the use of winter tires or better yet studded winter tires. Studded winter tires help maintain grip on ice on fwd vehicles ev or ice during deceleration. I've had issues on a previous ice fwd vehicle with just winter tires causing traction loss from the transmission decelerating when lifting off the accelerator before getting the chance to use the brakes.

 

Dash cam question - apologies for not doing my research in advance. Hyundai had a special on the Avia/Lukas AR790-S dashcam. I didn't realize until after the install that the parking mode was wired to be disabled. I was told by the installer that the 12V battery for Kona Electric would not be able last long with the parking mode on.

This makes the camera worthless to me, as I previously had an incident at my work parking lot and it was only covered by insurance because I had the camera footage to prove what happened. Does anyone have a current model dashcam that they can recommend that wouldn't drain the battery too much in parking mode?

Edit: Okay, to answer my own question. The installer will activate the parking mode by adding a wire(s), but I will have to sign a wavier. They are really worried about battery drainage, because the 12V battery charges slower while the EV is operating than it does on an ICE vehicle. So at home I will shut off the parking mode, but I will keep it on when I am out. I also have a battery pack that can charge up my 12V battery if I get into trouble.

 

I did do some research earlier but couldn’t find anything useful so didn’t comment.
That camera uses a beefy 0.3 amps but it’s not clear if that’s relevant to parking mode as well. But it also has a programmable cutoff voltage to avoid flattening the 12V battery. I’d set that to no lower than 12.2 for a start.
The gen-2 Kona has the next battery size up but we won’t know how it charges until you install a BM2 and report back

 

I'm bringing it in tomorrow and I'll ask what cutoff voltage they set it to. I'll keep you posted.

 

Definitely install a BM2 if you want to use Park Mode. The car is supposed to charge when idle if necessary. There is a yellow light that will come on if that is happening. The BM2 would show that.

 

Hey Wildeyed, which dealer did you use and how long were you on the waiting list?

 

I was on 2 waiting lists for a grand total of *drum roll* 2 days before I got an offer of a car! Very different from 5 years ago.
I just so happened that the opening of the order books coincided with actual deliveries. But you are stuck with taking whatever trims and colours they were shipped. They do not take custom orders anymore.
I was dealing with Belleville Hyundai and Lauria Hyundai in Port Hope. Both got 4 or 5 cars. I bought in Port Hope because they got one with a light interior. I was stuck with a white exterior. Not my first choice but not objectionable so I went for it.

And just to be accurate, I was actually on the list for about 20 seconds in Belleville before they got an email confirming deliveries. I could have locked one in immediately if I'd wanted to.

 

Interesting. I signed up to a waiting list about 3 months ago. At that time I was told that delivery would likely be in the summer of 2024. However, a week ago, the dealer called to ask about preferences of trim level, colours, etc, but did not indicate when they would be getting any cars. But now that I know that other dealers have received stock, maybe it will be much sooner. We will see.

 

I know personally of 3 dealers who have received a car and have gotten notice of imminent deliveries and the specs on those cars. All of the dealers said they didn't know when exactly deliveries would come nor did they know if there would be further deliveries this year.

 

I had a pre-order in from a long time ago for the 2024 Kona, before I got my Ioniq 6. I long since cancelled that and got my deposit refunded. But yesterday got a call from that dealer saying the 2024's have arrived and invited me to come in for a test ride. I might just do that out of curiosity to see what the car looks like in person and how it drives.

Hyundai must have produced and shipped a lot of these out, as people report their dealers have them in. Doesn't sound like much of a wait list either. Should be seeing a bunch of reviews soon.

 

Looking forward to your experience and photos!

 

I decided to have a battery pack installed, directly from Hyundai, so that I won't have any worries about my 12V battery dying or becoming damaged, so that will be done tomorrow. Then the dashcam will have parking mode enabled by the original installers (they are all in the same area). The battery pack should have an app to monitor the power usage, so I'm going to cancel/return the BM2 order. Unless there is a good reason to keep the BM2...

 

The BM2 is for monitoring the 12V battery voltage rather than to keep a dash cam from killing it. It's a valuable piece of kit for any EV owner (those that use lead-acid batteries) and would be a bargain at twice the price.

 

Ok, I'll keep and install the BM2.

 

I figured out the garage door issue. I had to follow the instructions to set up the Hyundai HomeLink with a rolling code system. Pressing the "learn" button on the garage door opener and then running to the car to press the HomeLink button within 30 seconds. Fortunately, it worked on the first try! So, I could have been using the HomeLink button on my 2019 Kona for the past five years...

 

First charge at home. Doing the 80% thing.

 

LOL! No where to hook it (Unless I missed something obvious) .