Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to Kona EV and EV in general. I've been considering a Kona EV. My family and I are planning to move to a city about 1.5 hours / 100 miles away. We still have family/relatives in the area and we foresee that we'll be doing this drive often, probably weekly at first, maybe once every 2 weeks later. I'm looking to be more eco-friendly while still being able to make this trip weekly. Kona EV seems to be a great choice for this on paper with its stated 250+ miles of battery range (seems roomy enough for a baby car seat as well). I talked to friends who own various EV (Nissan Leaf, Teslas) and they've told me that stated battery ranges by EPA are generally generous numbers and real life ranges are smaller. I googled around and found this article on this site: https://insideevs.com/news/341056/what-car-real-world-range-test-put-hyundai-kona-electric-1/ That suggests that the Kona EV (64-kwh) range really is pretty good and is close to the one by EPA. I'd like to try to find out from some real world experiences from folks who own one, for a 100-mile trip of mostly freeway (~80mph) driving, can I expect to still get 250 miles of range on the battery? If so, it would make a great option for us for our weekly drives. [Edit] to add that there are some hilly parts in that drive, but not very much. I'd say there are some slopes in about 5-10% of the way. Also, this is in California, with mild weather all year. No snow, but some pretty hot days. Thanks so much!
The epa ratings for the kona ev seem to be very conservative. I consistently get more range than epa rating and I drive mainly on highways. In the winter the range will be a little lower but plenty for your commute, especially in California
In the spring so I am consistently getting the equivalent of 290-300+ miles range with mixed Hwy and city driving (60/40 - hwy and cty) depending how fast I am going. In Feb when it was colder I was around ~250 miles with the heat on drivers side only.
Going 80 mph I am pretty sure you will not get the 260 miles. If you take it a little slower, say 65, You should be pretty good. The consumption gets a lot worse if you hammer it (as Bjorn would say). You can also check out https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ which includes type of car and hills etc. into the planning.
It's nice they include the Kona now, I was playing with this software during the long wait over this last winter and had to use BOLT to determine route distances.
I have been getting around 500km when fully charged without AC turned on. Very happy with the purchase. So far, I have put 2k on the motor. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
I can speak to this a bit. I got my Kona on Friday and then drove the family (me, wife, 7yo, no heavy cargo) from San Diego to Disneyland (92mi each way) on Saturday. I didn't check battery percentages or pay super close attention to the range at the start - wasn't thinking I would need to. Probably was at about 240mi stated range. Drove round trip with most of that using adaptive cruise control set to 80mph and climate control set to 74 degrees in normal mode. Going north, it was sunny and about 70 degrees, south nighttime and mid-60s. Range had dropped down to 11 miles by the time I pulled in to the garage at home. It was a bit nerve wracking at the end but we made it.
Not too surprising as the typical gas vehicle takes roughly 28% more energy to overcome wind resistance going from 55 to 80 mph. It should be a similar hit for the Kona so 240 mile range would be more like 172 miles. Sounds like your Kona was a little more efficient. I gotta say you gotta pair of brass ones for throwing caution to the wind in not trip planning with a new to you EV vehicle
That's the main reason for your less than expected range. 65mph would have gotten you considerably more range. But now you know and I'm glad you didn't get stranded. We never stop learning. Congrats on getting your first EV! Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
