Disappointed With My New Kona EV's Range

[C02less]

It sure does NOT encourage a road trip.

It helps a lot if you rethink your charging. Unlike filling up with gas, you do not need to be at your car when it charges. Your goal should be to do something else while it charges so you are not waiting. Then charging speed becomes a non-issue.
After many many road trips in 2021 Knoa the Kona the routine I recommend and use myself is: charge when you stop for meals, sleep, shopping, recreation, coffee, emails or potty. Charge to 100% at night using a L2 at your hotel or near to your hotel. A small amount of planning by scouting ahead on plugshare is all that is required. Stop at the second last charger you can make it to, not the last one you think you can make it to. Plan your charging stops by location and charger reliability, not cost.
On my last road trip with 3 days of solid driving I probably spent 30 minutes in the car waiting for it to finish a charge. In spite of frigid weather and an unexpected 2 hour detour. 30 minutes is comparable to the time I would have spent gassing up an ICE car on this trip.

 

[R P]

This is what non-EV owners, and even new EVers don't fully understand. You don't charge your car the same way you do gas fill-ups. And what is nice, too, is that the car Nav gives you advance info while driving about upcoming chargers on your route so you can plan accordingly when and where you want to stop next.

 

[C02less]

I have never used the car Nav. Just curious - will it tell you just the charger's location, or will it also give you feedback from others who have charged there recently? That's why I use plugshare - it's like Yelp for chargers and I can verify if the charger is working properly before driving there. Plugshare's recent comments have saved me a lot of wasted time and frustration on road trips by avoiding sketchy chargers.

 

[R P]

I have the I6, and its Nav has that. It is also used for battery pre-conditioning to your next charging station. Since the Kona is Hyundai, I assume it must have that capability, too. The charger info appears on a split screen to the right, when you press Map. It gives quite a bit of info on the chargers, like availability, last time used, etc. And you can use it to look at alternates, ahead of your preferred one, or after, and any other nearby ones. I used it a lot on my road trip last summer to Manitoba. Worked very well, and let me prepare ahead of time for plan Bs or Cs.

 

[dcisive]

My initial comment was based on not having even charged outside of home before. I went on a little jaunt from my small town West to Boise. A trip of about 90+ miles. I had charged once in Boise at a Electrify America when I had my former VW ID.4. It was crowded and when I finally got a spot it was only 30kwh output, not the 350kwh as advertised by Plugshare. I was not a happy camper. I had let my wife off at a Walmart and had plenty of time to kill so it took near an hour to get any worthwhile charge.

Skip forward to having taken delivery of my new 2025 Kona Limited EV. When I left the dealer it showed 261 miles available. It was about 45 degrees outside and on the way home (about 35 miles) it registered about an average of 4-4.5kwh of usage which impressed me (the ID.4 averaged about 2.8 at best). I wanted to visit a restaurant in Boise (90 miles away) and since it was now January the temps were more like 24 degrees F. I couldn't get a charge in my not so warm garage better then 190mi. Very disappointing. I didn't read up on and become aware of the conditioning available let alone that the new latest version of the Navigation system now used in the 2025's was considerably more competent at showing real charging station opportunities as well as potential pre conditioning. So I arrived at Mountain Home (about 45mi) and decided to try out their Electrify American 350kwh stations. It was a whopping 24 degrees F out so chilly and no pre conditioning applied. I couldn't get more than 30kwh out of it and ran out of time having let my wife off again at the Walmart to kill time. I didn't get much at all. Got to the restaurant, ate and then we headed home. The GOM indicated a quickly declining amount of spare miles available. We got home with 1% of the battery left after praying a LOT. Not a great experience but a learning one to be sure. Next time for sure I'll take advantage of the pre conditioning along with just being more patient (and hopefully getting lucky to get a decent charger). By the way more recently I pre conditioned in my garage and charged and got it to go up to 220mi so at least an improvement.

 

[Keith Smith]

I drove my (insert EV 1 here) back last summer it got me where I needed to go within my expectation. Later I swapped it for a (insert EV 2 here) and went on a trip in the driving rain and ice, and it did not meet expectations, therefore the manufacturer of EV 2 is a disingenuous. Whatever, apples and oranges.

I charged my Niro (same drivetrain as the Kona) at an EA at night in the bitter cold . . . I think pre-conditioning is a gimmick, it charged starting around 60 and pretty much maintained that until it hit 75%. I drove my son's tesla on a longish trip Biloxi - Lady Lake, down to Tampa, and back. Pre-conditioning didn't seem to really accomplish much time savings or affect the charging rates much.


I would suggest charging the car up to 100%, then immediately take it around the block a mile or two, then hook it back up to 100%. Once charged again, run it down deep until the turtle comes on:



Obviously be close to home. as you get down close. Stop around 2-4%:




Then plug in and let it go back up all the way. This should set a reasonable calibration cycle for the GOM.

NOTE: Icey roads, and steady/heavy rain will kill range by as much as 40%. I've found this to be drastically more significant than the temperature. Driving in sub 32F on clear interstates around 65MPH I didn't really notice much degradation in range.

 

[dcisive]

First I have to say I completely disagree about the charge port location. For ME in Idaho it's a complete blessing. Couldn't be easier to work with. I only need to extend my garage charger cord 5ft and I'm off and running. I pull right up to the charger easily. Same at at high speed charger outside of town. So much easier then deciding what side to park on or worse backing in. What a difference a day makes. We hit 62 degrees today and on a jaunt for shopping about 35mi away I averaged no less then 4.8kwh efficiency and at one point it hit 6kwh. What a difference indeed compared to the dead of winter driving. Now I can get the full charge right up to 261 which is a nice start. I'm a happy camper..This was at 62mph which is a HUGE difference then driving at 80mph that's for sure. This 2025 Kona is tons more efficient at those more normal highways speeds.

 

[JumpingIntoEV]

My 2019 has 124,000 miles on it. I live in Buffalo, NY where we have long, generally snowy Winters. On a cold day (sub 35F) I will get about 175-180 highway miles, max with the heater on. Below 20F it can be 160 miles. Later models use a heat pump that should be more efficient than what my car offers. My compromise to maximize range (as I can have 180 mile round trip commutes) is to use the excellent heated seat in combination with driving gloves, and minimum, heater use. In Summer weather, even after 6 years and lots of miles and charging cycles, I routinely get 250 or more highway miles. About what the car was rated.