Here's an anecdote as to just how efficient the Kona is. Today was a beautiful day in Maine and New Hampshire, perfect for making a trip I've done twice before, just for the fun of driving through nice countryside. It's a 180 mile loop from home in Yarmouth, at elevation 140 feet, up to the high country at the foot of Mt. Washington, elevation at the pass 2040 feet according to the Kona's onboard altimeter. The first leg was about 70 miles from Yarmouth to N. Conway in NH and the drive is a long, gentle rise to an elevation of around 600 feet. In spite of the continual climb the Kona averaged 5 miles/kWh. Temperature was in the upper 50's and I drove 55 mph.
It's another 28 miles from N. Conway at 600 feet, up over a pass at elevation 2040, and on down to Gorham NH at elevation 800 feet. At the top of the pass the Kona's efficiency had dropped to 4.5 miles/kWh (the view of Mt. Washington was stupendous since the road runs right along its base.) Upon reaching Gorham after a continuous descent, the Kona was back up to 5 miles/kWh. I didn't know if it could recoup the uphill loss but it did, and in a vertical descent 200 feet less than the earlier ascent from N. Conway.
The return home from Gorham was 82 miles through varied terrain but overall a descent from 800 feet to 140. The temperature had risen into the mid-60's and again I averaged 50-55 mph. The Kona left Gorham at 5 miles/kWh and slowly ticked up to 5.1, then 5.2, and returned to Yarmouth having averaged 5.3 miles/kWh. Needless to say, I was gobsmacked. It's early spring here and battery temperature when I left home was around 40 degrees. The two same trips I made were during warmer months and I think that I averaged 4.1 m/kWh on the first and perhaps 4.6 on the second.
I think it's important to add that the first two loops were driven with maximum regeneration used continuously. This is how I've always driven since I got the car 14 months ago. Today I decided to try out setting regen to zero whenever possible per another forum user's description of how he uses the 4 regen options. I found it to be easy to adapt to and was still able to almost always do one pedal driving. It just involves consciously flipping the paddles as needed.
