Kona Ultimate Navigation Question

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srkz

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I have a 2019 SEL model currently that doesn't have built-in nav, and am trying to decide what to buy when my buy-back is completed in a few weeks (hopefully!)

I am considering a 2021 or 22 Kona Ultimate as a replacement but I can't find any information about the navigation system, specifically whether or not it's aware of the HV battery's SoC and will route you to charging stations on longer trips when necessary like a Tesla or if it's just a standard nav like Google Maps that leaves the charging plan up to you (hopefully planned out in advance!)

Tesla has this and I believe the Mach E and I'd.4 have it as well but I'm not seeing anything about the Kona's nav. Anyone with an ultimate model who can confirm?
 
My Ultimate nav will warn if the state of charge is too low to reach the destination you selected. You can tap 'ok' or 'search for stations', and it will show ac or dc chargers along the route you picked.
I am not going to upgrade my nav until Hyundai can sort out the crappy new interface, so I only have the charging stations known with the August 2020 3 widget interface. To make up for any missing, I just made favourites with the known few chargers in NB along the highways.
Also, the widget for state of charge will show the nearest charger it knows about through your entire drive, and it is accurate. That said, I would also use Plugshare or ABRP before I tried a super long trip.
 
Does it do multi-stop navigation planning, i.e. navigate to charger 1 and then to charger 2 and then to destination? Or is it limited to saying "not enough charge to reach the destination, here are some stations near you, you figure out the rest"?
 
I tried setting a route to Ottawa (1400 km). It warns that I don't have enough charge, and when I tap 'search for stations' it brings up the real time EV stations along the route (although you could choose other "near" options). It gave me 11 choices, and appears the car tries to suggest the first point, and after you get that far along your trip, your next POI search (Category "Real Time Stations") would likely show me new EV chargers based upon where you are at that time.

So it would seem you don't map out a whole route like using PlugShare or ABRP, you would deal with it as you travel. Think like when you drive an ICE.... You don't map out your gas stations, you simply look for where the nearest gas pumps are.
 
DaveO said:
So it would seem you don't map out a whole route like using PlugShare or ABRP, you would deal with it as you travel. Think like when you drive an ICE.... You don't map out your gas stations, you simply look for where the nearest gas pumps are.
Click to expand...

Perfect, thanks for the clarification! It sounds like it's not very much help then beyond the basics. This sort of system works fine for gas stations because they're ubiquitous, but fast chargers are not so numerous that you can just drive past one and trust that another will be nearby when you need it.

For example, if you try to plot a route from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Butte, Montana the car would say "not enough charge" and you might drive off 150 miles to the next charger only to find out that there are no other chargers in that direction and you can't actually drive a CCS EV from Minneapolis to Butte. What a disaster that day would be!

Or say for example that I start a route at a lower elevation in warmer weather, but drive up a mountain into snowy weather and tank the range (much like driving from Los Angeles to Big Bear Mountain) I might set off with the car telling me I have plenty of range to make it, only to find out on my way up the mountain that the changing conditions will leave me stranded. Without real-time data from the car feeding back into the nav system to re-route as needed it feels quite risky to just go ad-hoc and trust to fate.

Which leaves me in the position of planning routes out in advance to make sure the whole routeplan will be successful before I set off. But if I have to plan everything in advance with a separate service, there's really no benefit to having built-in nav in the car vs. just using Google Maps.

Teslas have a really breathtaking amount of bugs, problems, and missing features but they nailed EV navigation in a way that no one else seems to have quite figured out yet unfortunately.
 
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srkz said:
Perfect, thanks for the clarification! It sounds like it's not very much help then beyond the basics. This sort of system works fine for gas stations because they're ubiquitous, but fast chargers are not so numerous that you can just drive past one and trust that another will be nearby when you need it.

For example, if you try to plot a route from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Butte, Montana the car would say "not enough charge" and you might drive off 150 miles to the next charger only to find out that there are no other chargers in that direction and you can't actually drive a CCS EV from Minneapolis to Butte. What a disaster that day would be!

Or say for example that I start a route at a lower elevation in warmer weather, but drive up a mountain into snowy weather and tank the range (much like driving from Los Angeles to Big Bear Mountain) I might set off with the car telling me I have plenty of range to make it, only to find out on my way up the mountain that the changing conditions will leave me stranded. Without real-time data from the car feeding back into the nav system to re-route as needed it feels quite risky to just go ad-hoc and trust to fate.

Which leaves me in the position of planning routes out in advance to make sure the whole routeplan will be successful before I set off. But if I have to plan everything in advance with a separate service, there's really no benefit to having built-in nav in the car vs. just using Google Maps.

Teslas have a really breathtaking amount of bugs, problems, and missing features but they nailed EV navigation in a way that no one else seems to have quite figured out yet unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Until now...
Mercedes Electric Intelligence EQ MBUX Nav system plans the fastest and most convenient route including smart mapping to ensure that charging stops are as efficient as possible.
https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/mercedes-canada-announces-charging-strategy/:)
 
electriceddy said:
Until now...
Mercedes Electric Intelligence EQ MBUX Nav system plans the fastest and most convenient route including smart mapping to ensure that charging stops are as efficient as possible.
https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/mercedes-canada-announces-charging-strategy/:)
Click to expand...

Halleluiah! It's definitely coming - the Mach-E has it built in, though I hear it's not always the most reliable or intelligent and will suggest L1 and L2 charge points along your route even when a L3 is available, and I'm sure the next gen of 2022+ EVs alongside the Mercedes' will come with similar features, but they sure are a long time in coming. Range anxiety is 30% range and 70% planning imo, and a feature like this seems like a dead simple way to alleviate most of the problem with just a little software work instead of very expensive battery packs.
 
Glad I could help. Yes, the charging nav help is weak if you're doing road trips into unfamiliar areas, but if you're in known areas I have my favorites and can see most of my province's chargers in my mind now.

The best things I like on my Ultimate vice the Preferred is the avoidance of using phone and data with Android Auto, and the need to set up 2 devices, when most of the time I am more worried about finding the destination address, not the charging locatons. The Ultimate's adaptive cruise is very nice, and keeps me more relaxed while cruising the highway... I normally want to smack people who cant keep a steady speed on single lane highways, and the car just keeps the distance automatically. MUCH less swearing in the car, and as a bonus, I dont get yelled at by my wife for getting too close! Then, the vented seats make summers just a bit better, and while I rarely use the sunroof, I do crack it when first entering if its been sitting in the sun, to let the heat escape up naturally.

Overall, the Ultimate was a bit of a splurge, but at this point in my life, why not? Thre are worse vices out there.....
 
DaveO said:
Glad I could help. Yes, the charging nav help is weak if you're doing road trips into unfamiliar areas, but if you're in known areas I have my favorites and can see most of my province's chargers in my mind now.
Click to expand...

I bought a 2019 Ultimate last week - saw 2 other Konas (maybe yours was one of them) in F'ton today.

Definately like the Ultimate over the '21 Preferred I test drove - with little kids, the leather is easier to clean, and everything just feels a bit nicer.

Haven't wrapped my head around the built in Navigation, so far have just been leaning on "hey Siri" navigation, combined with the eChargeNetwork app for finding stations - probably should dive into the built in nav options to get more familiar.
 
markintosh13 said:
I bought a 2019 Ultimate last week - saw 2 other Konas (maybe yours was one of them) in F'ton today.
Click to expand...

Congrats!

My car is grey, and I work downtown but needed to head up the hill at lunch today for the dentist.... I've seen another grey Kona at the King St charger once, but thats all, not sure how many are around town.

ECharge app will show you the orange NB power chargers, the blue Flo chargers and the Quebec network ones, but have a look at Plugshare too, as it will show some other Level 2s in town and a couple of Chargepoints at 1 or 2 car dealers. The ECharge app is great to show if the charger is available or not. I watched someone activate a session for a Tesla on the King St charger last week, and the app showed as busy within 5 seconds.... Pretty neat.
 
We have a 2020 Ultimate and love it for the cooled seats, adaptive cruise, auto wipers, and HUD. The navigation has been less than impressive in general, and we are unlikely to renew it when our initial 3 yr BlueLink membership is up (more on that below). I have never relied on the navigation for finding charging stations; I use the various apps mentioned above instead so that I can plan ahead, before I even get in the car.

I'm not sure if the navigation is better in less populated areas, but in the Boston metro/suburbs area it has led us astray enough times that we often double check on google maps. We also get frustrated with the slow boot up of the system when first turning on the car, the clunky search for destinations, and the new complication of remotely sending a destination to the car (a feature I used extensively in the past due to the first two drawbacks) now that there are different driver profiles. All of that plus the need to manually update the system (which I religiously do in the hopes that the maps are more accurate) vs. over-the-air updates is enough for me to give up on the built in navigation. That said, once we reach the end of BlueLink i will miss the next turn being indicated on the HUD - IMO the only redeeming quality of the built in navigation.
 
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