My new Kona Electric and my first impressions

Pushmi-Pullyu said:
If you're staying with the car while charging and there is no one waiting in line to use the charger, then certainly there shouldn't be any objection to you charging to 100% if that's what you want to do.

For most plug-in EVs capable of fast-charging, the charging slows significantly above ~80%, but perhaps the Kona is engineered differently. It's interesting to keep finding, as I read about different EVs, that what's a rule for one or most may not apply to some others.

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Thank you, Zoominbc, for your frequent reports here, and I hope you'll continue to keep us updated on your experience with the car!
:)
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They few articles I have found about the Kona have mentioned that the charge doesn't taper near as aggressively on the Kona as it does on other cars like the Chevy Bolt. I can't remember the exact numbers but I think the Kona was still pulling good DC charge speeds up to around 87-92%? Correct me if I'm wrong on those numbers, but it is definitely quite a bit higher than the standard 80% before it makes sense to switch over to L2 to finish off.
 
I'll see if I can track down the article, it might have even been TeslaBjörn on his YouTube channel doing reviews of the Kona in Norway as he does fairly in depth reviews.
 
Shawn Schinkel said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/92fjil/hyundai_kona_charging_on_175_kw_charger/

This link has a bunch of info and it also references the TeslaBjörn video I mentioned earlier. It appears the car will still pull approx. 24kWh charging up to 91-92% before it backs way off. The L2 charge rate maxes at 7.0kWh as a comparison.
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This line from a comment sums up the charging speeds as he goes, "At about 57% SoC, it tapers to 57 kW, then at 73% it tapers to 37 kW, at 77% to 25 kW, at 87.5 to 24 kW, and then a steady drop off after 92%."

These numbers may be different now, so it would be great to see actual owner's experiences. Also, I'm not sure if there are many DC fast chargers in Canada with more than 50 kW available. Charging on the 50 kW system would give a different all-round result.
 
Domenick said:
We just did a post on InsideEVs today with someone charging their Kona Electric from about 20 to 80 percent in 4C weather.
For some reason -- I don't know if it was the car or the particular charger -- he could only get 37 kW flowing from the 50 kW DC fast charger. I imagine others will have different results, so I look forward to owners posting their own findings. Maybe we should start a new thread dedicated to charging results?
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That sounds like a good idea!
 
Domenick said:
We just did a post on InsideEVs today with someone charging their Kona Electric from about 20 to 80 percent in 4C weather.
For some reason -- I don't know if it was the car or the particular charger -- he could only get 37 kW flowing from the 50 kW DC fast charger. I imagine others will have different results, so I look forward to owners posting their own findings. Maybe we should start a new thread dedicated to charging results?
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If we ignore the charger for a moment so how does the Kona determine charge rate, does it factor SOC? Battery Temp? External Temp? And is it preprogrammed to perform a charge from 20 to 80 in 75 mins (that last part seems to be the case). The higher charge rates are seen at higher SOC but is there a correlation with the battery temp? It doesn't seem like there is a strong one otherwise I would expect 'Winter Mode' to keep the battery temps nominal allowing higher charge rates are a larger variety of SOC.

Oy Hyundai, send me my car so I can test this out!
 
CJC said:
I do really like the red colour. Looks like a lovely car. Nice that the LKA is working well in the snow. Maybe you have the active portion of LKA selected which someone on another group commented on as being the bee's knees. lol Keep the reports coming as you get more miles on it. Thanks for the first report.
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Yup! It’s in the lane settings, 3 options and one is Active Lane Keep Assist
 
dom said:
In Ontario as well and surprisingly got a call that mine arrived last night at the dealership. How did it handle in this lovely snow that just dropped on us? Did you get winter tires installed or planning to?
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Amazing! Congrats!
It handeled surprisingly well. I’m going to try to hold off on the winter tires this season. After dropping all this money on a car, I’m really not keen on spending another $1000+ on a set of tires. Especially considering the range loss in these -20 degree temps. The winter tires will further impact your range. I’m hoping next year more manufacturers put some technology into developing more EV-friendly winter tires.
 
The BlueLink app has been updated and now is actually useful. Can someone with Alexa registered to the .com amazon site see if the skill works with Canadian registered BlueLink cars? I have a feeling it’s not going to work but maybe it will. If it doesn’t we will have to find out when Hyundai plans to make the Alexa skill available to Canada.
 
I now have 7 Kona related apps on my phone. Anything missing? Some of these will be specific to B.C.
Greenlots for example seems to be tied in with B.C. Hydro.

BlueLink, now functional and useful
EVJuicenet app for my Juicebox home level 2 charger
FLO Canadian charger app (also have a FLO rfid card)
ChargePoint charger app
Greenlots app (used mostly with Level 3 chargers)
PlugShare charger app
ChargeHub charger app
 
Now that some of us have been lucky enough to drive the Kona a little I would be interested to hear about reactions from people that have seen it. On the road I haven’t noticed anyone actually spotting it maybe because it looks like all the other small SUV’s out there. I have had quite a few conversations with people and there seems to be a surprising number of people who are quite sceptical. I don’t think we have reached a point yet where most people are thinking “my next car will be electric”. Can owners share their experience?
 
zoominbc said:
The BlueLink app has been updated and now is actually useful. Can someone with Alexa registered to the .com amazon site see if the skill works with Canadian registered BlueLink cars? I have a feeling it’s not going to work but maybe it will. If it doesn’t we will have to find out when Hyundai plans to make the Alexa skill available to Canada.
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If we ever get our car, and get Blue Link accepting our VIN, I will check out using it with Amazon.com. I am pretty sure it will be fine with .com as we have many things enabled on .com and we are in the White Rock area. It may be a few weeks as we have no date and we ordered July 10.
 
CJC said:
If we ever get our car, and get Blue Link accepting our VIN, I will check out using it with Amazon.com. I am pretty sure it will be fine with .com as we have many things enabled on .com and we are in the White Rock area. It may be a few weeks as we have no date and we ordered July 10.
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I think the Canadian and US BlueLink databases are separate so it may not work. I guess we will see shortly. Shall we start a petition. Get CJC her car!
 
I was the second buyer of a Prius in BC, after environmentalist David Suzuki, and I've driven them ever since. Three days after learning of the existence of Kona I drove her home. It is a simply brilliant automobile. A lot of the learning for me has to do with the appointments of a car with way more features than I'm used to. Here are some random thoughts and responses.

  • I believe using the brake pedal instead of the paddle for slowing down really amounts to the same thing as far as regen is concerned. Personally I think it might be unwise to grow so used to one-pedal driving that I lose the instinct to hit the pedal for traction braking when it's needed
  • As someone who loves quiet, I'm not crazy about the idea of every vehicle having a backup "beeper" but at least Kona uses a gentle chime. The low-speed warning is also inoffensive, if a bit odd.
  • Someone mentioned charging etiquette. Keep in mind that even if there's no one waiting, the station may show as busy on the internet as you're squeezing out that last 20 percent.
  • We're entitled to free updates of the map software, which would include latest data on stations.
  • One feature that really sold me was the HUD, and I was sure to check that it was visible through polarized sunglasses, as the last Prius's sensibly-placed speedometer was not. However, I quickly became bored with it. A lot of that is because, compared with the loosy-goosy Prius, keeping a constant speed is much easier. Also cruise control is way more useful because it slows the car down as well as speeding it up. I was able to cruise down a mountain without touching anything, except the paddle on sharp corners. Unlike touching the brake, pulling back on the left paddle doesn't cancel cruise. I'll probably only pop up HUD (with its speed limit signs) in unfamiliar areas.
  • Unlike the "sport" and "eco" modes in the Prius, the various modes here actually mean something beyond the responsiveness of the accelerator. (I almost said gas pedal.)
  • Kona is an awful nanny, and very fussy about things. At charge stations a couple of times, when I've been playing with the accessories, she has grown testy about allowing me to pull out the plug. Once she insisted I turn off the power, but wouldn't allow me to do so. I guess I must have solved that one by pressing the right buttons and pedals. I've yet to figure out the emergency brake, which seems to have a mind of its own.
  • Why is "hold" not a sticky setting? I always want to have it on to avoid creeping into fences after I've pulled in to park.
  • The whole interface is well laid out, with the quibble that the parking warning is located a long way from the other driver-assist buttons.
  • The minute you drive all-electric, you can never go back.
 
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