My new Kona Electric and my first impressions

zoominbc said:
Went for a ride today about 100km in mixed highway and local street driving and managed 15.1 kw per 100km in normal mode. The ambient temperature was 7C. I would be interested to hear other typical numbers.
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I'd be interested to tell you about typical numbers, and would if it ever got to 7C...

Yesterday I did about 240km, with speeds in the 95-110 km/h range, and I was averaging about 19.1 kWh/100km. Temps were in the -4 to -8 range but I kept the cabin toasty.
 
Canada Dan said:
I'd be interested to tell you about typical numbers, and would if it ever got to 7C...

Yesterday I did about 240km, with speeds in the 95-110 km/h range, and I was averaging about 19.1 kWh/100km. Temps were in the -4 to -8 range but I kept the cabin toasty.
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That sounds pretty good considering the temps.
 
We did a short drive to take the dogs out today. 45 miles round trip. Temperature about 16C (61F). Got a mileage of 6 m/kwh (~10kwh/100km) in eco mode. Pretty awesome!

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
 
Had my first opportunity to drive at night today. Wow. I was very impressed. The cabin controls glow a lovely blue. Very readable. The interior lights are bright and welcoming. Despite terrible looking roads, difficult to interpret even by my eyes, the LKA worked flawlessly. It kept me centered even when markings disappeared, on curves, when blinded by oncoming lights. I felt very safe. Smart cruise also functioned flawlessly. Auto headlights never failed to switch between high and low beams. Cornering lights are bright and useful and headlights are very bright and sharply focussed with a tight pattern. Really impressed.
 
So I have to follow up my positive night-driving review with a tale of plug woes.

My God! Why is it so hard to unplug this f****ING thing?

3 times now I have spent 10,15 , 20 freaking minutes trying every bloody combination of doors unlocked, power on, power off. The car is 100% charged, the dash says I need to unplug to drive and it WILL NOT LET ME!

All three times it's happened I was using Bluelink to pre-heat the interior. It was running as I approached the car. I unlocked the car as I approached and try the plug. No go. I enter the car. Turn it on. It says I must unplug to drive. I get out, pull on it. No go. I turn the car off. Try again. No go. Lock and unlock the doors both while I'm inside and outside the car. Try again and again. No go. Car is now, for some reason, charging at 99%. Why!? 10 minutes of this crap. Finally I used Bluelink to force charging to stop. I lift the hood, pull the emergency release lever and finally go. 20 minutes! Is this a Bluelink fault? It has never happened when I'm not using the pre-heating. There's no one to answer these kinds of questions outside of groups like this. Very, very frustrating behaviour and I want it to stop.
 
Wildeyed said:
So I have to follow up my positive night-driving review with a tale of plug woes.

My God! Why is it so hard to unplug this f****ING thing?

3 times now I have spent 10,15 , 20 freaking minutes trying every bloody combination of doors unlocked, power on, power off. The car is 100% charged, the dash says I need to unplug to drive and it WILL NOT LET ME!

All three times it's happened I was using Bluelink to pre-heat the interior. It was running as I approached the car. I unlocked the car as I approached and try the plug. No go. I enter the car. Turn it on. It says I must unplug to drive. I get out, pull on it. No go. I turn the car off. Try again. No go. Lock and unlock the doors both while I'm inside and outside the car. Try again and again. No go. Car is now, for some reason, charging at 99%. Why!? 10 minutes of this crap. Finally I used Bluelink to force charging to stop. I lift the hood, pull the emergency release lever and finally go. 20 minutes! Is this a Bluelink fault? It has never happened when I'm not using the pre-heating. There's no one to answer these kinds of questions outside of groups like this. Very, very frustrating behaviour and I want it to stop.
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You have probably done this, but use either key fob or unlock on door to unlock car and then you only have 15 seconds to open and disconnect your cable. I am not sure if it works with pre-heating as we aren't doing much of that as ours in in the garage and it hasn't been that cold in there of late.
 
CJC said:
You have probably done this, but use either key fob or unlock on door to unlock car and then you only have 15 seconds to open and disconnect your cable. I am not sure if it works with pre-heating as we aren't doing much of that as ours in in the garage and it hasn't been that cold in there of late.
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Ya, it's something weird with Blue Link. I'm almost positive.
 
Wildeyed said:
Ya, it's something weird with Blue Link. I'm almost positive.
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I'm going to try to replicate your situation and report back in. I just plugged it in to charge, and I locked the doors. I will leave it charging for half an hour, and then use BlueLink to preheat it for a few minutes.

Results of the replicated experiment.
1) The car was plugged in had charged up 3% in about 10 minutes when I attempted to use the key fob to unlock. Initially when I tried to pull out the cable to unplug it wouldn't come out. Tried x 2 with pushing unlock on the fob with no luck. On the 3rd attempt, I kept the unlock icon pressed down for a lengthy period and then heard a whirring sound, and I was able to unplug.

2) I then tried to open the cars doors using the fob as the car was still locked. I tried the fob repeatedly without success. I am locked out of the car. I tried lock, unlock, lock, unlock repeatedly.

3) I pulled out the BlueLink app and tried unlock. Entered my passcode number as requested and the thingy whirled around repeatedly, and said "failed try again". Did this twice with the same result. Now I'm think "sheesh I will not be using this BlueLink crap again as I am now locked out of my car". On my third attempt to use BlueLink unlock, it worked! But I was in an annoyed frame of mind by then.

So obviously there are some glitches using pre-heat on BlueLink. Not sure if I even want to bother to phone and try to explain this as I know it will be an ordeal.

PS My husband wondered if the signal to BlueLink was being interferred with as I was inside the garage. Possible. He also said maybe I was pushing things too quickly and not allowing them to register on the app. Possible as I am fast with the fingers and tend to be impatient.
 
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Don't know if this helps, was the indicator light "on"on the charging connector Auto/lock mode button? ( Bottom button panel left below dash).
If it was on than the unlock function won't work according to the manual untill the pack reaches predetermined state of charge-leave button with indicator light "off"
Also try the "deactivate" scheduled charging button for 3 seconds ( the one to the left of the charge port itself, it might cancel any BlueLink signals).
Haven't gone thru the procedure myself but maybe help you?
 
CJC thanks for the comprehensive (and frustrating) experiment. Something funny is going on with the pre-heating thing and possibly the Bluelink (which is maddeningly slow to respond). When the car says "you need to unplug before you can drive" and then won't let you unplug there's something twitchy going on. I kind of think that there's some sort of trouble with the car understanding that it is supposed to pull power from the cord (for pre-conditioning functions) when it is plugged in and then switch over to the onboard battery once the car is turned on, indicating that, "hey, we're planning on driving here!"

When I next use pre-heating I'm going to turn it off just before I plan to go out and get into the car to see if it makes any difference.
 
I was out with two other Kona’s yesterday in White Rock, red white and blue. One of them has a Juicebox and measured the energy consumption after charging from a low state of charge. Actually he couldn’t get the car to report lower than 2% but in any case the energy used suggested a battery size of 72 KWh. He is keen to find out if others can replicate this conclusion. He also suggested charging to 100% once a month to ensure battery balancing is performed. I didn’t see this in the manual anywhere but it seems like a reasonable idea. Thoughts?
 
Keep in mind the charger will also have energy loss in the process. I don't know have an actual number as it will depend on each specific on board charger. I would imagine there wouldn't be much loss in the charge station as it is basically a power switch remotely controlled by the electronics in the car.

I have an energy monitor device in my hydro panel that I have set to monitor my whole home consumption, maybe I will switch it to the JuiceBox circuit and compare the numbers between the JuiceBox stats and the energy monitor stats.
 
zoominbc said:
I was out with two other Kona’s yesterday in White Rock, red white and blue. One of them has a Juicebox and measured the energy consumption after charging from a low state of charge. Actually he couldn’t get the car to report lower than 2% but in any case the energy used suggested a battery size of 72 KWh. He is keen to find out if others can replicate this conclusion. He also suggested charging to 100% once a month to ensure battery balancing is performed. I didn’t see this in the manual anywhere but it seems like a reasonable idea. Thoughts?
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You can really go down the rabbit hole if you start talking with people about proper battery hygiene. You find as many opinions as people - some of them held with a religious conviction. I'm charging to 100% basically all the time. There is a buffer built in and I feel comfortable with that. Others will feel differently - possibly you!
 
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zoominbc said:
I was out with two other Kona’s yesterday in White Rock, red white and blue. One of them has a Juicebox and measured the energy consumption after charging from a low state of charge. Actually he couldn’t get the car to report lower than 2% but in any case the energy used suggested a battery size of 72 KWh. He is keen to find out if others can replicate this conclusion. He also suggested charging to 100% once a month to ensure battery balancing is performed. I didn’t see this in the manual anywhere but it seems like a reasonable idea. Thoughts?
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As mentioned above, there are losses during the charging process, some people report 6%-9% of various EVs. Also, if the battery is cold, the thermal management system may also be running to warm the batteries while they charge, which will also consume some energy. The same goes if the battery is hot and needs to be cooled. So, while the car consumed 72 kWh, that doesn't mean all that went into the battery.

I have a BMW i3s and use the JuiceBox to charge it. In cold winter months, I can use as much as 5 kWh just to warm the battery while it's preconditioning. That's one of the real advantages of having a smart charger, like the JuiceBox. You really get to see exactly how much the car costs you to charge. Without that ability, you're really just guessing. Some people don't care, but I like that kind of data.
 
Tom Moloughney said:
As mentioned above, there are losses during the charging process, some people report 6%-9% of various EVs. Also, if the battery is cold, the thermal management system may also be running to warm the batteries while they charge, which will also consume some energy. The same goes if the battery is hot and needs to be cooled. So, while the car consumed 72 kWh, that doesn't mean all that went into the battery.

I have a BMW i3s and use the JuiceBox to charge it. In cold winter months, I can use as much as 5 kWh just to warm the battery while it's preconditioning. That's one of the real advantages of having a smart charger, like the JuiceBox. You really get to see exactly how much the car costs you to charge. Without that ability, you're really just guessing. Some people don't care, but I like that kind of data.
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Good point about the charging efficiency. The Juicebox default setting for the Kona is 92% so I assume that's taken into account but I'll check. Not sure when this test was done but local temps haven't been much below zero.
 
I've been noticing this week just how sensitive to temperature the battery efficiency is. We've had mornings at -12° and afternoons with sun and +4°. When I drove in the cold mornings the range would be 280km after the first leg. But after leaving it in the sun and milder temps for a few hours my return leg would start with 340km of range. All from just a warm-up. I'm very optimistic about summer range.
 
One week of ownership, 4th time driving it, 204 miles on the odometer, just getting comfortable driving her. And I had to say goodbye. :(. Hopefully only temporarily. A deer ran into me. Lots of broken plastic - both light covers, front fake grill, plastic above tire, under door. Driver door and front quarter panel dented. Now waiting on insurance company approval for repairs. View media item 274View media item 273
 
drivingbythesun said:
One week of ownership, 4th time driving it, 204 miles on the odometer, just getting comfortable driving her. And I had to say goodbye. :(. Hopefully only temporarily. A deer ran into me. Lots of broken plastic - both light covers, front fake grill, plastic above tire, under door. Driver door and front quarter panel dented. Now waiting on insurance company approval for repairs. View media item 274View media item 273
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I'm very sorry about your accident. Hope you weren't hurt, and aren't still in shock. Take care!
 
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