New Kona Electric owner

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FloridaSun

FloridaSun

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I'm in Central Florida and the KONA Electric is not for sale anywhere close to where I live, so I shopped online at Dealerships in Maryland and New Jersey. Found a great deal in the color I wanted (ceramic blue with white roof) in Maryland. Flew up to Maryland, bought the car and drove it just under 1100 miles to bring it home.. I already have 2000 miles on it and love it. I'm on track getting well over 300 miles on a charge. Here in Florida, we don't really have cold weather, so, running the range killing heater won't be necessary. AC only seems to have minor impact on range (shows 20 miles range decrease when AC is on)
Already disabled VESS do get rid of the noise at low speeds..

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apu said:
Congratulations, really nice like looking Kona. :)
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Thanks! I have been wanting to buy an EV for over a year and was originally considering a Tesla Model 3. However, I drive many miles per year (30000 or so) and I was concerned about expiring battery warranty.. The deciding factor to go with the Kona over the Model 3 was the Battery Warranty.. If your Tesla Model 3 battery dies after 3.5 years at 101k miles, you own a worthless piece of metal as the replacement battery costs as much as the resale value of the vehicle.
 
Yes, it's Ceramic Blue with White roof.. Love the 2 tone scheme.. I was considering 3 different colors when shopping for the Kona.. Initially, I wanted a red one but the Ceramic Blue grew on me.. When I was at the dealership, they also had a Galactic Gray one with white roof.. It's not really gray.. It's more of a beige/brown color that I really liked.. Pictures of that color do not do it justice. I ended up going with the blue one.. Blue is my favorite color and my F150 Crew Cab is also blue...
 
BlueKonaEV said:
I'm in Central Florida and the KONA Electric is not for sale anywhere close to where I live, so I shopped online at Dealerships in Maryland and New Jersey. Found a great deal in the color I wanted (ceramic blue with white roof) in Maryland. Flew up to Maryland, bought the car and drove it just under 1100 miles to bring it home.. I already have 2000 miles on it and love it. I'm on track getting well over 300 miles on a charge. Here in Florida, we don't really have cold weather, so, running the range killing heater won't be necessary. AC only seems to have minor impact on range (shows 20 miles range decrease when AC is on)
Already disabled VESS do get rid of the noise at low speeds..
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I'm picking up the same car, same color on Saturday. Yay! But I noticed your car also has contrasting side mirrors. I thought they were body color. I much prefer white but didn't know that was an option. Pics I've seen online show only body color mirrors. Did it come that way?
 
BlueKonaEV said:
I'm in Central Florida and the KONA Electric is not for sale anywhere close to where I live, so I shopped online at Dealerships in Maryland and New Jersey. Found a great deal in the color I wanted (ceramic blue with white roof) in Maryland. Flew up to Maryland, bought the car and drove it just under 1100 miles to bring it home.. I already have 2000 miles on it and love it. I'm on track getting well over 300 miles on a charge. Here in Florida, we don't really have cold weather, so, running the range killing heater won't be necessary. AC only seems to have minor impact on range (shows 20 miles range decrease when AC is on)
Already disabled VESS do get rid of the noise at low speeds..

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Did you use EVGo all the way or various charging networks to help you get back to Florida? Also, how long did that take?
(Also, also, congratulations!)
 
Jane Goodger said:
I'm picking up the same car, same color on Saturday. Yay! But I noticed your car also has contrasting side mirrors. I thought they were body color. I much prefer white but didn't know that was an option. Pics I've seen online show only body color mirrors. Did it come that way?
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The car came that way.. Roof and mirrors were white and the rest of the car ceramic blue.. It's a pretty color.. Depending on light conditions, it's between turquoise and baby blue..
 
Domenick said:
Did you use EVGo all the way or various charging networks to help you get back to Florida? Also, how long did that take?
(Also, also, congratulations!)
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I used different stations.. My first stop was in Staunton/VA at a GreenLots Station.
2nd Stop was in Greensboro.. First I stopped at a Greenlots Charger in Downtown but it would not activate.. Only other fast charger in Greensboro was at Chargepoint DC charger at a Jaguar dealership. After a little wait for them to move a car, they allowed me to charge there.. Charged for 40 minutes, just enough to get to Charlotte/NC. Stopped at an EVGo charger there but the screen did not respond.. Luckily, there were plenty of DC chargers in Charlotte and I charged at another EvGo Charger that was working. Next Stop was at an EVGo charger in Columbia/SC at Richmond Library.. I could not get it to work. Charger would start up and immediately stop and send me a text messate: Charging was completed based on your settings.. I still had 40% charge left, so I decided to keep driving to Walterboro/SC to a Walmart ElectrifyAmerica Station. Unfortunately, I encountered the same issue that I encountered at the Columbia EVGo. Charger would not charge and send me messages that "charging was complete based on your settings". I checked my settings and no limits or time restrictions were set.. I was already worried about an issue with the car after having the SAME issue at 2 different chargers. Ended up finding a free Level 2 charger at a Starbucks (not listed on Chargehub.. found it with a google search). Charged for 3 hours to get enough charge to make it to Savannah GA where I charged for FREE at a Greenlots charger in Downtown Savannah. Took some time to activate the charger as the display was in very bad shape and you could barely see anything on the display. With the help of customer support, I was finally able to activate the charger.. Charged to 85% which was enough to make it to an EVGo Charger in St. Augustine/FL. That was my last stop on my way home.. I live in Lakeland/FL. We have a EVGo Charger in Lakeland that works very will with my car.
I used it once since then. Since I got my Level 2 Mustart Charger, I have not used any more public stations.. Went with the 26 amp version as I have a 150 amp breaker panel and didn't want to trip the main breaker on my house.. So far, I've charged my car 3 times over night with no issue of tripping the main breaker of the house..

The entire trip took me well over 26 hours, mostly due to the delay at Walterboro at ElectrifyAmerica. Lost about 7 - 8 hours there. The only other Level 2 charger listed at a Hotel was in use by a Hotel Guest who left the car charge over night. Took me hours to find the free charger at Starbucks. Lost another 2 hours in Greensboro.. Played for 1 hour with the charger in downtown and then I had to drive to the other part of town where I had to wait to use the charger at the Jaguar dealership..
 
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BlueKonaEV said:
I used different stations.. My first stop was in Staunton/VA at a GreenLots Station.
2nd Stop was in Greensboro.. First I stopped at a Greenlots Charger in Downtown but it would not activate.. Only other fast charger in Greensboro was at Chargepoint DC charger at a Jaguar dealership. After a little wait for them to move a car, they allowed me to charge there.. Charged for 40 minutes, just enough to get to Charlotte/NC. Stopped at an EVGo charger there but the screen did not respond.. Luckily, there were plenty of DC chargers in Charlotte and I charged at another EvGo Charger that was working. Next Stop was at an EVGo charger in Columbia/SC at Richmond Library.. I could not get it to work. Charger would start up and immediately stop and send me a text messate: Charging was completed based on your settings.. I still had 40% charge left, so I decided to keep driving to Walterboro/SC to a Walmart ElectrifyAmerica Station. Unfortunately, I encountered the same issue that I encountered at the Columbia EVGo. Charger would not charge and send me messages that "charging was complete based on your settings". I checked my settings and no limits or time restrictions were set.. I was already worried about an issue with the car after having the SAME issue at 2 different chargers. Ended up finding a free Level 2 charger at a Starbucks (not listed on Chargehub.. found it with a google search). Charged for 3 hours to get enough charge to make it to Savannah GA where I charged for FREE at a Greenlots charger in Downtown Savannah. Took some time to activate the charger as the display was in very bad shape and you could barely see anything on the display. With the help of customer support, I was finally able to activate the charger.. Charged to 85% which was enough to make it to an EVGo Charger in St. Augustine/FL. That was my last stop on my way home.. I live in Lakeland/FL. We have a EVGo Charger in Lakeland that works very will with my car.
I used it once since then. Since I got my Level 2 Mustart Charger, I have not used any more public stations.. Went with the 26 amp version as I have a 150 amp breaker panel and didn't want to trip the main breaker on my house.. So far, I've charged my car 3 times over night with no issue of tripping the main breaker of the house..
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Wow, that was some trip! Congrats on braving the current state of fast charging. Did you not use the Plugshare app?
 
electriceddy said:
And I thought I was having problems at DCFCs, sounds like you got quite the workout; enjoy your new Kona EV!
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If it wasn't for that one charger in Walterboro, it would have been a lot smoother.. Not sure what caused the communication issue with that charger.. So far, I love the car.. My plan is to keep it for many years. I usually buy 1 or 2 year old cars instead of new but the original owner specific battery warranty made me choose to buy new. Getting $2k off MSRP also helped make my decision.. in 3 weeks, I will go on another road trip.. I should be able to make it to Fort Lauderdale on 1 charge and should only have to re-charge once before heading back.
 
BlueKonaEV said:
If it wasn't for that one charger in Walterboro, it would have been a lot smoother.. Not sure what caused the communication issue with that charger.. So far, I love the car.. My plan is to keep it for many years. I usually buy 1 or 2 year old cars instead of new but the original owner specific battery warranty made me choose to buy new. Getting $2k off MSRP also helped make my decision.. in 3 weeks, I will go on another road trip.. I should be able to make it to Fort Lauderdale on 1 charge and should only have to re-charge once before heading back.
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Congrats on your 2-tone beauty and your charging persistence.
 
Tony M. said:
Why disable VESS? It's there for the safety of pedestrians and has the added benefit of causing people to notice that an electric car is driving by. I've had my Kona since March and don't mind the sound at all.
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The sound is somewhat annoying after a while.. 2 of my co-workers have Teslas and they do not have any artificial sound on their vehicles, so I don't think that it's a big deal disabling it.. It is not yet required by law. Furthermore, it's the drivers responsibility anyways not to run over people. I'm very careful, so I'm pretty certain that I won't run over anybody..
 
How did you disable VESS? I have read others that have done the same and they get error messages after doing so.
 
That is quite a report on the state of the charging infrastructure in the U.S. outside of California. Wow. Enjoy your new car!
 
jayc1358 said:
How did you disable VESS? I have read others that have done the same and they get error messages after doing so.
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Post 30 (see link posted below).. On the US model of the Kona, the Vess unit sits at the same level of the radiator in the center. If you have thin hands, you should easily be able to get your hands on the connector. To remove the connector, just press the tab on top of the connector and it will come right off. I have no error messages on my dash and the VESS sound is off.. I left the connector sit right on top of the vess unit. All I need to do to turn it back on is to push down and connect it again..
https://www.insideevsforum.com/comm...-vess-virtual-engine-sound-system.5821/page-2
 
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