Interesting review just gone up.
For those who know nothing about EV cars, you'll probably go "meh".
For those that do know something about EV cars, you'll probably go "ooh!".
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATZ0g-Sz2s
Certainly got bags of range and toys for 30k anyway.
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Seems like a very good buy. Dunno what I'll go for next but no doubt it'll be a hybrid or EV
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Cheers, I watched the video. Certainly looks like a car that will appeal to many in that market. I think the issue is the rate that they can build them, I don't think it's very high.
Where are they made?
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I think they're made in South Korea. Supply looks to be an issue. Given the likely range, it feels to me like a viable company car. Arguably, the real world range of c. 250-270 miles forces a rest break for charging, so a company would feel that they're 'doing the right thing' in terms of employee wellbeing.
However, a quick check with Lex Autolease who manage our company fleet, confirms that the EV Kona is retail sales only for now, via Hyundai's online buying facility.
My car is due for change in early 2020, so perhaps by then they will have made it available to fleet customers. Very appealing from a BIK perspective. For the 2020/21 tax year, my current Golf GTD Estate would cost around £3,300 in BIK tax per annum. The Kona EV reduces that to under £300 per year. No comparison! I expect that figure will only go one way as HMRC need to line their coffers, but even so, it's a big saving.
Last edited by: Mr Moo on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 01:00
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... just double checked and the Golf would be nearer £3,700 in BIK tax by 2020!
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Sister company KIA is about to release the eNiro which has the same 64kWh pack, 250+ mile range, 201bhp motor, all wrapped in a more practical body.
Price should be similar to Kona.
Supply is also likely to be tight.
By 2020 Tesla Model 3 may be available in the UK, possibly below the magic 40 grand threshold.
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The drive technology sounds pretty good and useable. However as a car, in the ride, comfort, fit and finish, inside practicality, it falls quite short of being a nice car. - According to test reports anyway
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I guess they had to make cut backs to get the price down with that technology in it.
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To certain extent there has to be a reset of expectations. It's effectively a 20k car with 10k worth of EV bits, rather than a 30k pure car.
It's interesting to me, though, that having been nosying about with EV for what feels like forever, you can see the creep of targets "required" before someone will say ok, that's for me.
When I started, and the cars had about 100 miles range tops, people were saying "yeah yeah, come back to me when it's 200 miles and under an hour to charge". Then it was, and now it has to be "400 miles and fifteen minutes".
I imagine the real tipping point for many is probably 750 miles and five minutes; achievable now with diesel.
Would I buy a 200 mile range Kona, or any other EV? Nope. Lovely as it is, I would prefer not to do any charging in public at all, having been down that route, and even at 200 miles it's not enough for the sort of trips we do quite often. I'd start to feel comfortable with 300 miles...
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 09:28
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>> When I started, and the cars had about 100 miles range tops, people were saying
>> "yeah yeah, come back to me when it's 200 miles and under an hour to
>> charge". Then it was, and now it has to be "400 miles and fifteen minutes".
>>
>> I imagine the real tipping point for many is probably 750 miles and five minutes;
>> achievable now with diesel.
My tipping point is based on what I get now, and prepared to bend a tad for the benefit of cheap fuel.
300 miles and 15 minute charge would do me. However, that is a very blasé statement. It means in effect that if I drive 300 miles and stop for lunch I expect a fast charge to be there, and not be clogged up by someone else when I arrive.
This is the knub of the problem, cars being charged blocking charging points. To extrapolate that point to its logical conclusion if we all switched to EV. Assume it takes you, on average 5 minutes fill up with fuel, if it take an EV 15 minutes, you are going to need three times as many charging points than we have pumps. Ok they are going to be more widely spread, but you get an idea of the scale of the potential problem.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 09:46
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Yep - which is why public charging is a pain. Many of our journeys are a wibble into Norfolk, pub lunch, go round some villages, zip to the coast for afternoon tea, come back the pretty way. Often over 200 miles in a day, and not a charger in sight.
Even if there were, Mrs C wants to be out looking at things, not hanging about waiting for the stupid car, and I don't want to be thinking about plan B, plan C, plan D...
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When (or if) the technology allows a large fully laden estate car to do 400-500 miles on one charge and can be re-charged in 5 minutes, it'll start to make sense to me.
Whatever happened to hydrogen?
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I can’t even do 400 miles on one fill. Not complaining, just saying.
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So what MPG are you getting? Im on 28 here from a 15 gallon tank
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My average mpg is 26. Very little town driving, a few short runs, but mainly fast A roads. Trip computer now showing 26.8 mpg after an 80 mile round trip last night in atrocious weather conditions, and a similar trip today up to the Lake District which couldn’t be avoided as I had to attend a committee meeting at the end of the walk. Both driving and conditions underfoot were truly awful.
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Yeah, well, I expect they don't normally think that a car like yours would be required to go much further than a trip to the nail bar in normal use?
;-)
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>> Yeah, well, I expect they don't normally think that a car like yours would be
>> required to go much further than a trip to the nail bar in normal use?
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B076MRB11K/
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‘You talkin’ to me?’ Aka Travis Bickle
Talking of nails and hardware, screw you.
hehe
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>> Whatever happened to hydrogen?
>>
I was about to suggest that - forthcoming Hyundai Nexo is reckoned to be around 500 miles range.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 12:58
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>> Many of our journeys are a wibble into Norfolk, pub lunch, go round some villages, zip to the coast for
>> afternoon tea, come back the pretty way. Often over 200 miles in a day, and
>> not a charger in sight.
>>
It's so flat in Norfolk that the anticipated 300 mile range is really 400 there! :-)
On a more serious note, I reckon 500 miles and a 10 minute charge cycle would do me as that's about what I get in my diesel at the moment (and a dreadful 45 MPG).
I wonder how much the weight of the vehicle impacts range? I guess if we start seeing titanium and carbon fibre components used in mainstream cars to save weight and increase range then that would be a good thing.
Last edited by: zippy on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 11:21
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The thing that seems to hold these back is capacity for the batteries themselves. Very limited supply in comparison to ICE, which means much higher unit costs.
One thing in the review they skipped over quite quickly was the price compared to a petrol version, the comparison was described as 'irrelevant' I'm not so sure. Perhaps in the sense that they are aimed at different markets (it's 12k more) but it does highlight how far they still have to come in terms of economies of scale to bring the price down. I wonder what how low the price would go if they were produced on a similar scale to ICE?
As to the comparison of range and recharge time with ICE I'm not sure many will be waiting until it's a 400 miles and a 10 minute recharge, although I'm sure they'd like to. I think taxation will see people and companies moving across long before the cars become a like for like comparison. Although they'll still be not too shabby by then.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 12:41
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ICE??
In car entertainment?
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Internal combustion engine.
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Internal Combustion Engine.
Doooh!
Im obliged.
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What happens to a XX minute charge when someone plugs in and goes for a two hour lunch?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 14:19
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>> What happens to a XX minute charge when someone plugs in and goes for a
>> two hour lunch?
>>
Same way as any behaviour you want to discourage. £££.
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The Kona and Niro really interest me.
Hybrid or EV though?
Would need to do lots of calculations on all the costs!
The 66 plate hybrid had £10 tax. The PHEV is £150 or something.
My current Civic Diesel must be the cheapest motoring. Between 58-63 real mpg. Zero road tax. First five services included in price.
So I have bought 4 tyres. Other than that, fuel and some screenwash that’s been it!
Hybrid v the 20 mile range EV Niro. Anyone want to do the calculations?
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There's a guy on www.Speakev.com called Stageshoot who has a Kona EV.
He expects to do something like 150k miles over the next 2 years as part of his work.
His biggest beef is having to have a 10k service every 6 weeks to keep the warranty intact.
www.speakev.com/threads/2-month-8000-mile-review.130050/
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sat 1 Dec 18 at 18:47
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Why did Kia feel the need to fit an automatic gearstick from a 1980s Granada to the Niro??
Looks big, chunky and unnecessary compared to stubby BMW gearsticks
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Is a whim of stylists - current Soul EV has a big 80s style shift lever, Hyundai Ioniq has DRNP buttons, SoulEv due next year has a vaguely Jaguaresque knob.
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New Kona EV - R.P.
