Hyundai Kona Electric 2019 is it a good choice if you need an EV?

no manufacturer is more invested in the whole concept of clean automotive and mobility than Hyundai the brand has eco petrol hybrid plug-in hybrid and even hydrogen fuel cell options in its current range and of course some full electric battery powered models here's perhaps the most appealing of them the Kohner electric unlike Highland eyes other full electric offering the battery powered version of the ionic family hatch this car isn't uniquely styled as a Prius like eco class model but nor is it merely a converted version of a normal combustion engine design as to say a Volkswagen e-golf would be instead this coner electric is something in between in design concepts and it's something in between when it comes to your driving range expectations of an electric vehicle - prior to this houndeyes arrival the full electric car market was pretty much divided into a couple of kinds of contender there were relatively affordable ones like the Nissan Leaf developed steadily to the point where their lithium-ion batteries can offer up to around 180 miles on a good day all for around twice the money buyers can graduate to the more sophisticated battery technology that luxury models use cars like the Jaguar ipace the Audi e-tron the Mercedes EQC and various Tesla's with these a driving range of around 300 miles or more is the norm this Kona's chief selling point is that it offers you the kind of range you'd get in a luxury ev4 the kind of price you'd pay for a more affordable one as selling points go that's a pretty strong one though unfortunately for Hyundai it isn't an exclusive attribute all the same engineering that features in this car can also be found for a similar price in its cousin the Kia Eenie row that cars also a compact SUV but is much less overtly styled as one leaving this kona probably better place to capitalize on the market's current craze for crossovers those who want to satisfy their SUV desires in tandem with evey planet consciousness are promised 279 miles of WL TP rated driving range if you go for the larger capacity version and assuming you install a seven kilowatt wall box charger in your garage you'll be easily able to completely recharge the battery overnight there's decent space inside a biggish 332 litre boot and exhilaration that'll take you from rest to 62 miles an hour quicker than some hot hatches sounds promising doesn't it let's put this car to the test [Music] so what's it like though electric cars have been around for a long time now they've not really been valuable for many ordinary motorists but since this one claims to be we're going to assume that quite a lot of people who try one for the first time will never have driven an electric car before the Kohner electric is pretty easy to adjust to the only really unfamiliar thing is the need to use transmission buttons on the center console just like on an Aston Martin these ones though are for the single speed auto gearbox that all EVs have to have you'll need to adjust to these silence when you push the starter button - and - what happens when you merely brush the accelerator to initiate forward motion the way this Carl hurls itself away from rest is pretty surprising the first time you experience it but once you understand the drive dynamics here though the rush of blood to the head that this Hyundai gets every time you press the loud pedal with any real vigor is only to be expected there's a lot more pulling power than would be generated by an equivalent combustion engine 395 Newton meters of torque and all of it delivered to you right from the get-go rather than building as it would do with a fossil fuels powerplant some of our colleagues in the media have implied that this throws the kona electric off course in a somewhat wayward fashion a bit like the torque steer on poorly developed hot hatches of the 80s in which you could change lanes merely by stamping on the throttle actually that's a huge exaggeration there's certainly no doubt that the front wheels of this car struggle to channel its prodigious reserves of torque to the tarmac not helped by the feeble necks end tires developed for low rolling resistance rather than grip but all you actually feel is a slight pull on the steering wheel and a brief chirp of these stability systems as Kohner catapults itself forward with the kind of pace you'd expect from a powerful hot hatch like all electric cars it runs out of puffs pretty soon after mind you at which point you realize that driving the car in this way is somewhat ridiculous not least because the energy you've just pointed to use is probably going to take an extra half hours worth of charging replenishment just how much charging replenishment will depend to some extent on the version of this model that you've chosen there are actually two the coner electric range kicks off with a variant conforming to the kind of battery capacity offered by most similarly priced evie rivals offering 39 kilowatt hours the main issue with the base variant though is driving range the quoted WL TP rated range reading for that entry-level derivative 180 miles from a single charge is actually very class competitive but it still pales in comparison with the 279 mile WL TP rated figure that's claimed for the 64 kilowatt hour version we're trying here the one that most customers will choose as we've said elsewhere in this film that's enough to make the Kohner electric and everyday useable proposition in a way that Hyundais other battery powered model the ioniq electric which has a WL TP rated range limited to just 140 miles simply isn't you're going to need to adjust to a slightly different style of driving mind you to maximize the distance you can travel between charges which primarily means management of the energy regenerative process that kicks in when you come off the throttle like some other EVs this one provides you with paddle shifters behind the steering wheel that allow you to either intensify or reduce the regenerative braking feel in this case through three stages select stage three and you'll hardly ever have to use the brake pedal at all and in fact you can actually bring the car to a complete stop just by pulling on the steering wheel paddle something we haven't seen before on an Eevee though is any kind of system - autumn eyes the regenerative process based on traffic flow and that's what this Kona's smart regenerative braking system does using the safety system radar sensor to constantly calculate the optimum level of braking regeneration based on the positioning of vehicles ahead when you set off in this Kona it defaults to the auto system which delivers a slightly strange brake pedal feel and what can sometimes seem like slightly abrupt levels of retardation until you adjust to the way the setup works and learn to trust it we've preferred to deactivate the smart system which you can do via this right-hand steering wheel button and use the paddle shifters instead a more familiar Eevee feature is that for creating artificial noise to warn those on the pavement of your approach in urban areas this V ESS button down to the right of the steering wheel activates the virtual external sound system in question and it works at up to 15 miles an hour it's not very loud and would probably be drowned out on busier urban streets but at least it shows that automotive engineers are thinking of the possible dangers that battery powered vehicles pose to deaf or visually impaired pedestrians given the speed at which this one can suddenly appear out of nowhere rest to 62 miles an hour takes nine point seven seconds in the 39 kilowatt hour version and just 7.6 seconds in this sixty four kilowatts hour variant that's all welcomed around town you might sometimes struggle with rear over-the-shoulder vision in this car hence the need for the standard reversing camera but maneuverability is as agile as it would be in Eddy ordinary Kona despite the absence of a sizeable internal combustion engine the cars turning circle remains unchanged at ten point six meters get beyond the city limits onto twisting secondary roads and you'll be in territory where an electric vehicle would usually be far less in its comfort zone because of the hefty battery packs they have to cart about v's usually battle big-time with weight that means the need for firm suspension to stop the car from are wallowing about through the bends which means in turn that you feel every bump and ripple in the road this one has weight issues too at almost 1.7 tons it's nearly 300 kilos heavier than a conventional conent model but I on day has managed that bulk much better first by spreading it out evenly across the floor pan so lowering the center of gravity and second by incorporating the suppler more sophisticated independent rear suspension setup you'll only find on more powerful four-wheel drive versions of the conventional Kohner it isn't a perfect solution you still feel deeper potholes and sharper speed humps more keenly than we'd like but it's certainly an improvement on the EEV market norm and it contributes to cornering composure at speed that's much better than we expected it would be it's just a pity that electric steering is so relatively feel free on the highway the relative quietness of the drive line means that you particularly notice tire and wind noise and even things like the wiper motor and the ventilation fan the acceleration on offer starts to thin out very noticeably once you get beyond 65 miles an hour a characteristic that could do with being set a touch higher to fit in with a more usual national limit of course you won't often be approaching the top speed capability or at least you won't if you want to preserve anything like a reasonable driving range figure anyway but for the record it's 96 miles an hour for the 39 kilowatt hour version and 106 miles an hour for this 64 kilowatt hour variant another way of quickly depleting or traveling distance between charges is to select the most urgent of the three driving modes on offer sport which gives you noticeably quicker throttle response and Bay's the single instrument dial ahead of you in an orange glow you'll try it once then stay in the other two settings Eco and normal for most of the time after that perhaps with one eye on the energy flow graphic you can select to show you at any given time what's being powered or charged by what as in any Eevee there are lots of screen options to allow you to plan your route around your remaining available charge or to engage in partly justified smugness and the extent of your eco friendliness in comparison to combustion engine to travel this one though delivers more where it matters if you buy it you probably won't ever exactly replicate that 279 mile driving range figure we quoted earlier for this 64 kilowatts our variants but there's the potential to regularly get in the right kind of ballpark between charges which is what matters and what makes this the very first Eevee that many families will ever have been able to consider for them the future starts right here [Music] when he and I created its first mainstream electric car the ioniq it started from a clean sheet of paper but with this Kona electric the companies came to show that evie design can be just as effective when it uses a shared platform and body shell with combustion engined cars it helps that the model in question here is a high-riding SUV so the batteries can be packaged in more easily without affecting cabin space spread across the floor pan for a low center of gravity as they would be in a Tesla key sangli high and eyes director of research and development says that Tesla's Model 3 directly influenced the development of this car but in profile from the rear this really doesn't look like the unique piece of automotive engineering it actually is in fact you'd have to examine this car pretty closely to distinguish it from any other conventional Kona variant only from the front does this battery powered version very clearly visually differentiate itself mainly through this closed plastic grille panel which incorporates a flap for the charge point that necessitates a redesigned bumper which incorporates active air flaps that enhance the aerodynamics and you get this separate silver garnish connecting the high-level daytime running lights under the bonnet here you'll find the electric power unit integrated with the battery inverter and the cooling equipment in profile as we've said that look as much as it would be with any other Kona though if you were to get your tape measure out you'd find this one to be 15 millimeters longer the lower side skirts and wheel arch cladding is unique to this model as are these 17 inch alloy wheels though they're rather fussy detailing makes it rather look as if plastic wheel trims have been fitted from the side this Kona electric certainly has a chunkier more overtly SUV style demeanor than its Korean cousin the Kia Niro with this super short rear overhang front wing design supposed to suggest forward direction that's also the purpose of this rather unusual mid-level style increase which rises up from just below the door mirror before flowing back above the handles and easing into the Power Packs rear see pillar roof rails are standard and if you avoid entry-level trim there's the option of this contrast color roof finish further down a further sill level style increase gives the flanks some shape move to the back and the styling flourishes come equally thick and fast your eyes drawn by the wraparound cladding that houses the redesigned indicators and the reversing lights and then perhaps by these slim high set tail lamps which are LED lit on most variants the neat roof spoiler incorporates an LED brake lights while lower down this silvered skid plate style panel is intended to add to the crossover demeanor as at the front the bumper has been reshaped for improved air flow will offer a bit of dimensional perspective from back here to b-segment suvs of this type are typically sized midway between conventional super mini and family hatchback models and this one's no different 145 millimeters longer than Hyundai i20 super mini and 160 millimeters shorter than the brand's i30 family hatch enough with all that let's take a seat at the wheel now the cabin differences over an ordinary Kona are actually more pronounced than we thought they might be the key change being the installation of this wider aircraft style silver-trimmed center console which incorporates the shift by wire push-button controls for the single speed auto gearbox that all evie models have to have also quite different is the instrument binnacle little surprisingly high and I hasn't chosen to install a digital screen but the usual twin analog dials have been replaced by a larger single one flanked on the right by a screen showing trip computer safety and compass readouts on the left far side of the binnacle there's a readout showing you whether the drivetrain is in a state-of-charge eco or power and on the far left you can see the state of battery charge for the money being asked here it's possible that you might be a touch disappointed by the look and feel of this cabin particularly if you happen to have stumped up around 35,000 pounds for this top spec premium SE sixty four kilowatt hour variant there's certainly plenty of kit at this level of the range head-up display powered ventilated seats a heated steering wheel and so on but not much wow factor to the design and finish of the interior decor you'd never know that the leather used for the seats and around the steering wheel was real and the somber one toned black trimmed cabin that almost all buyers will have to have is rather drab there's no option to specify in the extra cost color packs that brighten up the interiors of more conventional Kona models though at the top of the range you can have a three tone blue and grey interior package to be frank we're not sure it's much of an improvement much older designs in this segment like Volkswagens eGolf show hi and I just how far it's standards of cabin design ought to have progressed but you can't deny that this Kona electric gets the really important things right like this centre - infotainment screen which will be eight inches in size like this one provided you don't go for the base spec thirty-nine kilowatt an hour version which makes do with a lesser seven inch monitor lacking navigation sat-nav is a crucial evie model feature because of the way that mapping functionality integrates into range readouts and helps you to locate nearby charging stations that certainly works well here and it's easy to use and switch between Energy Information evey routing charge management and eco driving sections without having to spend hours briefing yourself with handbook tutorials unfortunately there's no separate I Drive style control for this setup such as you get in say a rival BMW i3 but we like the clear neat graphics of this display with its usefully large flanking shortcut buttons and voice controlled activation this monitor is also your interface for controlling the powerful 8 speaker Krell da B audio system that standard on all premium spec models and the package of TomTom live services that alerts you to speed cameras update you on the weather and provide accurate information on traffic jams and roadworks with either size of screen you can also connect in your handset using the apple carplay and android auto smart phone mirroring systems what else well your spared the shapeless short journey only front seats that often tend to be fitted to cars in this class instead this Kohner gets unexpectedly cushy pews that should allow all shapes and sizes to get comfortable you're not Sat particularly commandingly in what is supposed to be an SUV but there's standard lumbar support and reach adjustment for the three-spoke leather trimmed multifunction steering wheel neither feature can be had in a rival Misun leaf as is often the case in cars of this sort rearward visibility is compromised by the highly stylized rear end with its thick pillars and small rear screen now hyundai is apparently aware of this which is why rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera come as standard and cabin practicality well you get a bit more of that in this electric model under this broad center console in a combustion engined car reaching space will be required underneath this console for the linkages between the mechanical gearshift and the transmission take that away and you get this huge area of extra lower storage space embellished by a 12-volt port the top of this console has space for this lidded cubby - which incorporates USB and aux-in points plus the wireless charging mat you get on upper spec models otherwise from a stowage point of view it's much as it would be in any other Kohner so there are twin holder's by the transmission controls tiny door pockets with bottle holders a deep lidded box between the seats storage crevices in the door pulls a large cooled glove box ticket clips in the Sun visors and an overhead compartment for your sunglasses and in the rear well it's in this part of the car that you're likely to be most keenly reminded that you've bought an SUV based on a supermini size platform rather than that of a family hatchback the Highlander ioniq you could have bought for a fraction less on the other side of your dealers showroom is a substantial 290 millimeters lengthier than this Kona the Evie market-leading Nissan Leaf is 310 millimeters longer now these are the kind of differences you'd expect to really notice once you take a seat inside as it turns out it's not too bad in here for the carriage of two folk providing they're not especially lanky of leg if they are then compromises will need to be made by the front seat occupants in order to be able to accommodate them the body shell is slightly wider than it would be in a supermini sized Evie like a Renault Zoe or a BMW i3 though not by enough to make the prospect of sharing the backseat with two other adults a particularly comfortable one despite this relatively low centre transmission tunnel six-footers will find their heads brushing the ceiling - but is the room you'd get in a Nissan Leaf or a Volkswagen e-golf really that much better no not really given the placement of the battery packs beneath the floor we weren't surprised to find that the seat base here doesn't slide but it would have been nice if Hyundai had incorporated a reclining backrest ironically you don't get any charging ports back here either still you do get seat back storage Nets a couple of isofix child seat mounts for the two outer seats compact door bins incorporating bottle holders and a center armrest with a couple of cupholders it's finished with a few words on boot space now the design team's efforts to build in the battery packs in a way that doesn't impinge on carriage capacity haven't been entirely successful that's fallen from the 361 litre total you get in a standard Kohner to 332 litres here that's only fractionally less than you'd get in an ionic collector II but it leaves you around a hundred litres down on the kind of space you'd get in a rival Nissan Leaf and its 119 litres less than you get from the mechanically identical Kia Eenie ro you won't fit more than four carry-on suitcases back here the smaller rival Renault Zoe can swallow six cases and in this and leaf 7 certainly the space provided here could prove a little limiting if you've a young family or like to engage in the kind of active pursuits that advertising departments seem usually to associate with SUVs still at least the load bay is well shaped with little intrusion either from the wheel arches all these suspension turrets and has both a wide opening and a low lip there's a bag hook on the left plus you get a useful cargo net that can be clipped onto these for silver tie-down points the adjustable height boot floor can't be repositioned at a lower level unless you remove this polystyrene compartmentalised compartment below it and because no spacesaver spare wheels provided you can't even specify one as an option there's also a little extra space below that that could be used to shield more valuable items from prying eyes push forward the 60/40 split-folding rear seat and you'll reveal a relatively flat loading floor with as much as 1114 liters of total fresh air if you low to the roof [Music] what Heian dies Eevee competitors were expecting here was a fairly straightforward proposition and on the road price in the 27 to 29 thousand pound bracket battery capacity around 40 kilowatt hours and 180 miles of WL TP rated driving range and indeed that's almost precisely what's delivered by the base 39 kilowatt hour version of this Kona Electric which is offered in two guises SE and plusher premium with an extra cost of just under 1,500 pounds to go from one to the other but what the market wasn't expecting was the version of this Kona electric that we're trying here the 64 kilowatt hour variant that almost all customers of this battery powered model will want with this top derivative there's two hundred and seventy nine miles of w LT PG rated range for around 33,000 pounds if you go for a Premium trim model or around 35,000 pound if you go for the top premium SE variant that we're testing today all the prices we've just quoted you includes subtraction of the 3,500 pound government grant provided towards purchase of full evie vehicles as you may know the government no longer offers grants for plug-in hybrid models Hyundai claims the grant on your behalf so you just pay the subtracted figure we say hi indict rather than your local dealer because at the time of this test the only way to buy a Kona electric was through Highland eyes national website to give you some Kona range perspective will tell you that if you were to choose a conventional 1.6 litre CRDi 136 PS diesel version of this Kona model you'll be paying somewhere in the twenty to twenty-five thousand pound bracket depending on the specification chosen talking of Hyundai models let's position this Kona electric for you in the Eco part of the company's lineup the base 39 kilowatt hour version cost us five hundred pounds more than the brands are the full electric offering the Prius sized ionic family hatch which seems very good value given that the ioniq has a much smaller 28 kilowatt hour battery and therefore a considerably reduced driving range WL TP at 140 miles but the other end of the spectrum the brand also offers the markets leading hydrogen fuel cell model that Nexo which has a 414 mile range and offers a tank that can be fully replenished in just five minutes that's the good news the bad news is that the Nexo costs around sixty five thousand pounds even after you've subtracted the government grant towards purchase and there are just 12 hydrogen filling stations in the whole country thought that'll put you off across all brands you'll probably need some electric vehicle segment perspective here in order to inform any prospective purchase so we'll we'll try and give it try not to glaze over with all the figures and we'll try and simplify your options as much as is possible the evie sectors market leader Nissan's Leaf is mainly sold in 40 kilowatt out form where it gives you 168 miles of WL TP rated range for prices in the 26 to 29 thousand pound bracket because it leaf is family hatch sized it probably makes slightly more sense than its closest rival the super mini size to run on Zowie which in its highest output form offers you a 40 kilowatt hour battery pack with a 186 mile driving range but it's fractionally cheaper priced from around 24,000 pound if bought outright that's zowie range figure forced to just 124 miles in winter sized midway between those two cars is BMWs i3 another car with a battery pack size at around the 40 kilowatt hour mark the i3 gives you slightly more WL TP rated driving range than than this and all the Renault 192 miles but costs quite a lot more pricing starting from around 32,000 pounds less competitive is the Volkswagen e-golf which uses a slightly smaller 35.8 kilowatt hour battery pack so offers just 144 miles of WL TP rated driving range yet costs around 30,000 pounds those are all the key players in the affordable part of the e V market and as you'll have noticed if you followed the thread of all those stats all those cars compete directly only with the lesser 39 kilowatt hour version of this Kona electric model is there anything affordable that can take on the longer range of this 64 kilowatt hour version well not much this an offers an e plus leaf variant that uses a larger capacity 62 kilowatt hour battery and at the time of this Kona electric models launch was priced at around 31,000 pounds but the e plus leaf models quoted 239 mile wlt be rated range is turned away off what you get in the top version of this high-end I a more obvious rival to this Kona Electric is the car that shares all its engineering the Kea eenie row there you get the same high-capacity 64 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion polymer battery pack as you'll find in this high-end I so a very similar 282 mile wlt PG rated driving range and an asking price that for a fully loaded version would be around 33,000 pound but if you want an overtly SUV style look and feel inside and out the e Niro doesn't really offer that otherwise your only option is to move way up markets and pay almost twice as much for a premium badged luxury segment evey cars like the Jaguar I pace or the Tesla Model 3 or if you can afford even more maybe an Audi e-tron a Mercedes EQC or perhaps even a Tesla Model S the Jaguar and the Tesla Model 3 can take you only fractionally further on a full charge than a Kona electric 64 kilowatt-hours at 292 and 310 miles respectively the Audi the Mercedes and the Model S can do a little better but then you'd expect that given the exalted asking prices they charge if you're beginning to lose track of all of these numbers let's try and give you a simpler perspective by presenting your easy options on a straightforward range for the money basis figures as of the time of this test in early 2019 based on the official wlt P rated range and base spec versions in each case in a Jaguar I pasted the upfront asking price means you would be paying 217 pounds for every mile of claimed electric driving range with a Volkswagen e-golf the figure would be similar 206 pounds the price of a Nissan Leaf 40 kilowatt hour means that you're paying 155 pounds for every mile of driving range while for a Renault Zoe its 134 pounds until the launch of this hi and I know electric car had got close to the threatening the 100 pound barrier in this regard but the high output Kona Electric does so much more credibly it's asking price in premium form coming in at 117 pounds for every mile of claimed electric range if you need a convincing stat there it is enough you've got the idea now let's say you're convinced and which is by no means certain you've managed to get yourself a place on what at the time of this test was a fairly lengthy coner electric buyers waiting list just how generous has high and I beam with the standard spec well let's see all the key electric drive elements come fitted of course throughout the range the single speed push-button auto transmission regenerative brake shift paddles and a drive mode selector with a choice of sport or eco settings oh and two charging cables a seven pin type to lead and an emergency three pin connector as for other features well we'll start with the base SE spec that applies only to the entry-level thirty-nine kilowatt hour version in this model here you get 17-inch alloy wheels also headlamps with LED daytime running lights roof rails and front fog lamps plus rear parking sensors keyless entry and a rear parking camera plus a package of useful camera driven safety items we'll cover off in a minute inside in an SE spec model there's air conditioning driver's seat lumbar support and a leather wrapped steering wheel infotainment taken care of by a 7 inch touchscreen display audio setup with a da be tuner bluetooth and apple carplay and android auto smart phone mirroring and there's also a smart adaptive cruise control system that can regulate your distance to the vehicle in front on the highway and includes a stop-and-go function that can if necessary even slow you down to a stop and seamlessly start you off again if you come across a tail we'd be a touch concern though about the thought of running an Eevee without an integrated sat-nav system to show you graphically just how far any given charge might be able to take you for that you'll need to stretch to mid-range premium trim which displays its navigation setup on a larger 8 inch Center - screen that also includes an upgraded 8 speaker Krell premium audio system and Highlanders useful package of live services that alert you to speed cameras update you on the weather and provide accurate information on traffic jams and roadworks other standard premium spec features include automatic wipers rear privacy glass LED tail lamps and also dimming rear-view mirror solar glass a front of parking sensors a wireless phone charging pad and some extra camera driven safety kit ideally though you'd want to buy in at the top of the range get the gutsiest 64 kilowatt hour version and equip it to plush premium SE spec which as we said earlier is what we've got here premium SE trim gets you niceties like full LED headlights with high-beam assist plus static cornering lights inside there's leather upholstery that's both heated and ventilated at the front a head-up display a heated steering wheel and a power driver seat so much for the standard stuff what about options well there aren't many before considering them make sure that if you're new to the world of easy motoring you budget for the extra you're going to need to install a charging wall box in your garage Hyundai offers a seven kilowatt home charge package in partnership with pod point which will cost you 300 pounds once you've subtracted the available 500 pound government o le V or office for low emission vehicles grant and beyond that well bear in mind that unless you want your Kona Electric finished in galactic gray you'll have to pay high on-die extra for one of the various metallic or pearl effect paint colors as you can see we've got bright tangerine comet here avoid SE trim and you'll have the further option of adding in this dark 2-tone roof opt for a premium SE variant painted in either Galactic grey choc white or ceramic blue and you'll be able to exercise the no-cost option of a three tone blue and grey interior package that lifts the feel with the otherwise quite somber one tone black trimmed cabin quite a bit let's finish by looking at this car from a safety perspective over 50% of the body is fashioned from ultra high-strength steel and features a ring shaped cabin structure that disperses crush energy in various directions in the event of a collision reducing the consequences of an impact for passengers to build on this Honda has included most key elements of its smart sense camera driven safety technology across the range the most significant feature is the autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian recognition package which costs extra on most more conventional versions of this Kohner the system is operational between five and fifty miles an hour and as you drive scans the road ahead in search of potential accidents hazards which can include pedestrians if something or someone is detected you'll be warned if you don't respond or aren't able to the brakes will automatically be applied to decrease the severity of any resulting accident also standard across the range are further camera driven features there's driver attention alert which monitors your driving reactions for drowsiness and Lane keep assist which alerts you if you drift over the lane delineating lines on the highway and if you don't respond then automatically uses subtle steering guidance to ease the car back into the right position on the road avoid bass SE trim and you get more a rear cross-traffic alert system that uses the same radar and camera setup to alert you to oncoming traffic if you're reversing out of a parking space and blind spot detection which alerts you if you're dangerously about to pull out in front of another vehicle in addition you get Lane follow assist which works in conjunction with the a standard smart adaptive cruise control system and a speeds of up to 90 miles an hour helps to keep you in the center of your lane on the highway by subtly controlling the steering there's also a speed limit indicator function that pictures road signs as you pass and displays them on the dash as mentioned earlier the full LED headlamps of a premium se variant also get High Beam Assist that automatically dips them at night in the face of oncoming traffic as for more familiar standard safety stuff well like every Kohner this one offers twin front side and curtain airbags as well as ESC or electronic stability control and VSM or vehicle stability management that includes torque vectoring to brake an inner wheel if the car is running wide through curves bringing it back on to a safe course talking of turns there's also cornering brake control which delivers asymmetrical brake pressure to counter loss of traction when braking in tight curves and a straight-line stability feature which senses any difference in applied brake pressure between the right and left of the car and intervenes to keep it straight in addition the ABS brakes have a brake assist feature that helps in emergency stops that will be advertised to following motorists by an emergency stop signaling feature that flashes the hazard lights to let them know what's going on and there's ISOFIX child seat mountings a tire pressure monitoring system that keeps an eye out for punctures and a hill-start assist control feature to prevent the car from rolling backwards as you set off on our clients the kind of driving range you used to get from early electric vehicles sixty to seventy miles between charges if you were lucky seems pretty laughable these days particularly if you happen to be at the wheel of a Kohner electric in the 64 kilowatt hour guys we're testing here the useless old NEDC rated evey driving range predictions have now been replaced by stricter a much more accurate w LT p or world harmonized light vehicle test procedure readings which are much closer to what you're likely to get in the real world that's important to know because in researching evey models you may still come across plenty of over-optimistic any DC range predictions particularly from over enthusiastic salespeople insist on w LT p readings for a better real-world idea of what the electric vehicle you have in mind is going to be able to deliver and according to w LT p figures this sixty four kilowatt hour kona Electric is supposed to be able to cover 279 miles between charges you might not be especially impressed by that figure unless you were clued into just how much lower the W LT p rated driving range is from other similarly priced volume brand evey models with a BMW i3 you're looking at 192 miles with a Renault Zoe its 186 miles though curiously only in the summer and in a 40 kilowatt hour Nissan Leaf is hundred sixty-eight miles and in a Volkswagen e-golf is just 144 miles so know all affordable V's aren't the same some do get closer to the range this top coner electric variant can offer there's a pricier 62 kilowatt hour a plus version of the Nissan Leaf that gives you 239 miles but even there this high under significant advantage remains to equal what's on offer here you've either to choose the identically engineered Kia Eenie row that cost the same as this Kona but it's less SUV like and trendy or pay nearly twice as much for something like a Jaguar ipace or a Tesla Model 3 neither of which will take you much further on a single charge if you've not viewed earlier sections of this film you might not be aware that there's another less capable Kohner electric model on offer with a smaller of 39.2 kilowatt hour battery pack that gives you 180 miles of w LTP driving range but we can't imagine that too many buyers will choose it the extra four thousand pounds or so needed to get this gutsy er 64 kilowatt hour variant does after all give you a range increase large enough to make a real difference the lesser version couldn't really ever be considered as an only family car used carefully this top version almost could be in testing electric cars at car and driving we've often tended to take driving range figures be they any DC or W LTP based with a rather large pinch of salt this one's different in our testing we found it relatively easy to regularly break the 200 mile mark which is about 75 to 80 miles more than we've managed in rivals like the a3 the leaf or the Zoe and if this car was used with a modicum of restraint with no difficulty in believing that around 250 miles would be possible which is a kind of figure we've sometimes struggled to get from really pricey Tesla models of course to maximize your driving range you're going to need to make a copious use of the various driving aids Hyundai provides there's a Power Meter driving gauge to the left of the speedometer in the instrument binnacle and the idea here being to keep the needle in the charge band as often as possible there's also a driving style section in the trip computer screen that can display to the left of the instrument binnacle and award you percentage readings for economical normal and dynamic progress the other key to maximizing efficiency is to effectively harvest regenerative braking energy which sounds complicated but actually isn't these paddles behind the wheel allow you to dial in so much braking energy but the car will almost stop on its own but that won't do much for the smoothness of your everyday progress so you'll have to balance that against your driving range expectations alternatively the car can look after the whole regeneration thing for you with Auto recuperation software that uses the car's radar transceiver to constantly measure the distance to the vehicle in front it's a system that sometimes feels rather jerky so in our experience it's better to switch it off and decide on your own settings via the paddles you'll also be using the Eco section of the center - touchscreen rather a lot most frequently we've used either the e V route option which shows how much of your planned route can be completed with your remaining range or the map display option which uses colored radius graphics on a country map to show the extent of the journey you could undertake with the battery range the car has remaining plus of course it can show you all your local charging points and direct you to the nearest one there's also an Energy Information section that shows your total driving range with or without the climate control on and your battery charge percentage plus it'll tell you at any given time how long charge replenishment will take either from an AC or a DC charging point an e V settings section allows you to select a winter mode which improves driving performance and D DC charging performance in winter though this feature will slightly reduce your overall range finally if you want to feel smug as you survey other road users you can switch to a charge management a section that shows you the co2 reduction you've achieved compared to a gasoline car of similar size a history section shows how much this is varied over time we should get onto charging issues replenishing a battery pack this big isn't for the faint-hearted but provided it can be done overnight most owners will be more than satisfied that's easily possible in this Kona once you've installed a seven kilowatt wall box in your garage you can revive the cells from empty in around nine and a half hours it's just over six hours in the 39 kilowatt hour model that's three times quicker than it would take if you merely plug this car into a domestic 3-pin supplying the nine and a half hour charge would cost in the region of around nine pounds on most household terrasse based on electricity costs at the time of this test the spring of 2019 if when you're out and about you can find a CCS charging point with a 50 kilowatt DC charger there are over a thousand in the UK then you'll find that a zero to 80 rapid charge will take around 75 minutes no matter which Kohner electric version you've opted for what else might you need to know well as a Kohner electric owner you'll be exempt from the London congestion charge and for the second year of ownership you won't have to pay an annual ve D tax disc charge for company car users electric vehicles offer potentially huge tax savings as they incur benefiting kind taxation fixed at just nine percent compared to 22 percent for a diesel car emitting 100 g/km of co2 or just over as for your warranty well it's the usual comprehensive Hyundai deal a five-year unlimited mileage package that comes as standard it's backed up by breakdown cover that lasts the same length of time and free and your vehicle health checks over this duration true rival brand Kia claims to better this package by offering a similar seven year deal but they're your limited to one hundred thousand miles there's an eight year or 125 thousand mile warranty on the battery and should you run out of charge and find yourself stuck by the roadside there's three years of emergency assistance included that will help you to the nearest working charged point you can extend this cover to five years at a minimal extra cost maintenance will obviously be cheaper than it would be for a combustion engined model an electric vehicle does after all have 20% fewer moving parts service intervals on a Kona electric are every year or every 10,000 miles which is quite a bit more frequent than a rival Nissan Leaf which is every 18,000 miles Hyundai offers two prepaid service plans for this model one is for three years and 30,000 miles which costs 290 pounds so about a pound a month the other is for five years and forty thousand miles which costs four hundred and fifty pounds if you're wondering about residual values well these will vary depending on future market take-up of EVs at the moment any electric vehicle will shed its value faster than a conventional petrol or diesel model but that state of affairs could change very quickly as prevailing public opinion is shaped by the media independent experts reckon that after three years and 60,000 miles a Kona electric 64 kilowatts hour would still be worth thirteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-five pounds over what would be a more realistic three-year or thirty thousand mile ownership span for an e V the figure would be sixteen thousand three hundred and fifty pounds insurance is a bit higher than the market average a thirty nine kilowatt hour se model is rated at group twenty two or group twenty three in premium trim this 64 kilowatt hour version is rated at group 26 in premium trim or group 27 in this premium se spec to give you some perspective all miss Hanley 40 kilowatt hour and BMW i3 models are rated at group 21 and what about the green issues some in the green Lobby get very angry about the whole pure electric car zero emissions ethos they reckon that ignores the well two-wheel demands of supplying the electricity that powers cars of this kind we'd respond by pointing out that these people usually completely overlook the fact that co2 figures for conventional cars fail to take into account the logistical cost of getting fuel to the pump still if you're one of those enviro conscious folk will tell you using a well two wheels calculation based on typical use of the UK's energy grid the burden of filling your batteries in this car will result in a theoretical sixty-two gram per kilometer of co2 being released into the atmosphere that's certainly good but some way from being completely green which is also a comment you could apply to electric vehicle engineering as a whole lithium-ion batteries aren't recyclable in the way that the fuel cells used in hydrogen powered vehicles are and currently when evey vehicles are reaching the end of their lives the batteries are being reused as electricity storage buffers after that though they can't simply be scrapped because lithium ion has explosive elements so these batteries are simply being buried in landfills which is hardly sustainable in the long term for humankind but then nor is the pollution caused by combustion power if you see the evey solution as the lesser of the two evils and your purchase of the battery-powered model must be contained within a reasonable budget we think it's difficult to ignore this one [Music] I owned I seems to specialize in game-changing design the ix35 FCV was the world's first mass-market hydrogen powered car the ioniq was the first model with three different electric power trains in one body type the i30 n hot hatch changed the shape of the shopping rocket segment and now this kona electric revolutionizes what we can expect from an affordable electric car is its really groundbreaking well we reckon so for the first time a relatively affordable Evie has delivered the kind of relatively usable driving range that would make it almost usable as an only car better still for almost the first time in testing and Evi we found here that the claimed range isn't so far away from what's actually achievable in everyday use unlike most other commentators we also like the fact that the it's drive dynamics have a bit of character yes you've to be a little careful with the throttle away from rest but it's actually quite fun to work around that we've more of an issue with the uninspiring cabin if this Korean makers interior design was as good as its engineering the European brands really would have plenty to worry about there's also significantly less rear passenger space than you'd expect to get from a car of this price in a Volkswagen e-golf you'd get a classier interior in a Nissan Leaf you'd get more rear seat passenger space but both those cars are completely trounced by the driving range this Kona electric can offer in its higher output form which is something that only this cars Kia cousin can match for the price this ko niveau has wider appeal enough to take it mainstream probably not it won't be on sale in large enough numbers for a start but it's a clearer signpost to an all-electric future than any we've seen for a while and that makes it a very important car indeed [Music] [Applause] [Music] you you

Channel: OSV

Views: 61,449

Rating: 4.7758913 out of 5

Keywords: kona ev, osv, hyundai kona electric, hyundai kona, 2019 hyundai kona electric, hyundai, kona electric, hyundai kona ev, 2019 hyundai kona, kona, hyundai kona 2019, 2019 hyundai kona ev, hyundai electric, 2019 kona electric, hyundai kona electric 2019, car review, car overview, carwow, test drive, hyundai kona electric review, 2019 hyundai kona electric review, hyundai kona review, electric suv, kona electric review, electric vehicle, 2019 hyundai kona review

Id: FQLgp5RqrSY

Length: 55min 8sec (3308 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2019