(upbeat instrumental music) - [Narrator] The last time
I sat behind the wheel of a Hyundai, it was the Nexo. A fuel cell SUV that took me 900 miles on the power of hydrogen. Hyundai's Kona Electric is
similar, from the number of seats to the preponderance of
buttons in the cockpit. But where the Nexo confines you to a handful of hydrogen
stations across California, the Kona Electric has a battery big enough to go from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas on one charge. Or it would if there weren't
so many mountains in between. If the Kona Electric looks familiar to you you've probably laid eyes
on it's gas-powered cousin, the Hyundai Kona, sans electric. There's no radiator here so,
no need of a radiator grill. In it's place is a textured plate, which hides the hatch
covering the charging port. It kinda gives the car the look of a wind tunnel test article but it does help give the electric version a better drag coefficient
than the gas model. Starting my adventure in Los Angeles gives me the opportunity to
take the Kona through the twists of Mulholland Drive around sunset. The dusk light flitting across the battleship gray paint job. Hyundai doesn't call this
battleship gray but I do. As with most battery electrics, driving the Kona is equal
parts fun and reassuring. The torque of an electric motor means instant acceleration
when you hit the go pedal and the low center of gravity
helps it stick to the road when you do so. That said, there's actually too much power for the front tires to maintain traction when you mash the gas from an all stop. And I find myself getting
frequent head turns when I squeal into a merge more
aggressively than I intend. Like the folks at J.D. Power, I too, wish there were an all-wheel
drive option to help with this. Now, slowing down will also be
familiar to electric drivers with four levels of adjustable
regenerative braking. I keep the regen at maximum
for most of my trip. So, every time I ease off
on the go pedal the car instantly slows as the electric
motor becomes a generator, recapturing that momentum and dumping it back into
the battery as energy. One pedal driving takes
some getting used to but it becomes a fun game, watching the power meter
register the temporary top-up every time I slow down. How much it actually
adds to the range, well, we'll come back to that. A stop at Vasquez Rocks
gives me the opportunity to get a little more desert
dust on that gloss coat. And also to take in the
rest of the Kona's design. On the outside, this does not give the
impression of a small car. Then, Hyundai is quick to point out that it actually gives you
13% more cargo capacity than Chevy's Bolt EV. But I still feel like I'm pushing it with only a couple of
backpacks in the trunk here, without folding down
the back seats that is. And having just come off the Hyundai Nexo, this cabin definitely
does not feel as spacious. Later in the trip, my tall
colleagues Alex and Andrew, from Android Central, will make plain that stacking tall dude
in front of tall dude is not something you wanna
do in the Kona Electric. Now's a good time to
mention that my review car is the ultimate trim, which includes features like
power tilt and slide sunroof, Qi wireless charger for your phone, and those ventilated seats I came to appreciate on my Nexo road trip. The eight inch touchscreen head unit is sharp and responsive. And while Hyundai software is just as clumsy as
any other car maker's, I'm happy I can use Android Auto instead. (zooming sound) Back on the road on route
from Vasquez to Vegas, I realize I've made an amateur hour error. Sure, the distance
between L.A. and Las Vegas is technically 270 miles,
only about 12 miles more than the Kona Electric's rated EPA range, but there's also an elevation
change of over 2000 feet across the route I've chosen. And electric cars, like any other car, use a lot more energy to climb. - I have 122 miles to go
before I hit the rapid charger in Baker, California
and an estimated range of 137 miles remaining
before a dead battery. - [Narrator] There's a
great thread on Quora about how EVs perform in the mountains with some great data points
on electric versus gas, I'll link to it in the description. And I will say that I
prefer to be in an EV on the downhill side of the course since I can recapture
some energy through regen instead of using friction
brakes as a gas vehicle has to. But there's no getting around it, that long uphill slog means I
have to stop for a charge-up earlier than I want to at an EVgo charger in
Victorville, California. It takes 45 minutes to
fill up from 45% to 81% using the DC fast charging. And while that's another reminder that electrics aren't quite as convenient as their fossil-fired counterparts, conversations with fellow
fuelers give me some perspective. The Hyundai Ioniq next
to me has a maximum range of just 124 miles between charges. While the Nissan Leaf across
the way, tops out at 151. On paper, my Kona Electric
has them both beat by over a hundred miles. It also beats out the Bolt
EV I drove a while back. And it goes without saying
that that figure makes it a potent competitor to the
mid-tier Tesla Model 3. But while I probably could've made it the 187 remaining miles
from Victorville to Vegas on my 81% charge, it
would've been a close shave. And my confidence was
consistently undermined by the estimated range
remaining, aka the gasometer. I elect instead to sprint
to another charging station in Baker, California. It's great to meet my friend Nicole Scott at the world's largest thermometer and the nearby Alien Jerky
shop is full of distractions to whittle away another half hour. But mainly I'm just happy to be here because while the map
confirms I've driven 100 miles from Victorville, exactly, the gasometer showed that
I'd consumed 147 miles of estimated range. That's even in Eco Plus mode,
which tries to maximize range at the expense of performance
and creature comforts. Look, range anxiety is
common in electric cars but it's especially off-putting when multiplied by this combination of efficiency-robbing elevation and inaccurate computer guessing. (zooming sound) The last 90 miles uphill
to Vegas are uneventful. I arrive in the sparkling city of glitz and gambling comfortable, having finally gotten used to
the push button drive shift. And I've been enfolded in the bassy thrum of the excellent sound
system the whole way, the heated steering wheel taking the edge off the desert cold. I've turned off the Eco Plus mode, so maybe it's these accessories that have further thrown
off my electric efficiency. Maybe I'm just tired and
hung over on the Alien Jerky. But I come away without a solid sense of the Kona EV's actual range. I know it's very long
and as I said before, it's the biggest Model
3 competition there is, especially at a starting
price of below $37,000. That's a price Tesla still
hasn't managed to hit. All this probably helped Hyundai secure the North American Utility
Vehicle of the Year award for the Kona, which it
shares with the Jaguar I-Pace and the Acura RDX. And the potential range alone puts it near the top of my
list for EVs to consider as does it's comfort, as
long as you're not too tall. So if Hyundai decides to market the Kona outside of California, I'd love to take the electric for a drive on the flatter roads of
my native New England. Because I'd like to see just
how far it can actually take those of us who don't need
to tackle the mountains in their daily commute. If that's something you'd like to see, please, sound off in the comments. Just a standard disclosure
on the way out folks, Hyundai loaned the car for
a one week review period and also picked up the
costs of electric top-ups. I got no other compensation and granted no early copy approval. You're seeing this video
at the same time they do. Again, let me know if that
range test in the same car would be interesting to you, or drop your own anecdotes
from your own EV drives. Please subscribe to the
Mr Mobile on YouTube so you don't miss the
next Mobile Tech Review coming very soon. Until next time, thanks for watching and
stay mobile my friends.
