ACarneiro
Active Member
They were the pioneers, don't knock them! Fair play to those who went down that route, in a sense paving the way for our own smugness...
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Took a test drive of the Hyundai Kona Electric
- Thread starter pdk42
- Start date
I was extremely happy with the Leaf 24. It might not have had the range, but we still managed to cover 20k miles in the two years we had it.
The Leaf really got me hooked on EVs, and from that via the rather disastrous Kona experience I’ve ended up with the Model 3.
Dr. J
Active Member
Mr H
Active Member
I agree but they don't seem to have progressed much
I'd second that. 25k miles in 2.5 years. Admittedly had an ICE for long journeys but managed 200 mile round trips with destination charging and 1 top up en route. Maybe donde of the hypermiling techniques will stand me in good stead getting the best out of my M3 LR!
SimonT
Member
We considered the ipace as it didnt seem too much of a step change from our discovery. In the end we decided to keep the discovery and swapped my wifes mini for the M3.
One of the main reasons was the tesla charging infrastructure and the increased range of the M3 over the ipace.
I would be really interested to get your thoughts on the e-Niro and how it compares to the Kona? I drove an e-Niro for 48 hours not too long ago.
I didn't get as long in the e-Niro as the Kona, but I think I drove it enough to form an opinion. Headlines:
- Kia has a nicer interior - softer touch plastics, better laid out, and with a higher quality feel to the controls. On this measure alone, it feels like a car a level up in the food chain.
- Kia is slightly larger. Not a huge difference, but rear seat space is definitely better and the boot's a bit bigger too.
- The Kia drives better. Suspension is slightly softer; and torque steer and wheel slip, whilst still present, is reduced.
- Performance felt much the same.
- Efficiency I found harder to judge based on limited time with the car, but it's the same battery and drive train so I would exoect it to be very close.
So, whilst the Kona is still a very nice car, the e-Nero beats it in most ways.
But - Kona available for May delivery; e-Niro probably more like Oct.
Not sure what to do. The SR+ might be the better option... since both the Korean cars suffer from the slings and arrows of the public charging infrastructure.
I definitely get the dilemma. All the car reviews I read rated the Kia better than the Kona - it seems you would agree with them.
So given the choice between the Kia and the SR+ I think it really depends on a few key factors and how important they are to you. These include:
Range (Kia has more than the SR+, though less than the LR)
Price (I would expect the Kia to be cheaper by a few thousand over a 3 year period, and cheaper still against the LR)
Warranty (both have very decent battery warranty, but the Kia's general warranty is better being 7 years as against 4 for the Tesla)
Making a statement: the Kia, in my view, is a lovely, normal car that happens to be an EV. The Tesla is a whole class above... Get into a Tesla and you know you are in something special. I would think it hard to argue against the Tesla being a Premium car. Conversely I just don't think the Kia is.
Drive: incomparable (no prizes as to which I think is better!)
Charging network. Again incomparable.
Towing: for us this was also key as the Tesla allows it, the Kia doesn't AFAIK.
In the end, we felt the extra money for the LR which gave us better traction via the All Wheel Drive plus the extra range meant this was the route we went down. (As my parents put it: you'll never regret having extra range and unused miles.) But you can see, it wasn't a totally one sided fight.
Good luck!
So given the choice between the Kia and the SR+ I think it really depends on a few key factors and how important they are to you. These include:
Range (Kia has more than the SR+, though less than the LR)
Price (I would expect the Kia to be cheaper by a few thousand over a 3 year period, and cheaper still against the LR)
Warranty (both have very decent battery warranty, but the Kia's general warranty is better being 7 years as against 4 for the Tesla)
Making a statement: the Kia, in my view, is a lovely, normal car that happens to be an EV. The Tesla is a whole class above... Get into a Tesla and you know you are in something special. I would think it hard to argue against the Tesla being a Premium car. Conversely I just don't think the Kia is.
Drive: incomparable (no prizes as to which I think is better!)
Charging network. Again incomparable.
Towing: for us this was also key as the Tesla allows it, the Kia doesn't AFAIK.
In the end, we felt the extra money for the LR which gave us better traction via the All Wheel Drive plus the extra range meant this was the route we went down. (As my parents put it: you'll never regret having extra range and unused miles.) But you can see, it wasn't a totally one sided fight.
Good luck!
Went to Cornwall last week, and I was forced to use public chargers. It wasn’t a good experience, many of them were broken. Met someone who had just got his e-Nero at another broken charger. He loved the car, but was finding it a challenge to keep it juiced up.
I wasn’t considering anything but a Tesla for my EV option, so I didn’t really take into account the significance of the supercharger network. Given my recent experience, I’m not sure I would consider a non-Tesla EV with the current state of public chargers.
I wasn’t considering anything but a Tesla for my EV option, so I didn’t really take into account the significance of the supercharger network. Given my recent experience, I’m not sure I would consider a non-Tesla EV with the current state of public chargers.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
I have only 3rd party charged infrequently in 4 years / 100K miles of Teslae driving. But all instances have been universally dreadful. I'm sure it isn't always like that, and can only get better ... but ...
... and then there is the arm-twisting of "Take out a monthly subscription with JUST ONE BRAND". I have off-road parking and a wall-charger, so "no thanks".
Ionity et al look good, but they are only [wanting to afford to be] putting in small-stall sites at the outset, so they will quickly become overrun by EVs - and some Teslae are bound to, also, clog them up. I am imaging that the cost/effort of expanding them is going to be painful.
I thought CCS was going to be panacea, but there have been a fair few compatibility-issue stories. I guess they are solved, or will be before long, but there's a lot to be said for a Proprietary solution (particularly as it is also CCS compatible
)Tesla could never have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that the competition (both Auto and Charging companies) would have kept on shooting themselves in both feet ... for so long
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MichaelP90DL
Active Member
EMusk probably shakes his head in utter bewilderment that auto and charging companies keep blasting away at their feet. He wisely rolled out the cars with excellent charging systems. A brilliantly strategic business move. He got it right on the first attempt. Really weird that Tesla stands alone. LOL
Super chargers are amazing! Well, no. Super chargers are normal. You have a cable that allows your car to communicate VIN etc to the charger, the charger is connected online - logical solution is a completely automatic handshake to start charging with postpaid account
everyone else has literally just messed things up. I assume the lack of contactless payment is due to charge times and authorisation timing out. So I’d be ok with setting up an account, or if you don’t have an account, prepay for a period of time/amount of kW
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
I think you are too kind
I think it is due to Charging Companies trying to Stiff the punters.Government said "You must allow Pay-at-pump"
EV charging companies said "Fine, we've added "Guest" option to APP. At pump download-APP then you can charge".
Apparently that fulfilled the requirement <sigh>
I haven't been following it closely but I think Government has said "No, we meant contactless payment at pump" and if so then that will be coming-soon.
Except Ionity then said "If you aren't a subscribing member we'll charge you 5x as much for adhoc use". Shell and BP are much the same
Mercedes Me has this (supposedly any pump in EU - or close enough to that to actually be useful, other vendors are following suit)
I set up an Ecotricity account at the outset (years ago now). it was 2 or 3 years later when I first needed to use one. APP wanted UserID / password./ No idea what that was ... but there was a GUEST option so I used that. It took me 20 minutes and three attempts (including changing stall to get one that worked!) to start the charge ... I could charge over 200 miles at Supercharger in that time!
It's amazing really just how fooked up the public charging network is. If the govt want to get anywhere near phasing out ICE cars by 2035 they need to start fixing this NOW.
MrBadger
Badger out
Its possible that inductive charging may start rearing its head. I use to work for a company that was testing this for a very relevant client or two and it had passed its feasibility tests and last I heard was going to go into real world trials. But that was some time ago and I have not read anything since in media since so maybe their high profile trial site was a little too high profile and its all been dumbed down/stalled. It was all pretty robust technology even before the feasibility stage and UK was just playing catchup to what some other companies were already trialing. However, it was more focused on commercial take-up due to various factors, but the commercial side in live roads would be far harder than static residential streets.
John_L
Member
I considered the Hyundi Kona. I liked the fact that the dealer just said, "Take it out for a few hours and get the feel of it." It's a nice little car, but very "Korean". For example, it plays a little tune when you switch it off and the dash board display is horribly cluttered. But the real decider is that I really don't like cross-overs. I want a road car that looks and behaves, just like that.
With the Tesla, it took the first 15 minutes of my 30 minute test drive getting over the sheer "alienness" of the controls, before I started to relax and enjoy what a good car it is to drive.
In the end, I was so impressed, that I bought one on the spot. :-D
SimonT
Member
£500m announced in budget for charging infrastructure with the aim that no part of the country is further than 30m from a rapid charger.
We shall see.
