TheManofMead
Member
Having owned both the Kona and a Model S for around 1 year I would say do not buy a Kona. The infrastructure is terrible. The Kona is the wife's car, so most long trips have been done in the 'main family car' - the Model S. We live near Chester, and have been on multiple long trips in the Tesla including London, Scotland, France and Spain in the last 12 months. Not a hitch charging within the Tesla infrastructure. Literally never a worry about charging. Ever.
Recently, the wife was going to need to do a long trip in her Kona. I reassured her it would be fine and to prove it my son and I would do a short road trip in her Kona to prove it. So son and I start out with around 100 miles range and I said to him we would basically stop at as many chargers as we could find (on Zap map) and take a small charge and move on. First stop we try is on the M56 out of Chester Junction 14. Ecotricity charger. We stop and discover there is no CCS on this particular charger. Bad start. Chargers 1 Kona 0.
On a brighter note there is the a new Shell Recharge CCS charger behind the petrol station. After much trying, it became clear the machine would not dispense electricity unless I had signed up to the network and got my charge card. As I wasn't signed up at the time nothing could be done right now. Chargers 2 Kona 0 and only 1 site visited. Surely things can only get better we laughed as we drove away and we agreed it was a good job we weren't desperate for a charge.
We followed the M6 North after the M56, and identified there are Ecotricity chargers (with CSS for sure - we double checked) so let's try there...now at this point I have to confess I made an error, and went passed the turning into the car park where the charger is located. No worries we will take another way in to the car park. Unfortunately, we were to discover if you miss the car park you can still stop at the services (in the coach area) but you cannot get back to the charger. Admittedly my fault, but Chargers 3 Kona 0. Surely things can only get better we laughed as we rejoined the M6 and we agreed it was a good job we weren't desperate for a charge.
We continued North on the M6 and identified a new E.On Drive charger 150kw at Preston East, Bluebell Way PR2 5PZ. Now this was exciting, trying out a new 150kw charger. We had only ever charged on Polar 50kw chargers a few times so this would be good to see the Kona charging at its maximum possible speed. Our payment is authorised, just plug in to the car and charging will start says the screen. Charging fails to start. Phone call to helpline (turns out to be diverted to a man in Holland). Very helpful very sympathetic, but unable to get the charger to work. Skeleton staff on that day, he knows they will be able to help but the man to help has gone off for around 10 minutes. Exasperated, and growing tired of a mounting succession of failures I declined. By now my son had identified a Polar 50kw charger less than 10 minutes drive away. We know how to work Polar, what could possibly go wrong? More to the point the cold and driving rain for most of the journey now meant the charge level was so low the option to call things off and return to home to charge was gone. Chargers 4 Kona 0.
We moved on to a Polar charger. The Anderton Arms, Longsands Lane Preston.
Now any of you familiar with Polar chargers will know that where there is a single charger on site, they have 2 EV spaces marked in front of the charger. We arrive at the charger...to find both spaces ICE'd...by a single car slap bang in the middle of both spaces preventing any access to the charger. Chargers 5 Kona 0.
So we went in the pub and enquired of a member of staff to ask if anyone is blocking the charger. At this point our day brightened as the excellent member of staff took it on herself to walk around the pub table by table asking...until eventually bingo the offender was identified. To her credit the offender was incredibly apologetic and immediately came outside to move her car. On the way to the car she explained she parks there as its really handy since "no one ever uses that charger". I resisted the urge to reply "no F*****G wonder if you are parked there all the time".
At last we were able to finally get a charge, and son and I went back in the pub for something to eat. The day had turned into a marathon. During dinner my son advised the Chargers 5th goal had been ruled out by VAR, and we had scored instead so the final score was in fact Chargers 4 Kona 1.
So, those of you considering anything other than a Tesla...
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
This event made my mind up, the Kona had to go. Mrs Mead is looking forward to the delivery of her M3P on 27/03/2020. Yay.
On the plus side the Kona was sold within 24 hours of putting it on auto trader, and given it was 7000 miles on the clock and 11 months old it was sold for just over £1k less than I paid (thank you Hyundai for raising the purchase price between order and delivery which very much helped). Next day the dealer had it up for sale...for more than list price I bought it for.
Given the events in the budget yesterday (removal of PICG for cars over £50k), and barring Tesla lowering the M3P price then I think we may have pulled off another nice bit of business with this purchase! I suspect Tesla may lower the price slightly. It's a win win for them really as they can cast the Chancellor in the role of baddie.
Recently, the wife was going to need to do a long trip in her Kona. I reassured her it would be fine and to prove it my son and I would do a short road trip in her Kona to prove it. So son and I start out with around 100 miles range and I said to him we would basically stop at as many chargers as we could find (on Zap map) and take a small charge and move on. First stop we try is on the M56 out of Chester Junction 14. Ecotricity charger. We stop and discover there is no CCS on this particular charger. Bad start. Chargers 1 Kona 0.
On a brighter note there is the a new Shell Recharge CCS charger behind the petrol station. After much trying, it became clear the machine would not dispense electricity unless I had signed up to the network and got my charge card. As I wasn't signed up at the time nothing could be done right now. Chargers 2 Kona 0 and only 1 site visited. Surely things can only get better we laughed as we drove away and we agreed it was a good job we weren't desperate for a charge.
We followed the M6 North after the M56, and identified there are Ecotricity chargers (with CSS for sure - we double checked) so let's try there...now at this point I have to confess I made an error, and went passed the turning into the car park where the charger is located. No worries we will take another way in to the car park. Unfortunately, we were to discover if you miss the car park you can still stop at the services (in the coach area) but you cannot get back to the charger. Admittedly my fault, but Chargers 3 Kona 0. Surely things can only get better we laughed as we rejoined the M6 and we agreed it was a good job we weren't desperate for a charge.
We continued North on the M6 and identified a new E.On Drive charger 150kw at Preston East, Bluebell Way PR2 5PZ. Now this was exciting, trying out a new 150kw charger. We had only ever charged on Polar 50kw chargers a few times so this would be good to see the Kona charging at its maximum possible speed. Our payment is authorised, just plug in to the car and charging will start says the screen. Charging fails to start. Phone call to helpline (turns out to be diverted to a man in Holland). Very helpful very sympathetic, but unable to get the charger to work. Skeleton staff on that day, he knows they will be able to help but the man to help has gone off for around 10 minutes. Exasperated, and growing tired of a mounting succession of failures I declined. By now my son had identified a Polar 50kw charger less than 10 minutes drive away. We know how to work Polar, what could possibly go wrong? More to the point the cold and driving rain for most of the journey now meant the charge level was so low the option to call things off and return to home to charge was gone. Chargers 4 Kona 0.
We moved on to a Polar charger. The Anderton Arms, Longsands Lane Preston.
Now any of you familiar with Polar chargers will know that where there is a single charger on site, they have 2 EV spaces marked in front of the charger. We arrive at the charger...to find both spaces ICE'd...by a single car slap bang in the middle of both spaces preventing any access to the charger. Chargers 5 Kona 0.
So we went in the pub and enquired of a member of staff to ask if anyone is blocking the charger. At this point our day brightened as the excellent member of staff took it on herself to walk around the pub table by table asking...until eventually bingo the offender was identified. To her credit the offender was incredibly apologetic and immediately came outside to move her car. On the way to the car she explained she parks there as its really handy since "no one ever uses that charger". I resisted the urge to reply "no F*****G wonder if you are parked there all the time".
At last we were able to finally get a charge, and son and I went back in the pub for something to eat. The day had turned into a marathon. During dinner my son advised the Chargers 5th goal had been ruled out by VAR, and we had scored instead so the final score was in fact Chargers 4 Kona 1.
So, those of you considering anything other than a Tesla...
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
This event made my mind up, the Kona had to go. Mrs Mead is looking forward to the delivery of her M3P on 27/03/2020. Yay.
On the plus side the Kona was sold within 24 hours of putting it on auto trader, and given it was 7000 miles on the clock and 11 months old it was sold for just over £1k less than I paid (thank you Hyundai for raising the purchase price between order and delivery which very much helped). Next day the dealer had it up for sale...for more than list price I bought it for.
Given the events in the budget yesterday (removal of PICG for cars over £50k), and barring Tesla lowering the M3P price then I think we may have pulled off another nice bit of business with this purchase! I suspect Tesla may lower the price slightly. It's a win win for them really as they can cast the Chancellor in the role of baddie.
