Welcome to CarSceneKorea.
I introduce newly released Genesis, Hyundai and Kia cars.
And today, rather than a review,
I am going to be doing a week of driving with this Hyundai Kona Electric.
It's my first EV car ever.
And I borrow this from my friend, have been driving it around for about a week to get a good idea of what EV car is like.
As a non-EV car owner/driver.
I personally drive ICE car, Internal Combustion Engine.
And tell you all about it from that perspective.
If you are curious about Kona itself, I've done an extensive review with Kona Hybrid right up there. So go check that out.
This Kona EV has about 30 liters less trunk capacity compared to that of a regular Kona
due to this car being electric, having, carrying more batteries on the back.
Other than that, as for the exterior there merely is no difference.
Except for this some traditional Hybrid/EV car symbol wheels.
Of course, the front look is significantly different. It's all covered up because this port right here is for the charging port.
This is me being an ICE car owner, driver for the entire life.
And I've never driven EV car before until today's car.
That is the accumulated distance that I have covered.
And I actually have charged my car overnight. fully charged.
Clocked at 454 kilometers on driving range.
Most of the infotainment system, other clusters, other functions and features within the car it's just a typical Hyundai.
It's same thing. Almost identical to that of the other Kona.
However, this car is fully loaded. It has all the options available within the car.
And of course, it has that Krell sound system.
I personally have been loving it. It's much better than my veloster N, that is for sure.
This is a beautiful city drive car. If you need a bigger SUV, you of course would not have chosen Kona.
But if you have gone with Kona, that means you're okay with the size of the car.
You are actually getting the car because it's EV.
And I just popped the hood to show you inside.
And as we all know, the chassis that Kona EV currently has is borrowed straight from the ICE car.
And hence there is plenty, plenty of space within the engine bay
because the motor is so much smaller and it's sits so much lower as we can see right there.
And this is the profile. Usually the engine comes, easily up to where the bonnet sits.
However, that is not the case with this Kona EV.
I'm here to charge up my Kona EV. Unlock the car.
Open up the ports, unplug those.
And you select which direction your charging port is.
Mine is located right up in the front and check that out.
This is like the best part. After that you can do the adjustments.
And you can still lower where your charger is.
And if you're running short load some more.
And just plug it in.
And after the verification, it's going to run through and start charging your car.
Come over here, this end portion is actually blinking and that shows how much battery is being charged up.
For the most part, here in Korea, the fast charging ports support either about 50 kilowatt hour or about 100 kilowatt hour
This Kona EV has 64 kilowatt hour capacity,
so that means, in about an hour, this car is going to get charged pretty soon.
The more time I spend with this EV car, Kona EV or any other EV cars to come for that matter,
I mean this is already becoming a cliche, but the future is right here.
It's right around the corner, if not it's already here.
And I have personally been a internal combustion engine car owner,
I will be owning one forever. That's for sure.
I just can't lose that feeling of the engine, exhaust and manual transmission, all that good stuff.
However, this is the car that we will all get to be driving whether you want it or not.
Because this is what the world is shifting to.
I like how it drives, how it performs, how it is eco-friendly.
That being said, I think it's going to wrap up my personal view and the experience of this Kona EV for the past week.
In one single sentence to summarize it all.
I want my next EV car right now.
We're done.
And on tachometer, currently I clocked 550 kilometers.
With average travel distance with 6.1 kilometers over kilowatt hour.
That is not the best mileage you can get out of the EV car,
I know that because the owner of this car told me that he does about 8.8 to about 9 kilometers over a kilowatt hour on an average.
And that's the average and that's quite a lot.
I know temperature is a big factor when it comes to EV cars
be it charging speed or be it driving distance.
Be it efficiency everything is very closely related tied together with the weather condition.
It gets better when it's hot or let's say when the batteries are easier to get warmed up.
That's when you get most of your charging speed and efficiency and all.
However, I am not going to have the luxury to own and drive the car around up until the summer time.
It only makes sense for other hybrid cars and EV cars to cover up the most,
to the best that they can do about the front bumper to reduce the resistance
and that's what we see with Tesla and all other EV cars, of course. You guys don't need me to go over that.
However, that is the most distinctive difference that I have noticed with this Kona EV.
Because I have reviewed Kona Hybrid, Kona regular, Kona N-Line and wait for it, Kona N to come.
The issues that I thought I would have as an EV car owner, among everything was charging issue.
I plugged my car for the overnights and it will get fully charged up in the next morning.
If you are going to travel long distance, you fuel up, I mean you could fuel up in the middle.
But that's also the same case for ev cars as well
because you can do so in the rest area. In Korea, there is a charge, EV charging station in all rest.
And second thing is, I was concerned about the way this EV car would drive.
In other words, how it would feel driving the car behind the wheel.
Because it's not an ICE, it is motored and the way that motor runs, it feels significantly different from that of the ICE car.
This is missing the transmission. There's no shifting ups, there's no shifting downs.
And of course, this is fully automatic, there is no manual for EV cars.
So that was something that I was not concerned about, but was kind of a curious I would say.
Because I know it's going to feel significantly different from that of ICE cars.
And some of the hybrid cars have bigger motors, stronger motor, stronger motor engaging and kicking in.
So I was ready for that. There of course is that huge difference of that of the ICE car to that of the motor.
However, once you get used to it, it's just done and done and taken care of.
You won't even really be able to notice, like "Hey, this car is motored. And this is what motor feels like." No, that's not it.
You get used to it in no time.
And I really hope that I could do a one pedal driving with this Kona EV. Which Hyundai is not available to do at the moment.
But it will be coming, that we know for sure.
The third point, that I was worried about the Kona EV was the lack of power.
However, I was wrong. There is more than enough of a power to be a good daily driver.
Not once, have I felt the shortage on power.
By the way guys. Wait for what's coming up here.
Ouch, that hurts.
A bit of a downside is actually tied together with what I said it was good. You know, having the power and all.
By having that full battery packs underneath and sitting on the back of the trunk,
A lot of power, a lot of weight is actually put on the back of the car.
So when you are accelerating, and as I have said,
you have the power you need. There is quite a lot of power on this car to be a daily driver.
But when you do accelerate all the momentum goes to the back of the car
including in the heavy weight and having batteries on the back of the car.
You get quite a lot of understeer up at the front.
You lose the front grip ironically. At the same time, I'm going around the corner now. I'm exiting the highway.
Since the batteries do sit low and just watch I'm going to into the corner and the curve.
I get much more stability than I would usually do with a regular ICE car,
Because the battery sits low to the ground.
The center of the gravity is closer to the ground. The lower the center of the gravity, it's always better for performing the car.
And having more balance. The presence of heavy batteries do contribute to a lack of driving experience,
having more understeer and whatnot.
However, it also do at the same time add in to advanced and increased cornering ability I would say.
But it really does feel different from a regular ICE car.
The things that we have been used to. It feels very different.
Like you feel the weight. You feel the heaviness and the weight is there at the bottom.
However, it hugs the corner and it does attack the corner and it makes an exit like no other.
All right, so all in all, to summarize my past experience with Kona EV
for the past week and this EV being my, this Kona EV being my first EV car ever.
It literally wiped away the all the concerns that I had. All the misconceptions that I had about the EV car.
Yes, there is a difference and things that you have to adapt to because of the car being an EV car,
and the infrastructure and the regulations, laws, rules. It's slowly being built up because this is something that we never had before.
So it does, it is of course, taking some time to build up. However, it is evolving very rapidly.
It's the next thing. Whether you want it or not, we will all be getting to drive the EV cars. We would be left with no choice.