My new Kona Electric and my first impressions

First post here and 2 weeks driving my new Kona EV. We've been a 2 Nissan Leaf household for the last 5 years, so we're well used to EVs. The range is a game changer, I've forgotten what 'range anxiety' feels like. There's only one level of finish available here in Ireland though and I'm disappointed to see that the Heads up Display wasn't included here, there's no Sat Nav unless you plug in your phone and we only have manual adjustment of the driver's seat and lumbar support. However, I love the car, it's comfortable for longer drives, I know the plastic interior finishings were chosen to keep weight down on a larger size vehicle, so I can live with that. I like how it handles, compared to the Nissan Leaf the Eco mode is nippier - I found Eco in the Leaf very sluggish. My first choice of car was a Kia e-Niro, however they're sold out here for 2019 and 'taking names' for 2020. I was driving a 2012 Nissan Leaf with approx 100km range and I didn't want to wait any longer. There's only a handful left in dealers here, with the most popular colours sold out. With the range of the newer cars, Ireland should be ideal for widespread EV adoption, I can get to any point in the country without needing to charge in this Kona.

 

Wonder if this will happen to our Konas in 10 years. Manufacturers may want to make battery replacement expensive to force you to buy a new car.

 

I suspect it will be worse. The problem is technology changes so quickly, and generally speaking electronics do not age well. Cars will end up like the new laptops/smartphones with integrated batteries but just on wheels. Just like software companies car companies will stop supporting legacy hardware and software much sooner than they did before. It will be just more economical, and generally make more sense to buy a new laptop(car) tech than deal with dying legacy tech batteries, glitchy LCDs or leaking capacitors. We are seeing the beginnings of disposable iphone like vehicles. Brave new world ladies and gents.

 

Too bad they didn't give us in Canada a lifetime warranty like in the US.

Oh, well, just have to drive the crap out of this car, so it will have lots and lots of kms in 10 years. I am sure the resale will be very low at that time, so want to make sure the rest of it is worn out, too.

Couple of past vehicles had well over 300K kms (360K for one) in that time (and zero problems), and hopefully will get at least that with this one.

 

There are a lot of electronic things in ICE cars - lots of modules and whatnot, and it hasn't caused disposable cars. Ultimately some of this is because there is still demand for used cars at a lower price point. With EVs it is tricky in that the technology improves so rapidly.

I can't help but wonder whether battery problems are going to be mainly limited to gen-1 cars like the Leaf.

 

Well, as we all know the leafs have no active battery cooling. I personally believe that is the cause for a lot of battery problems in those cars from early and high degradation to charging problems.

I hope we will not have those problems with the better thermal management system.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

Yikes! Ali Kassai, executive vice-president of product planning and programmes at Renault believes that cars may become the preserve of the rich especially in urban areas. https://www.independent.ie/life/motoring/car-news/risk-that-many-drivers-will-be-priced-out-of-owning-a-car-38644245.html

 

Could not read the entire article but even if new vehicles got so expensive that only the wealthy could afford them there will always be a secondary market. Even now you can pick up even expensive used vehicles with up to a 30+% discounts with months of its new purchase. I don't see cars become appreciating assets as Musk predicts.

 

I thought my Kona EV (new Dec '19) had a backup beeper but it's strangely silent now. I searched my many Kona docs and can't find mention of a backup beeper. My previous cars had backup beepers.
Does the Kona EV have a backup beeper, and if so, how do I turn it on ?
Thx,
Ed

 

Mine does. 2019 US model. But I never saw an option to turn it off.

 

Mine has a back up beeper. I had the car for almost a year and it still beeps when I back up.

 

Mine does too, perhaps yours is faulty? Mine also has a front sensor, that switches on manually if driving into a parking bay or automatically if one has reversed first.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

Is your VESS speaker unplugged? My backup beeper turned off when I unplugged the VESS speaker in the front fascia.

 

Same here.

 

It should, since it comes out of the same speaker.

 

Ah, that's it. I did disable my VESS noise by unplugging the connector. I didn't realize that the speaker system in front is also used for the backup beeper (and maybe other warning sounds too ?).
I will reconnect; backup beeper is a valuable safety feature.
Odd, I couldn't find mention of it in my docs.
Thx to all.
Ed