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Highest mileage on your Kona Electric

19K views 37 replies 19 participants last post by  Kiwi  
#1 ·
Dear forum members,
Just wondering what is the highest total mileage you have achieved on your odometer? What problems have you had so far?
Thanks.
 
#8 ·
I am hoping that we keep this thread updated regularly as we pile on the miles and share the good and the challenges. ...
All the Kona EV forums have several years of history and as best as I can ascertain the gearbox/motor tapping noise is the only Achilles' Heel. There appear anecdotally to be less reports now than in the early days 2019-2020.

Major English speaking global forums:

France:

Germany:

Australia:
 
#9 ·
2021 Kona EV SEL.13 months old. 12K miles/year lease. 16,000 miles already! Just have to remind myself how much money I'm saving not having to buy gas right now.

Tire rotations every 5,000 miles. Second one should’ve been complimentary (regularly scheduled maintenance) but was charged for it. Long back and forth with a Hyundai case manager until they finally relented. I think they were tired of hearing from me. Should‘ve replaced the cabin air filter at 15,000 miles but forgot. Will order one from
Amazon tonight.

No other issues except bumper repair when someone backed into me in a grocery store parking lot. Got a BMW X2 loaner for a week. That was fun.
 
#15 ·
No, most certainly not. Cabin heating akone will cut 15% off your range. Add snow/ice or rain for another 10% loss. The same as a gas car but in an electric you notice it more I saw an item on YouTube that showed the Kona EV gets the best loss of range in cold weather. better than Tesla or another electric.
 
#19 ·
We have a 2021 Kona Electric Unlimited with 17k miles, acquired 20 months ago. No issues whatsoever. I typically get 300 miles of range on a full charge in the summer, typically driving on interstates and 55MPH roads in Upstate NY and 340 miles in Tallahassee. The worst it got was 220 in the middle of the winter in Upstate NY last year, with 4 Blizzak snow tires and the heater running constantly, along with heated seats and steering wheel.

We charge it to 100% just about all the time, and never had any issue with battery degradation. We use a Grizzl-E level 2 charger at home. Electricity costs about $20 per 1,000 miles.
We drove it to Florida in November and were concerned about the range in the cold weather up north and Tropical Storm Nicole as we headed south, so we drove it 700 miles and loaded it on Amtrak's Auto Train for another 700 miles, from D.C. to Orlando. The car had no issues whatsoever, even driving through a partially flooded interstate near Washington DC.
However, the train died. The car won. The train died in an alligator infested swampy forest near DeLand, FL.

We've learned to use Eco mode most of the time, in order to reduce the power. In normal mode my wife accidentally chirps the tires at 45MPH. There's no need for Sport mode. I typically shut down regen on long interstate drives to increase the range, as the car scoots effortlessly, even in Eco mode. It regens whenever a car approaches in front, thanks to the adaptive cruise control.
That car has saved us a lot of money in gas and repairs.
 
#21 ·
We have a 2021 Kona Electric Unlimited with 17k miles, acquired 20 months ago. No issues whatsoever. I typically get 300 miles of range on a full charge in the summer, typically driving on interstates and 55MPH roads in Upstate NY and 340 miles in Tallahassee. The worst it got was 220 in the middle of the winter in Upstate NY last year, with 4 Blizzak snow tires and the heater running constantly, along with heated seats and steering wheel.

We charge it to 100% just about all the time, and never had any issue with battery degradation. We use a Grizzl-E level 2 charger at home. Electricity costs about $20 per 1,000 miles.
We drove it to Florida in November and were concerned about the range in the cold weather up north and Tropical Storm Nicole as we headed south, so we drove it 700 miles and loaded it on Amtrak's Auto Train for another 700 miles, from D.C. to Orlando. The car had no issues whatsoever, even driving through a partially flooded interstate near Washington DC.
However, the train died. The car won. The train died in an alligator infested swampy forest near DeLand, FL.

We've learned to use Eco mode most of the time, in order to reduce the power. In normal mode my wife accidentally chirps the tires at 45MPH. There's no need for Sport mode. I typically shut down regen on long interstate drives to increase the range, as the car scoots effortlessly, even in Eco mode. It regens whenever a car approaches in front, thanks to the adaptive cruise control.
That car has saved us a lot of money in gas and repairs.
Just wondering why you think turning off regen on the highway effectively adds more range than enabling regen (I’m usually set to Level 2 in Eco mode all the time) and getting range back that way? Maybe it’s advantageous with adaptive cruise (which I don’t have in my SEL) but I think there’s a case to be made either way. When my son drives my car he turns off regen, but I prefer it on (level 2 only - level 3 is too much for my taste).

thanks.
 
#22 ·
There's no expected correlation between a driving mode you find more pleasant to use v.s. that which returns the best economy. Even on a highway you might need to adjust your right foot occasionally and any unnecessary regen applied due to being in anything but Level 0 incurs slight losses. A driver with a very steady foot in Level 1-3 should in theory be able to exactly match one driving in Level 0. Being in Level 0 just makes it easier to avoid wasting momentum for no reason. I expect Auto Regen would be similar to Level 0 but I don't use it personally.

The rubber-band effect is misleading as you do lose about 30% of that energy recovered from regen. It may not be a highly-tangible amount but it's there, being just the reality of power conversion and frictional losses between the battery to the wheels, wheels back to the battery, and finally the battery back to the wheels again.
 
#23 ·
I'm with you Kiwi I have set the regen preferences to suit my taste, I have eco set on 3, normal 2 and sport 1.
I have tried running eco with 0 on the freeway and it doesn't seem to make a huge difference, but there are a lot of variables that affect the consumptions, so it is difficult to get exact comparisons.
The big difference is A/C on or off.
 
#30 ·
Ok, how's everyone going with this?
Mine Feb 2020 bought brand new, has now done 147,000 km. I feel my car was constructed on a Friday afternoon, had the dreaded wheel-of-fortune appear, and it took the best part of 12 months to get it replaced. The last 18 months I have had the dreaded refill inverter coolant light appear, mostly in summer, but now in winter, numerous refills, flushed later, the latest last week, and the light is back on.
Wanting to trade in, but difficult to sell with this warning light issue.
On a side note, bought for AUD66k, and offered AUD18K as a trade in...
 
#33 ·
We have a 2021 Kona Preferred with 125 000 km or 77 671 miles. We've replaced the 12 V very early, the coolant filter recall, and the charge port door was not releasing the charging cable. The last fix was not under warranty and there are no after market parts, so YIKES. That said, it costs $50-$70/ month to operate. I would strongly suggest anyone invest in an inexpensive on board diagnostics (OBD)dongle to test the battery health on a used EV. For example, we charge to 70% for daily comuting and to 100% only when striking out on a long road trip. Our battery degredation at full is 2-2.5% and in the summer we can easily get over 400 km on a charge during city driving in perfect conditions (7-7.5 km/KWh). So, a bit of investigative work on your own, backed up by data from a good tech and I'd feel confident buying used. I do find that resellers are not giving me what I need to make an informed choice, so you'll have to look around for someone you trust.