Hyundai Kona Electric long term review update 2: meeting the EV family

You know how it is; everything is going great, you’re genuinely, joyfully in love and then, suddenly, something better comes along.

That’s how things have been for me and the Kona EV. I was genuinely falling for this nifty little Hyundai and even more genuinely stunned at how rarely I had to charge it.

Then, recently, we had solar panels installed and I could regularly be found out in the carport, giggling quietly, as the power meter turned backwards while the Kona was charging… For Free.

And it wasn’t just the money part of the equation making me so surprisingly happy, I was quietly chuffed to be charging a car using sunshine alone, and thus, for the first time ever, able to drive with entirely clean and green conscience.

READ MORE: Hyundai Kona Electric long term review update 1: Getting a home ‘petrol station’
FULL REVIEW: Hyundai Kona Electric
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Things were good between the little blue mean EV and I, even more so because I was genuinely enjoy driving it as well.

I like the futuristic whine it makes at low speeds to tell my kids to flee from the driveway, I love the little graphic sci-fi dance the screens on the digital dash make as they turn to red when you engage Sport mode. And I love even more the thrusting, amusing performance you get when turning your little city SUV into a semi-sports car.

Frankly, I’m a little frightened that my lead footed wife will find out about this mode, but we’ve been lucky so far. I must admit that being in the passenger seat when she’s driving is alarming enough, and that it’s probably my least favourite way to experience the Kona (although I did sit in the back the other day and was impressed at how roomy it was).

And then, Hyundai had to go and launch the Ioniq 5, an EV not just a little bit cooler than mine, but on a different planet. Like Emmanuel Macron next to Scott Morrison cooler. Or Kanye next to Katy Perry.

FULL REVIEW: Hyundai Ioniq 5 RWD
FULL REVIEW: Hyundai Ioniq 5 AWD

I sat through the online presentation of the car and its many myriad feats of amazingness and felt myself getting just a tiny bit defensive about my Kona Electric. If I’d actually bought one, I’d have been in tears, but instead I was keen to point out that my older car actually has better range per charge (484km on the WLTP test cycle) than the damn sexy new Ioniq (451km for the RWD version I drove, or 430km for the AWD), even if it doesn’t have zero gravity seats and an interior that looks like a show home in Sweden.

And then I picked up the Ioniq 5, sat in for a moment and felt the genuine buyer regret that someone might have had if they’d bought the last PlayStation 4 just before the iconic 5 came out. Well, a tinge of it, I haven’t actually bought the Kona, obviously.

I must say I fell instantly in (new) love with the hip and happening Hyundai that’s take the internet by storm. Everything from its pixel lights to its so Apple it’s surprising they didn’t get sued for copyright screens is just so cool, so genuinely futuristic feeling and so different from every Hyundai ever made (although there are touches of Genesis genius about it, obviously).

Bringing it home to park right next to the Kona, and to share its charger, I was even more worried about how its life partner – my wife, who has fallen madly and deeply in love with the Kona, the way she used to love me – would feel.

I was certain that she would fall for the Ioniq 5 and that I would then spend the next few months listening to her whine about how I’d chosen the wrong damn EV, and I should have waited and wasn’t I supposed to know about this stuff, etc.

But how wrong I was. Perhaps it’s because she’s just more loyal and nice and committed than me, but she was not taken by the Ioniq anywhere near as much as I was. Indeed, she said the “visuals” (a major concern for her, and many women I know, is how well they can see the world from the driver’s seat) were just not as good, and she didn’t think it was as much fun to drive, either.

She’d be sticking with the Kona, thanks very much, and happily so.

When I told her the Ioniq 5 was even more expensive than our little blue beauty she scoffed very loudly indeed.

So, in one kind of test at least, it’s a clear win for the Kona EV, which continues to be a family favourite around our way. And a huge favourite of the woman who drives it the most.