Hyundai Kona Electric long term review update 1: Getting a home ‘petrol station’

Surely it would be entirely normal to get excited if someone installed a new petrol station in your driveway. Yes, you’d have to live with that slightly nose-burning odour all the time, but just think of the access – not just to fuel, but Krispy Kremes, hot pies on tap and enough chocolate to turn you into a giant pimple on legs.

Similarly, I think it’s entirely reasonable that I am so wildly thrilled about having a new EV wallbox charger installed in my carport (an idea invented by the great Frank Lloyd Wright, by the way, because he refused to let people have garages – or basements – because he hated seeing mess), so much so that I took photos of it, and bored the ears right off the poor blokes from Jet Charge installing it with my inane questions.

FULL REVIEW: Hyundai Kona Electric
READ MORE: Hyundai slashes Kona EV prices, adds $54,500 base model

I have noticed that it’s quite a geeky kind of excitement, and I’m a little concerned that I seem to be slightly more excited about the charger than I am about the new car I’m going to be driving for the next six months, a very cool blue Hyundai Kona Electric Extended Range.

I had previously plugged some EVs into my normal powerpoint and been dismayed at the long charging times displayed, so I was very keen to obtain my Delta AC Mini Plus Charger from Jet Charge (7.2kW single phase home unit) and see what it could do.

When it was first plugged in, it was only drawing just over 1kW for some reason, and offering a very standard-plug charging time of 9 hours and 20 minutes to top the Kona up from 85 percent to 100 pecent. Not what I’d been hoping for. Then the technician fiddled with some switches to finish the installation, the power figure zapped up to 7kW and the charging time dropped to 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I’ve always enjoyed borrowing EVs in the past, but partly because I used to live in an inner-city suburb with no parking and no public chargers, I’d found that whole part of it a little annoying. Now, I can look forward to owning the Kona for the next few months, and I must admit I was very impressed indeed when the charging process finished and the dash told me I had 498km of range in the battery, which is actually a lot more than I’d dared to hope for (claimed range on the WLTP test is 484km, which is also bloody good).

Oh yes, the car. It’s almost as cool as the charger, I really do love the styling and I’ve gone for the Highlander spec, which means a lot of bells and whistles I didn’t expect to enjoy in a little city SUV EV, like heated and cooled seats and even a heated steering wheel. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in Canberra and couldn’t feel feelings, or warmth, for four months of every year, but I do love a heated steering wheel.

All of that, and its undeniably good looks – far better than the ICE Kona even, thanks to that Iron Man’s helmet face – still struggles to add up to a $66,000 price tag, but that’s EVs for you, I guess (at least today). I do find it surprising that this car can cost more than a Nissan Leaf, or even a Leaf e+, but I guess the Kona is considered to be in a larger class.

We can talk about the interior at another time, but again, there are moments where that $66K would make you whistle lowly and avoid looking at your repayment schedule.

The cleverest trick this Kona Electric pulls off is being a Kona I actually want to live with. I find the ICE version close to deathly dull to drive and the whole experience feels a bit cheap and nasty in a way that the properly classy i30 Hyundai sells right next to it is not.

The i30 feels built to compete with VW, the Kona feels like a throwback to what Hyundai used to be.

The Electric version, however, is an entirely different story, from design and perceived quality to the most important factor, the way it drives. The Kona has a permanent magnet synchronous motor making 150kW and 395Nm and it is instantly impressive in a way that many of its competitors (hello Mazda MX-30 Electric) are not.

It’s not Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus fast (the Model 3 SR+ is more affordable too), but it is impressive, punchy at all times rather than rip-roaring fast, and I’ve only barely begun to explore the Sport mode, with its racy red dials.

Put it this way, I’m a little worried about my lead foot wife driving it.

What I can tell you is, she won’t be touching, nor using, my new favourite toy. The new wallbox charger. I might just sneak off and read the user manual for a while right now…