This car felt, to me, very versatile and very clever indeed. It felt a lot like my much loved Skoda Yeti.
BHPian Shankar Balan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
My first experience of the Hyundai Kona.
I just rang Advaith Hyundai requesting a test drive experience and within 1.5 hours of the call, their sales executive had called me, brought the car to my doorstep and allowed me to take a drive.
Contrast this with my Tata Nexon EV experience this morning. Hyundai deserves all its success. Their responsiveness and customer handling is exemplary in my experience.
This Kona feels beautifully put together with no compromise at all. Yes there is a bit of plastic etc but the overall quality and feel, fit, finish, finesse and handling and driveability feels absolutely European.
Good tactile feel to all the switches. Screen is neat and a little old school. Touch is responsive enough. Everything in this vehicle feels built to last. Nothing at all feels cheap and flimsy.
390 nm torque and 136 bhp in a front wheel drive package is bracingly peppy in the city irrespective of traffic. Acceleration is excellent. Maybe not as wild as the EV6 from Kia but thats expected. Definitely similar to the Ioniq5 but that is heavier and RWD too.
There is a clear difference in Eco +, Eco, Normal and Sports modes, this being only 1330 kgs heavy and 4.1 metres long. Excellent regen if you put it on level 3 and it does all the braking you want when your foot is pulled off the accelerator.
Very spacious and extremely comfortable and performs perfectly on all sorts of road conditions, ring road, city roads, bad speedbreakers and potholes with the 172mm ground clearance. Sedan like in comfort and feel and crossover like in useability day to day. McPherson struts make for a very good ride. 235/60/17 tyres and alloys absorb the bumps well and give a good planted ride. Corners beautifully. Drives very well. Most enjoyable.
The leather seats feel solid and like they can handle really rough use. The support offered by the seats and under thigh comfort etc is perfect for a tall person.
Packaged at 26 lacs on Road as of now this is genuinely a far superior prospect than the MG ZS EV and looks much nicer too. Clearly Hyundai have gone many extra miles in their Engineering and Design Departments! (There were good discounts on the 2023 MY cars. And Im sure these discounts will happen on MY 2024 cars too, by and by.)
The claimed range is 452kms. Real range is nearer 330-350. I wonder though if I can get to Ooty on a single charge, if I use the Sigur Ghat. Im sure it will scamper up the hills with great aplomb but the question is how long will the charge last? I think if driven normally it ought to get me there. Worth studying some more about the real life range testing done, since this vehicle has been around since 2019 there should be a large enough sample pool of data available.
They provide 2 types of chargers; one 7.2kwh and on 3.2kwh to charge the 35kwh battery. The 7.2 charger will take 6-7 hours to bring it up to full and the small charger about 14 hours. A 50kw DC charger of course will charge it to 80% in an hour. They say that in case some cells weaken with time, the battery cells can be replaced or reconditioned. Also they give an 160,000kms or 8 years warranty on the battery.
The good thing is this vehicle comes with a space saver spare tyre too and this does not impinge into the boot. There is more than adequate space for luggage and two people or indeed three or four, can travel with reasonable paraphernalia for a short holiday in great comfort and style. 60:40 split seats. Very comfortable in the rear seat too. Good space. Flat floor. Etc.
This car felt, to me, very versatile and very clever indeed. It felt a lot like my much loved Skoda Yeti.
This is definitely a good car if one looks at it as an alternative fuelled mobility option. Smart guys, the early adopters.
Looks like the new version is coming out only in 2025 or so. Till then one can buy and use this Kona.
We can say it is 5 years old and that EV’s age like Mobile Phones and all. But this product is of very good quality and there is no harm in buying it if it will do the job nicely! A pretty worthy car indeed, according to me.
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