[GTO]

Hearing from someone within Hyundai that the initial response is MUCH better than they expected. They'll "easily meet" their target (300 this year and 500 next year). Dude goes to add that he won't be surprised if they overshoot it and there are waiting periods.

I think they've gotten the pricing bang-on by EV standards. It's expensive, yes, but all EVs worldwide are overpriced.

The small rear seat appears to be its biggest disadvantage, but that sure didn't stop the cramped C-Class from selling well. Heck, my 530d has lesser rear legroom than a Dzire or WagonR!

Hosting the launch & initial drives @ Buddh means the company is trying to do a Tesla by showing that "EVs can be cool" / fast. Elon Musk has contributed more to the EV industry than anyone can possibly imagine.

[2000rpm]

Anything which stores high density power will be unsafe to some extent.

Applicable to even a lighter. I think considering the volumes of phones sold, the numbers which catch fire are much lower than 6 sigma threshold also.

Other-wise we would have never kept the phones next to pillow side for so long. Will I keep a fuel tank that closeby everyday?

[NAVREVV]

What if am going to Manali from Delhi which is like 700 km one side. One fully charged Kona gets you 452 km. if i run out of charging and there is no charging point enroute then what happens? Will Hyundai come to my rescue?

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by locusjag

does anyone know if Lithium ion batteries are getting safer now?

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

Anything which stores high density power will be unsafe to some extent.

Applicable to even a lighter. I think considering the volumes of phones sold, the numbers which catch fire are much lower than 6 sigma threshold also.

Other-wise we would have never kept the phones next to pillow side for so long. Will I keep a fuel tank that closeby everyday?

But the airline industry apparently knows something that the automobile industry knows not - which is to keep all Lithium ion batteries where they can be seen (in the carry on luggage, and not in the cargo hold) and where they can be extinguished when (and not if) they burn or smoke.

As this article from wired.com explains, Lithium ion batteries heavily depend upon a separator which keeps the electrodes from coming in contact with each other. This separation can be undone upon an impact (such as when an equipped electric car crashes) and the battery can ignite spectacularly. With ICE cars on the other hand, the auto industry have had a long learning curve by which most cars do not burn after a crash today.

I just don't see the evidence coming out which speaks to the remediation of the instability of the Lithium ion batteries. Hence my cynicism. Pardon me.

[Shreyas_H]

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

What if am going to Manali from Delhi which is like 700 km one side. One fully charged Kona gets you 452 km. if i run out of charging and there is no charging point enroute then what happens? Will Hyundai come to my rescue?

Well with the current state (no pun intended ), you should not take the Kona on such a route. This will strictly be a city driver, or maybe driving between Mumbai-Pune for example.

In an ideal scenario, the infrastructure support in coming years should enable you to stop at a charging station on the way to Manali, put your car on fast charging, grab a bite and continue onwards!

But for now, this is strictly a 2nd car for environment conscious high income households for within-the-city runs.

[JayKis]

Not sure if this question has been asked before?

The Hyundai Kona 64Kwh is the one which has an Electric Range of 400.

https://ev-database.org/car/1126/Hyu...lectric-64-kWh

The Hyundai Kona 39.2 has an electric range of 250.
https://ev-database.org/car/1129/Hyu...lectric-39-kWh

How is it possible to have a 39.2 with a range of 400? And how could ARAI certify it to be 450 km? (Unless the one send to ARAI was the 64Kwh one)

[Aditya_Bhp]

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

What if am going to Manali from Delhi which is like 700 km one side. One fully charged Kona gets you 452 km. if i run out of charging and there is no charging point enroute then what happens? Will Hyundai come to my rescue?

A fully charge Kona will give you around 250kms. As there are multiple Hyundai showrooms enroute, it is possible to charge you car 80% within 60minutes while you take rest. I believe it is possible.

[Ash_vtec]

Pricing is not too bad considering tech on offer. Hope it's a great success and paves the way for more EV's coming in. As appliances of transport, this is a great move for the environment.

[sri_tesla]

Hyundai is planning to introduce mass-market EV in future. They also plan to invest in battery manufacturing for that model. Hyundai global plans to release 25 EVs by 2025. They plan to release "quite a few of those" in India.

Coming to Kona, Hyundai is locally sourcing the seats on the Kona and making the injection molded bumpers in India, but everything else is being sourced part-by-part from Korea and being assembled at its plant in Chennai.

Source:
https://www.autocarpro.in/news-natio...acturing-43486

[Mortis]

Overall pretty decent pricing for what it offers considering it's a fully imported unit and current add on charges. Ideally if I were to nitpick on the pricing instead of the Kona being a couple of lakhs cheaper, I would prefer a larger battery at the same price.

I still feel the ideal transition would have been Plug in Hybrids like the current Prius. A 20-40km real world all electric range with speed limited to 60km/hr and then ICE as the main energy source and for longer range with electric motor to boost efficiency.

Originally Posted by sen2009

Thank you for the detailed calculation.

In Maharashtra is Rs. 4.50 at highest slab, which means Rs. 180 for a full charge. Assuming 250 KM range, that's less than 75 paisa per KM.

This is stunningly cheap!

[/i]

What are you talking about ? Rs 4.50 is the highest slab in Maharashtra ? The highest residential slab goes over 12 bucks a unit after various add on charges.
Ideally the running cost per km should be calculated at the highest slab since at that pricing it's more likely that only someone with higher income and therefore larger house and higher electricity consumption will be the ones to purchase it.

[aim120]

To those complaining about the price. Think about it, if this was priced around 15lakh or more people would buy it, but our grid is not prepared to handle such loads for several hours, it's like everyone switching 'On' two instant water heaters for several hours.

Everyone would put it to charge in night and in summers house air conditioners will also be consuming power.

During night there is reduced power production because there won't be solar power from houses and various green power plants won't be producing power in the night.

So to combat this we will need to rapidly scale up the power production and also decrease the transmission loss which is around 19% compared to around 5% for china and USA.

We will also need to invest in energy storage like Tesla powerpack, so that electricity from solar and wind can be stored and consumed during peak demand.


The Kona at current price will have better build quality because it's a CKD. But then again, if and when the cheaper locally made one is launched, it could have better range due to weight reduction because of using thinner sheet metal.

Originally Posted by Aditya_Bhp

Actually in cities, electric cars will give more range as they lose no power while idling, range is lost at a higher rate when you floor the pedal, more often on highways than cities.

The maintenance costs of electric cars remains unknown. Except the engine, rest of the stuff are similar, so we will have ABS failures, AC compressor failures, Steering rack replacements, etc also, and at 8 years, a major cost will be the batteries. So i guess they will be similar to maintain as well.

They do loose range while idling because of the cooling system to battery, motor, inverter and A/C which can be anywhere between 1.5kw to 3kw per hour. I do hope that Hyundai has put a BLDC air conditioner compressor, like the ones found in your inverter fridge / air conditioner, these are again more reliable then the belt driven compressor and consume much less power then a fixed speed A/C compressor.

[Abhishek_Garg]

While comparing Kona against petrol/diesel cars, please use figures of petrol/diesel with automatic (not amt as such) transmissions.

[Abhinav_2502]

The Pricing is surprisingly good! Hyundai is taking a great step by trying and taking the first mover advantage in the EV segment, by bringing in a car closer to the highest selling segments.
Hope they give good support to buyers and go ahead and setup proper charging infrastructure across the country.

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

What if am going to Manali from Delhi which is like 700 km one side. One fully charged Kona gets you 452 km. if i run out of charging and there is no charging point enroute then what happens? Will Hyundai come to my rescue?

Don't think this is the kind of purpose Hyundai is intending for the car. EV's in India need to first gain trust in an urban environment before they are trusted by the layman for longer road trips. Also most buyers of cars in this segment that I know of, rarely go on road trips larger than the given range and those who do aren't the one's Hyundai are targeting for this particular product IMO.

[sen2009]

Originally Posted by Mortis

What are you talking about ? Rs 4.50 is the highest slab in Maharashtra ? The highest residential slab goes over 12 bucks a unit after various add on charges.

I stand corrected, I referred to some outdated information. This screenshot is from BijliBachao

The highest rate as shown here is indeed almost Rs. 13. That makes it Rs. 2 per Kilometer. Still it is cheap compared to what we pay for petrol / diesel. One would also need to consider the very real possibility of crude prices rising significantly in near future (especially if US-Iran thing escalates).

As such Electricity prices are relatively a lot more insulated to global factors.


Kona is definitely more of a statement rather than a real value proposition. But once WagonR Electric and other electric hatchbacks start getting into the game, they should receive significant traction. The initial interest in Kona is definitely indicating so.

My Automatic Santro is about 14 years old, gives a solid 7 kmpl average and needs Rs. 5000-10,000 repair every 6-8 months. I am just hanging onto it so that I can replace it with an electric. We never take it outside the city and a 100-150 KM range is good enough for our kind of use.

I hope the Kona becomes a success so that other manufacturers watching from the sidelines jump in quickly.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

I am not sure if that works cost wise...

I'm talking the case of a hybrid where a small battery can run a car in pure EV mode for 10-15 km and under 25 kmph.