[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by tj123

I am trying to imagine the load on the electrical system in my apartment complex if just 10-20% shift to EV's. Soon we will have to upgrade the entire electrical distribution system, we can do it within our apartment/ homes but is our DISCOM companies ready for this change ??

It depends on the apartment. Only the ultra luxury apartments provide 7KW or more sanctioned load for individual units. My apartment has 5KW sanctioned load and have no issues with charging my E2O at 3KW, But I will not be able to charge a Kona at 7KW. I have seen 3KW and even 2KW sanctioned load for some of the newer apartments. You can view your sanctioned load on your electricity bill.
Do note 7KW is for the wall charger alone. If you use AC, water heaters etc while your car is charging, your load is going to shoot and you may end up paying fines and will have to apply for enhancing your sanctioned load.

I believe, Hyundai will be working with your power distribution company to get the enhanced load while setting up the wall charger. Your Power Discom or your apartment society will not have much issues providing additional power to a few apartment units. The issue arises when more flats in your complex starts demanding the additional loads. The transformers and the cabling will not be rated for that much additional power demand and will require an upgrade. The upgrade may be required both at the power discom side and your apartment cabling/power distribution systems and that can cause quite a few issues and friction in your society as to who pays for the upgrade.
There is also an option to limit the charging current in Kona. So if in case you are not able to get the full 7KW power supply, you can reduce the charging current to 3KW or 4KW on your car so that the vehicle will limit the load. Only drawback is the charging time which will increase proportionately.

[kartavya]

The interiors look a bit dated for a car of a price range of 25L. However EV is a technology I have one eye on and will definitely be replacing my 8 year old Vento in the next 2-3 years with an EV. Would love to see the manufacturing cost estimates of a Hyundai Kona vs Hyundai Tucson (similarly priced Hyundai cars).

[Lovelydude77]

Originally Posted by NTO

Since the time Kona was being spied in India, I was thinking about the practicality of using a electric car for our day to day activities. So, I made a simple math to understand what it would be like to own and run a Kona electric in comparison to a i20 Active, both petrol and diesel..

Well no comparison is perfect. I wonder how it plays out over longer duration say 10 years. Do we know how much it will cost to get batteries replaced?

Also, would insurance cover batteries if damaged in accident or otherwise?

[Durango Dude]

My only worry is, with the battery sitting so low and not that great a ground clearance, would the Kona wade through water and if so what would be the wadeable depth in such conditions? If water enters the battery compartment, would it be treated as warranty repair or would the client be asked to shell out for it? I think one needs to be extra careful not to scrape the under body! Any idea if the GC has been bumped up for India?

[aim120]

Battery even from Ather scooter is ip67 that operates just below the DC lethal voltage. So when you have a high voltage battery like the one in Kona, you can bet it's waterproof.

In some videos you might have seen tesla doing this. Ev have no air filter or tail pipe, so they are better suited for flooded roads.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FszARi...ature=youtu.be

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by serious_maniac

Kona is aimed at the luxury car buyer. 30,000 people in India buy luxury cars (MB, BMW, Audi, Volvo) every year. They don't buy the car for size of car or luxury features alone. If that was the case Octavia / Superb will sell more than Merc/BMW sedans.

At this price Kona is looking at a discerning buyer as EVs bring a brand value and aspirational value to the buyer - albeit at lower price point.

Agree fully with this. A friend of mine has actually been waiting for the Kona to launch.His kids have left for college, they have another larger car, and he sees this as perfect for his office and local runs. The cost does not matter - he will feel much better driving this than an E Class or GLC.

Such early adopters help build scale economies and will make this vehicle affordable for all.

The challenge is going to be upgrading the grid. May take 15-20 years to do that, but hopefully we will see clean cars rule the roost.

[Dr.Naren]

Video Reviews:

https://youtu.be/5G6_-Qo1mwU

https://youtu.be/auYTkCUg1gk

https://youtu.be/tIMHgUg6gkQ

https://youtu.be/Rh4SI5MGB7o

https://youtu.be/zAXc6WMsrY8

https://youtu.be/eyn7xHhbrLk

[HOTROD]

I can say took a leap and booked the Kona today. Dealership is not taking a booking. Booking had to be done on Hyundai's website for the kona. Booking amount was one lakh .An email confirmation was sent and forwarded to the dealer. Expected date of delivery is somewhere by the end of August. Will keep posting further updates.

[Aditya_Bhp]

Originally Posted by NTO

2. Cost per kilometer

Kona: Rs. 1.05
i20 Active Petrol: 6.5
i20 Active Diesel: 5

There is a small mistake here. The i20 Active Diesel returns an average fuel efficiency of 16 to 18kmpl, lets say 17kmpl, hence average cost per km is Rs.4.1

Originally Posted by NTO

3. Service cost

Kona: Rs. 5000/ service/ 30000 Km
i20 Petrol: Rs. 8000/ service/ 10000 Km
i20 Diesel: Rs. 10000/ service/ 10000 Km

The Kona needs a service yearly irrespective of it being an electric, except the engine parts, rest of the things like brakes, air conditioning, etc are like normal cars and further they are imported too, so it will not come cheap, I believe it will cost around 10000rs per service at 10000kms

Originally Posted by NTO

With the above calculation, this was the math I arrived at.

Attachment 1893301

The tyres on a Kona are 17 inch and will definitely cost way more than those of an i20.

In the end, I agree with your findings and points that electric cars cannot compete with normal cars in a financial sense, but if you calculate it with these suggestions, the gulf between the two cars widen even further

[sj_koova]

i20 or any car in that segment is a wrong comparison. It is like comparing iPhone to one of the cheap Chinese models. They all are same size, but the experience and value is entirely different with an iPhone.
Watch the videos. This car is oriented towards performance and premium quality. 0-100km in 9.7sec is seriously impressive.

A good comparison would be Merc A-class.

I hoped there was some real competition in the market, like the Nissan Leaf.

Except the brakes what else will need an annual maintenance. The brakes would last at least 30k KMs. If average running is 10k KM/year, you are are not spending money on anything in the first 3 years. Suspension and other wearable parts don't fail at least up to 30K KMs.

[Sankar]

What is the OTR price of Kona E in Kerala?

EV poilicies of 8 states in India. Uttrakhand, Uttarpradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka has road tax benefits for ev buyers.
https://yourstory.com/2019/03/india-...olicies-mvqiyx

Originally Posted by HOTROD

I can say took a leap and booked the Kona today. Dealership is not taking a booking. Booking had to be done on Hyundai's website for the kona. Booking amount was one lakh .An email confirmation was sent and forwarded to the dealer. Expected date of delivery is somewhere by the end of August. Will keep posting further updates.

Congrats!
How much is the OTR? Is TN giving any tax sops for EV?
--

Kona uses CHAdeMO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO

India to use three technologies; Bharat Standard (low voltage), CCS and CHAdeMO (high voltage systems).
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com...le28388553.ece

[HOTROD]

Originally Posted by Sankar

What is the OTR price of Kona E in Kerala?

The brochure said 31,55,000 for the single tone and 30000 for the dual tone. These weren't the official price and they said it might become lower. Still waiting for the actual price and not sure about the benefits from the government. I'll let you guys know once I get the official price and subsidies

[sweetvar26]

Any idea about the on road pricing for Hyderabad, Telangana?

[speedmiester]

I took a short test drive of Hyundai Kona today.
First impressions are very positive. I came back with a large smile plastered on my face.
It has all the features that I want and more. On the downside, the space at the rear is less than what I expected.

Select the drive button and the car creeps up slowly.
With four driving modes, Eco+, Eco, Comfort and Sport mode, the range changes with each mode.
In Eco+ mode, the AC is switched off and top speed is limited to 90KMPH.
In sports mode, the car is a beast, the OE tyres was squealing with excessive wheel spin as soon as you put your foot on the accelerator. The instant torque on offer makes the car attain good speed in sub 10sec time.
I drove for about 10kms, when I started the battery was at 45% and range in Eco mode was showing 121Kms.
At the end of the drive, the range was 114KMs and battery at 42%. This was with a bit of heavy foot driving and b2b driving for 1Km. This is with four adults and my 2 yr old son.
Ride is similar to my EcoSport. Steering, interiors and plastics are typical of Hyundai.
This is encouraging, the option to choose the amount of regeneration is excellent. I drove in level 3, max regeneration for most of the test drive. From a speed of 70KMPH to 40KMPH, the regen was adding about 0.3Kms to the range of the car. In effect with a bit of careful driving, Kona can easily deliver more than 350KMs.
(please ignore the ARAI numbers, the 39KWH battery in Kona offers 312KM range globally and this is what the Kona will deliver in India as well).

Booking can only be done online and the booking amount if 1Lakh. The timeline for delivery is unknown as of now with people mentioning 3-4month timeline.

Will I buy the Kona?
Most probably, but I will wait for the price cut with reduction in GST for EVs. Personally, the range offered will cater to 80-85% of my driving needs, the rest can be covered with self drive rentals or other options.
I will also keep an eye on how Hyundai provides charging facilities at their dealership and service centres across major cities.

Other points:
The portable charger that comes with the car has a capacity of 2.8KW and it will take 19Hrs to charge the car from 0-100%.

The wall chargers at Hyundai Dealership can charge it to full in about 6Hrs.
The wall chargers cost 80K additional if one needs to install at their homes. This is a drawback.

There are plans to install fast charging facilities at select IOCL stations which can charge the car battery from 0-80% in 57mins.

In Bangalore the on road price is 26.3L with Zero Dep Insurance. With the GST reduction, the on road price might come down to around 25-25.5L in Bangalore.


All in all, I am very happy to see a proper EV in India with respectable range and features. Hope this heralds good number of EVs across all price points to cater the market needs.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Kona uses CHAdeMO.

Kona uses CCS2 (EU standard). Single plug will support both AC and DC charging.

Indian govt for now wants all public charging infrastructure to support all three widely available standards: chademo (Japan), CCS2 (EU) and GB/T (China). But my guess is CCS2 (or its future successor) will win favor with all manufacturers due to economies of scale.

The portable charger that comes with the car has a capacity of 2.8KW and it will take 19Hrs to charge the car from 0-100%. 57mins.

12 amps on 220/240 volts. Seems pretty basic charger but best bet in Indian scenario. We haven't comeup with higher amp plugs for home use. Only 6 amps and 16 amp plugs.

The wall chargers at Hyundai Dealership can charge it to full in about 6Hrs.
The wall chargers cost 80K additional if one needs to install at their homes. This is a drawback.

Seems like 9.6 or 10KW charger. Shouldnt cost more than Rs. 10000 once third party start flooding the market. Hyundai is making hay while sun shines.

There are plans to install fast charging facilities at select IOCL stations which can charge the car battery from 0-80% in 57mins

60KW charger. Pretty good start considering this is the first product for the general public.

Screenshot source: car & bike review on youtube