Featured The Life Altering Magic of the Kona EV

	model	range	city	highway
1	Chevy Bolt	238 mi	128 MPGe	110 MPGe
2	Kona Electric	258 mi	132 MPGe	108 MPGe
3	Model 3 Mid Range	264 mi	128 MPGe	117 MPGe
4	Model 3 Long Range	310 mi	136 MPGe	123 MPGe

Bob Wilson

 

Interesting that the long range Model 3 with the heavier battery has higher MPGe.

Mike

 

Several hypothesis spring to mind:

• induction motor (?) - induction motors are generally cheaper than PM but less efficient
• silicon power electronics (?) - cheaper than silicon carbide but less efficient
• over driving battery (?) - tends to decrease efficiency due to (I**2)R losses
• body alignment (?) - a slight change in angle could increase aero drag
• sandbagging (?) - when a manufacturer reports worse than actual performance

I am not a Model 3 owner and though curious, it is not high on my list. I don't have test articles. Instead, I have a less efficient car:

	model	range	city	highway
1	BMW i3-REx	72 mi	124 MPGe	105 MPGe (*)
2	Chevy Bolt	238 mi	128 MPGe	110 MPGe
3	Kona Electric	258 mi	132 MPGe	108 MPGe
4	Model 3 Mid Range	264 mi	128 MPGe	117 MPGe
5	Model 3 Long Range	310 mi	136 MPGe	123 MPGe

Bob Wilson

* - Prorated the BMW i3-BEV city and highway MPGe by the ratio of composite MPGe, 117 / 124.

 

Oops - possibly another list might end up being necessary?
Like;
"currently in production here in the USA"
"currently labels as a compliance car only"

 

Seeing how these are the numbers for the RWD models, and they likely use the same parts between the two models, I'd say it comes down to more energy recaptured during braking. The EPA tests have sedate acceleration and deceleration profiles, and larger batteries generally allow more efficient regen.

The 7mpge for difference in combined sounds huge, but distance per amount of fuel is poor at illustrated changes in consumption than fuel per distance. The combined kWh/100 miles numbers for the two cars is 26 and 27.

The Kona is too new to judge as compliance only at this point.

 

If I were a neutral buyer, absence a test drive of each, I like the looks of the kona and what looks like interior space.
As hill said though, availability is everything

 

it's the word on the street

Coming To America In 2019 — Compliance Cars Only | CleanTechnica

The writers base the nasty 'C' label on the push to other than USA world markets ..... plus tight battery sourcing - and if there are any Konas left for the USA - they'd be fools to deliver to states not willing to Pony up carb type considerations, like CAFE offset credits.
I hope they're wrong ....
.

 

I'll draw a difference between plug in roll out being limited due to the supply limits*, and when the car is only offered in one to three states because the manufacturer is forced to offer one in order to sell the rest of their line up when it comes to the compliance label. Guess I agree with Ford's statement in the article on what makes a compliance car being based on why it was produced. Going with "why the car is sold in a specific market" as the compliance metric would make the Prime a compliance car its first year in the US. In fact, with the introduction of CAFE, every low margin compact car offered in the US would be a compliance car.

*The manufacture could creating the limited supply themselves for a more correct reason for limited availability, but there were stories that the US introduction of the Ioniq hybrid was delayed and slow because of battery supply.

 

I like to read about the H and K offerings but until my dealer has one for sale and a technician trained on them, they are in non-compliance with my buying wants. Living in a red, non-CARB (until it comes to the state fair and their food offerings) state it may be years.

 

hunday has conquered the rental market in orlando. they must be doing something right.

 

stealerships - if you can find anything good to say about them, it's that they at least are able to service what they sell. Maybe that should be another point on why USA will be last on the delivery list - ie: that until their techs are up to speed, they are not likely to offer up vehicles. Once they get all that taken care of, thwn - it's only charging infrastructure that they need.
LOL. "Only"
.

 

Or the domestics cut back on rental sales in order to lessen depreciation on their models.

 

Nissan was the big player down here for years, from what I observed

 

They have factories in the South. That could explain why Nissan may have been popular rentals there.

 

could be, and even more interesting how hunday seems to have blown them out of the water

 

to some degree, that's in part because many manufacturers simply stopped making smaller and midsize cars altogether. Simple attrition
.

 

May simply be a case of having a better deal.
I don't follow Nissan, but I heard in passing about there being issues with the current Sentra, and their larger cars, plus many other vehicles, aren't the most efficient options out there. Yeah, the rental place doesn't pay for the fuel, but they do get vocal customers at times.

 

Well, this is one consequence of low supply/high demand:

Hyundai Dealers Reportedly Price Gouging On Kona Electric

So I guess they vastly underestimated demand, and only planned to build enough to qualify for CARB ZEV credits for a few years? Then when it turned out people wanted EV's, they probably didn't ask LG to build enough battery packs ahead of time. And not like they could get more quickly anyway because they're building a lot of packs for GM already, and who knows how many other automakers out there.

Probably why Elon Musk said that Tesla required the Gigafactory to be up and running to meet this pent up demand for more affordable EV's.

So unless they outsource the battery packs to other companies, whose quality may or may not be as good as LG/Panasonic, or LG suddenly builds a Gigafactory of their own, we probably won't see too many Hyundai/Kia EV's out there for a few years.

 

the world is tesla's oyster (except china)