As anyone who reads my stuff knows, we have a Hyundai Kona EV, and occasionally travel to Sydney to visit family. The first article I wrote was when we were nervous about how we would cope with a new, unfamiliar car, 11 years more modern than our previous car1. The next article was dealing in more detail with what has been termed range anxiety, and how this may soon be a thing of the past with the battery developments currently happening in China2. After getting the hang of the vehicle, we grabbed the bull by the horns and did a road trip from Canberra to Adelaide and back, which, with side trips, amounted to about 3,000 kms. All that is required for such a trip in an EV, when compared to a petrol or diesel vehicle was a bit of planning3.
A few days ago, I was in another person’s EV and I asked if he felt the same way about his EV as I did about mine. What has amazed me about our Kona is the acceleration and the handling. He felt the same way about his vehicle. The exceptional acceleration has its benefits. One of the common problems of driving in Sydney, is getting caught in the wrong lane, when the traffic is rather heavy. I had an incident a couple of days ago where we were coming up to a left hand turn a few hundred metres away, but were caught in the middle of three lanes. We fortunately came to a set of traffic lights and we were the first car in line. When the lights changed in our favour, I planted it and we easily outpaced the sedan in the lane to our left, such that I could change lanes ahead of the herd, allowing us to make our left turn without any dramas.
The other EV driver also was impressed with the handling of his vehicle, as I am with that of the Kona. I presume this is because in EVs, the centre of gravity is quite low, with the massive battery being underneath the passenger compartment. Compared to our previous diesel vehicle, there is very little body roll when cornering. This makes it handle very well4.
We will continue to learn more about driving our EV but, so far, we are more than happy with it.
Sources
