Hyundai Kona Electric Green Speedster

Exterior

The Kona electric SUV has a unique front grille with intaglio patterns and a unique graphic element on the grille with a spilt type headlamp. The electric charging port is seamlessly integrated with this grille area for convenient, head-in parking at charging stations. It has LED Daytime Running Lights above and Bi- Function LED Headlamps below.

The side profile shows a sloping roof line and distinct design characteristics of a sporty SUV with lightweight aero design wheels. The vehicle comes with 215/55 R17 tyres. The vehicle has a very aerodynamic styling with a sporty roof rail and a sun roof. The rear has slim brake lights and turn indicators. The rear bumper fascia is quite smartly designed. Not to be missed are the Rear Skid Plate and the rear spoiler with the high mounted stop light.

Interior

The interiors are sleek and simple, yet smart in more ways than one because of the dark shades and the decent material used.  Leather Seats, Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel, Premium soft touch pad on dashboard, Metal Pedals and Digital Instrument Cluster with Supervision give the vehicle an up market appeal.

Kona’s shift-by-wire drive controls are supported by a centre console upper bridge element with an integrated open-access lower storage bin for convenience. The 7 inches touchscreen infotainment includes standard Android Auto and Apple CarPlay capability. The touchscreen infotainment includes AM/FM/MP3, auxiliary input, voice-command recognition and Rear View Monitor.

There is plenty of storage space and charging point in front. The steering wheel can be adjusted for distance as well as tilt. The vehicle has a motor-driven power steering. The Kona comes with Steering Mounted Audio & Bluetooth Controls.

The vehicle gets power driver’s seat, leather ventilated seats in the front, automatic air conditioning and smart key with push button start. Kona electric also offers smart phone wireless charging. To charge a device, simply place a compatible smart phone on the wireless-charging interface located in the center console storage.

The rear seats are decent with space for three with three adjustable headrests. But what is missing are the much needed AC vents at the back. There are no charging ports for the rear passengers.

Performance

Now coming to performance, this electric SUV gathers instant speed, thanks to the massive torque available at the word “Go”. The Kona Electric powertrain employs a powerful and highly-efficient 134hp permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor powered by a high-voltage 39.2 kWh advanced lithium-ion polymer battery. The motor develops 395Nm of torque distributed to the front wheels. It accelerates from 0- 100 kmph in just 9.7 seconds. The battery system has liquid-cooling technology.

The long wheelbase, short overhangs and wide track create a planted stance. The front suspension features a MacPherson strut system using an innovative sub-frame bushing design for enhanced comfort and reduced NVH. The MacPherson strut design uses gas-filled shock absorbers and a hollow stabilizer bar for lower weight and enhanced responsiveness.

Kona Electric offers different driving modes (Eco+, Eco, Comfort and Sport). Since we had just three rounds to ourselves on the F1 track, we opted for the Sport mode. The vehicle was zippy and even at those sharp corners, the tyres screeched but stood its ground, balancing the vehicle superbly on the track. Now this car comes with paddle shifters and mind you unlike conventional cars where these shifters are used to manually change gears to have some fun kicking around the vehicle, in the Kona, the paddle shifters are used for Adjustable Regenerative Braking.  Thus these paddle shifters are basically regeneration paddles.

To make things a bit more clear let me explain to all the novices out there that when you apply the brakes in a vehicle to stop it, the kinetic energy gets converted into heat energy as the brake pads get into action and this heat is dissipated into the atmosphere. This energy that is wasted or dissipated into the air can be tapped. This is the basic principle of regenerative brakes. It is basically an energy recovery mechanism.

Thus with the help of electric motors in fully electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, regenerative braking takes place.  How is that? One of the properties of an electric motor is that, when it is run in one direction, it converts electrical energy into mechanical energy that makes the wheels of a vehicle move. But the same motor when it is run in the opposite direction, it plays the role of an electric generator, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy is stored in lithium ion batteries to be used by the motor to move the vehicle. It is similar to filling up your fuel tank in a conventional ICE vehicle.

Now regenerative braking gets into action when the brake pedal is depressed as well as when the vehicle is decelerating.  Coming back to the Hyundai Kona, when decelerating or coasting downhill, electric motor can generate electricity rather than consuming it.  This charges you high voltage batteries and extends your driving range. This is shown on the power charge gauge in the instrument cluster. When regenerative braking takes places you can see the amount of charging take place with the number of bars on the screen increasing gradually.

Hyundai Kona Electric allows four different levels of regenerative braking from 0 to 3. The higher the level, the greater is the amount of regenerative braking and more aggressively the vehicle decelerates as you take the foot off the vehicle.  With the paddle shifters on right and left of the steering wheel, you can select your levels which get indicated on the bottom of the instrument panel’s LCD screen. The left shifter increases the level while the right decreases the level of regenerative braking and increases the deceleration level.  Thus at level 0 there is no regenerative braking. So even if you lift your foot off the accelerator, the vehicle is coasting away.  Higher levels are ideal for stop and go traffic or when you are going down a hill. One must also remember that the levels of regenerative braking using paddle shifters act different in terms of response in different drive modes. At the track, I must confess I was driving at 0 level to get as much momentum as possible!

The Hyundai Kona also has a function of a one pedal driving. This is controlled by the left paddle shifter. While you are coasting, you can press and hold the left paddle. That applies a higher level of regenerative braking for your speed. This will bring your vehicle to a complete stop. You have to step on the accelerator to move the vehicle forward. In normal driving, with this function activated, you need not use your brake pedal at all, only the left paddle and your accelerator. If you release the left paddle while travelling more than 3.2 km per hour, regenerative braking returns to your previous preset levels.  But at speeds lower than 3.2 kmph if you release the left paddle shifter, regenerative braking remains at its maximum level.

Electric vehicles need to be charged and for this, Hyundai Motor India is providing customers with two chargers along with the car – A portable charger and an AC Wall Box Charger. The Portable charger can be plugged into any normal 3 Pin 15 Amp socket. This charger can top up daily running of 50Kms in less than 3 Hours. Whereas AC Wall Box charger (7.2 kW) can top-up charge the vehicle within 1 hour for running 50Kms.

When it comes to safety, the Kona Electric comes with Electric Parking Brake with Autohold, 6 Airbags, ABS with EBD, ESC, Vehicle Stability Management, Hill Assist Control, Rear Camera with Guideline, Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, All Disc Brakes and a Virtual Engine sound System (VESS). Unfortunately, the drive lasted barely a few minutes and we really could not test out the VESS.

Verdict

The Hyundai Kona Electric will definitely change the perception about electric cars in India. No longer will they be looked upon as primitively designed and shaped cars with lithium ion batteries. With modern features and a technology that is so sophisticated, the Hyundai Kona Electric can definitely give a modern ICE car a run for its money.