Peter C in Canberra wrote: ↑Thu, 07 Nov 2019, 09:20
If you have the car for a decade, you save $50K, most of the purchase price. I reckon a new Kona EV is better than any new petrol car you could have bought for the remainder of $20K.
I fully agree with you but... A decade for me is
400'000km.
Will the car survive that? Probably. Will the battery survive that? Not sure.
I bought the Kona for it's range, in the last 2 months my 5 biggest days were 441, 425, 410 and 2 day at 385km.
So battery degradation is the big unknown. Using an ICE car 4 or 5 days a year, fine. 2 or 3 days a month, not happening.
And again, the Kona is a great car, but not perfect.
Too small. I know that is subjective. I knew the size before I bought it. So the boot will be fine for most people but the rear passenger leg room... I'm 5'9 and unless you have no knees, the ride behind my seat is uncomfortable at best.
And my number 1 complaint: Too noisy.
Perfect to 60, fine to 80 but at highway speeds, too noisy for a $50k car, unacceptably too noisy for a $70k car.
It's a real shame to create such a good car and skimp on cabine insulation.
The minor issues, the Lane Keep Assist is rubbish, and no driver seat/mirrors memory position? Again on a $30k car fine, on a $70k car?
And I can't think of any other issues... That is pretty amazing really.
You may think that I am harsh but let's be honest, most of us are EV lovers, I know I would have bought it if it had square wheels but the average Joe who doesn't give two hoots about EVs and drives 10 to 15'000km/year can buy a nice Lexus, a Merc C200 or a Volvo XC60... And yes it will cost them more in the long run, but most people don't think that way.
The other big question is resale. A 10 year old Camry is still around $10'000. What will a Kona EV be?
Beside there will be way too many great new EVs in 3 to 4 years to keep that one for a decade.
I feel bad being a party pooper but on the other end, if we don't expect any better, why would they give us any better.