Hyundai Kona Electric gets more range
The Hyundai Kona Electric looks to have regained the electric range it lost year as production of Hyundai’s Kona EV soon starts in Europe.
Well, you’ve not been able to buy one unless you were willing to stump up a premium to one of the lucky few who did get one before Hyundai realised it had massively underestimated demand or massively overestimated battery supply (probably the latter) and shoved it up for sale to make a few bob.
But Hyundai has now promised a big increase in supply of the Kona Electric to satisfy demand, and is starting to build the Kona EV in its European Czech plant as well with the aim of putting around 60,000 Kona Electrics on the road in thye UK and Europe this year.
Not only that, but it seems Hyundai has managed to find more range for the electric Kona too as it starts European production.
Having had to backtrack on its original range for the Kona Electric 64kWh of 292 miles after ‘errors’ in their WLTP testing saw the range revised to 279 miles, Hyundai now appears to have found an extra 22 miles hiding under the skin and is now declaring a range for the Kona Electric of 301 miles.
It seems the extra range comes from better Michelin low rolling resistance tyres and chassis tweaks but, oddly, the same ‘tweaks’ don’t seem to have been applied to the 39kWh version of the Kona.
In reality, nothing really changes by any margin in the real world, but owners of the Kona Electric with the 64kWh battery will now (well, later this year when the tweaked versions from Europe arrive) be able to boast of a range ‘over’ 300 miles.
David Oldroyd says
This is just about as good as it gets for Joe public currently.
Solid state battery solution should positively impact on product cost.