What is it like to live with an electric car you're barely using? Hyundai Kona
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Hyundai Kona Electric | Second long term report | evo India

Living with the Hyundai Kona Electric during lockdown

Sirish Chandran, Editor, evo India

8km in 3 weeks. That's it. Who would have imagined we’d live in times where we cannot drive, cannot ride, cannot do the things that we absolutely, unconditionally love. And 58km is 58km too many in times of a national lockdown, but then again one needs to get supplies and I made one trek across the city to take the cat to the vet. With permission. And apart from the 5km I did on the scooter to the medical store, this month I’ve only driven the Kona Electric.Why?

For one petrol pumps aren’t giving fuel unless you have a pressing reason. The Tiguan has a full tank of diesel, which will go for 800- odd km, but that’s my backup. I don’t want to use it unless I really have to. No stress with the Kona Electric. We only have a 15Amp plug downstairs but that doesn’t matter, it can take all the time in the world to get juiced up.

I haven’t had the need to juice it up in any case. Now on Twitter I got asked if the battery gets drained if the car is stationary and truth is, not really. Usually I get around 280-300km on a full charge and now after 20 days and 58km, the range has dropped to 210km — that means around 30km has leaked away. Actually 20km, if you account for empty roads giving me a chance to drive it faster than I usually would and thus using more of the juice. And with that I think I’ll stop obsessing about juice; with a long-range electric car like the Kona, range isn’t a worry.

Hyundai Kona Electric provides around 280-300km on a full charge and now after 20 days and 58km, the range has dropped to 209km

Among other advantages of using the Kona Electric is that I can sneak out of the society without anybody coming to know… or I could if only the horn wouldn’t go beep-beep like all Hyundais when you lock/unlock. I don’t know why I’d need to sneak out of the society either, looks like this lockdown is getting to me. God, I need to get out of the house.