Daniel: You and your team have been
getting around in the Kona for a while now.
How are you finding it?
Kyle: The Kona range is really good. Our team
specifically waited for the Kona because we
weren’t happy with the range of other EVs on
the market at the time. We were lucky to have
the first two Kona’s in Australia and we bought
these specifically because they had the range
we needed of around 470km. And for us, we
think that’s the minimum threshold in terms of
range. The range for some of the models out
there is just not quite enough.
D: From what I’ve heard the recent drive you
completed from Melbourne to Sydney was
pretty seamless. Have you attempted driving
the Kona across that distance before?
K: Yeah, we did, we did Sydney to Melbourne
in mid-2019 but that trip was actually before
some of the charging stations we have today
and was a completely different story altogether.
That was a 20-hour trip and there was a lot of
range anxiety involved in that one.
D: How did you get around that?
K: Well on that trip we had to go via to
Canberra, because that was the only fast
charger in that area, and we had two cars on
that trip so every charging stop essentially took
double the time. We got to Canberra with about
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11 km’s range! And then the next stop we got
to Albury with about 10 km charge and then got
into Melbourne with about 30 km. So with every
leg there was anxiety!
D: I take it you enjoy living dangerously?
K: We actually spoke to the guys at Hyundai
and said “we’ve got the turtle symbol coming
up on the car that says pull over immediately
and charge”. And the Hyundai guys were like
“wait…there’s a turtle symbol?”. I think we might
have pushed it further than anyone else had
before, but we did get there in the end.
D: Did you find any sort of variance in terms
of the weather? Does that affect the range
at all or is it fairly stable?
K: When we went down in July it was colder,
maybe 15 degrees and then 30 degrees when
we came back most recently. But I think within
that range, there wasn’t really a massive
difference in natural range efficiency. It’s only
when you get into subzero temperatures where
it starts to affect it.
D: So I guess as a recommendation, you’d
feel comfortable doing those sorts of
large scale trips again? Or is still really
dependant on where the fast rechargers
are located?
K: It’s certainly very dependent. My perspective
is that there are chargers everywhere in terms of