Answering your electric vehicle questions (after 10,000km in a Kona EV) | Auto Expert John Cadogan
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- Опубликовано: 4 мар 2021
- Coming up - the deep-dive into your questions about the Kona Electric and EV ownership generally in Australia. After 10,000km behind the wheel of a Hyundai Kona Electric, let’s have a proper conversation about when electrons and mobility collide - now and in the future. Let's talk about cost, practicality and economic rationalism: Do EVs add up?
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The mighty Kona Electric is about to clock one year and 10,000 kays here in the fat cave - and that means the sweet sorrow of parting is imminent. Next Friday, actually. And I will miss it. But I have been amassing a thick wad of questions from you.
QUESTION
“Are you parking your Kona EV away from the house now, in case it spontaneously combusts?” - withheld
No, I’m not. I got this from a stirrer in the industry the other day. I would retort that we all live in a world full of risk. Low probability, high consequence risk.
Kona electric was introduced in July 2018, in ‘Straya. That’s 31 months ago. There are 75,680 of them being recalled globally. There have been 12 reported fires.
So let’s call it an average of 35,000 Kona Electric vehicles in service for 31 months. Seems fair. That’s about one million vehicle-months, right? And 12 fires. That’s one fire for every 90,000 (ish) vehicle-months in service.
Seriously, the kind of people who get scared by this kind of ambient risk have no idea about risk. It’s more dangerous to check your Twitter while you’re crossing the street.
Incidentally, it was recently announced that the battery manufacturer, LG Chem, will bear the bulk of the estimated $900M (US dollars) recall cost - with reports claiming 62-70 per cent of the financial burden will be borne by LG Chem. Of course, the reputational impact will be almost wholly attach to Hyundai.
QUESTION
“The electricity grid is not ready for millions of Australian's drawing that much power at night.” - RockyRamel
Two points there. A) It doesn’t have to be ready now, because unless we’re all a simulation running in the Matrix and someone changes the code overnight, it will take decades for the fleet to evolve to full (or even majority EV composition). And the grid can evolve as the fleet changes. And, of course, full electrification is a complete fantasy.
And B): On the grid, it kind of is ready, because we do it during the day. If charging happens overnight - no problem. When you run the numbers, we only need 10 per cent more total power generation capacity - hypothetically - to replace every passenger vehicle in ‘Straya and run EVs across the board tomorrow.
Watch the report to hear the other 15 questions answered...
I've got 21,500 miles on my 2019 Kona EV - I have rotated the tires and that is all I have spent in 18 months for maintenance. I love this car and will be buying another this year. It costs me $4.80 to charge about 200 miles at my house at night. I paid $38K - minus the $7500 puts it at $30.5K. The ICE version costs about $25K and I don't doubt i will save thousands in maintenance and repairs in the next years. Can't beat it in my opinion.
Always hilarious while informative. Love you, John! I always enjoy your superb command of the Aussie variant of the English language.
Goldilock Yoda. Love it.
John, I also own a Kona Electric and love the way you shed light on the whole EV business. Can’t agree more on every single point that you have beautifully tried to get across. Keep it up mate.
Watched many of your videos on a smart TV with no like button that I know of, so I finally charged up the laptop to subscribe, Like Button, and Bell as your vides are always informative and I have gained more info in the last few weeks than I have in my life time of motoring, bloody good job and so thanks for that.
Entertainment on a Saturday night. Thank you. Unbiased commentary too.
Coming up 4,500 klms on our MG ZS EV. Besides a few quirks not a bad fully electric EV for the money at $43,990 driveway.
Loved the explanation of what a “yobo” is. Funny as ever!
John Cadogan is a comedian pretending to be a consulting auto expert. love it I need to drink more whiskey while watching John to add even MORE additional HUMOR. My favorite show.
Omit the ommit I say. You were a laugh a minute mate,the sartorial eloquence of your sarcasm rising to new heights,well done that man !
Great video John. Last reply cracked me up!
John! You excelled yourself on this episode! Most entertaining fun and this is so hard to admit... I pretty much agree with your every comment. I'm a Tesla owner.
Greetings from across the globe. (Denmark)
From experience in the UK (and it's only been a few months for me) the issue is less if the grid is ready for it (because it's plenty capable) and more if public charging is ready for it. I can get enough of a charge in 20-30 mins on a rapid to get me to work and back. But if you turn up, and the one charge point is either occupied or knackered, that's a problem. We don't have many single pump petrol stations any more, it seems a bit strange that public EV charging is thought to be suitably covered by chucking in a single plug.
Nice responses. If I had the money I’d happily switch to an EV. Just for the convenience. When I switched from an old Victa mower to a rechargeable Ryobi, life became so much easier. No more spark plug issues, pulling the string, getting the right fuel ratios or having to fill up petrol cans at the servo.
This video was so good I had to view it twice!
Onya John, excellent again. Healthy scepticism and cool logic will prevail.
I always admire your voice of reason John. I drive a PHEV and will be getting another vehicle sometime in the next year or so. It will definitely be a full EV....not for any bullshit reasons, just that I love the instant torque, the quiet and smooth acceleration, and the lack of gas or diesel smells or the exhaust odours of same. I also don't miss going to a gas station nor fretting about the latest gas price increases before every long weekend for some reason
The best 26 minutes of my day.
Sitting here watching this, roadside in my truck having lunch. And a first gen Toyota Mirai drives past.