permanent-magnet AC motor to have a
broad powerband, giving this Kona ample
passing power—something the Kona 1.6T
lacks. The Kona Electric’s sole wart is its
brakes. Despite four levels of driver-
adjustable regeneration (adjustable
via steering wheel–mounted paddles),
smooth stops are difficult to accomplish.
We wanted to see if our impressions
matched up with the cold, hard numbers,
so we took the twin Konas to our test
track. Surprisingly, they were even more
evenly matched than we’d thought.
Despite what our driving impressions
would have led us to believe, the gas-
powered car is quicker. It accelerates
from 0 to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds; the
Electric needed 6.6. The EV starts to pull
on the gas car from there, though. It ties
the Kona 1.6T’s 15.1-second quarter-mile
time, but it’s doing 95.9 mph by that
point to the gas car’s 91.7. Still, for most
commuters, these marks are even Steven.
Thanks to the Kona Electric’s low-
rolling-resistance tires, the gas car
performs better in braking and handling
tests. It stops from 60 to 0 mph in 119 feet
compared to the EV’s ponderous-for-its-
size 138 feet ( batteries weigh a lot). On
the figure eight, the gas car laps in 26.9
seconds versus the electric’s 27.8 seconds,
both at 0.65 g average.
Even considering the Kona 1.6T’s accel-
eration, braking, and handling advantage
at the track, the Kona Electric is the car
that both Reynolds and I want to drive in
the real world. In an urban environment,
the EV’s instant-on power is preferable
to that of the laggy 1.6, and with charging
infrastructure becoming widespread
in SoCal, charging publicly and cheaply
(sometimes free!) at Level 2 chargers is
about as easy as refueling the gas Kona.
But what happens if you have to leave
the safety of Los Angeles—or New York,
Chicago, or hell, even Helena—and hit
the open road for a good, old-fashioned
American road trip? We pointed our
Konas north to find out.The most common argument I hear
about electric vehicles—Tesla or
otherwise—is that you plain can’t travel
long distances because the charging
infrastructure doesn’t exist or because it
takes too long to charge.
That may have been the case as
recently as five years ago, but things have
changed. Companies like ChargePoint,
EVgo, and Electrify America have Level
3 fast charger stations sprouting nation-
wide, with the latter already offering
more than 1,700 fast chargers (and
counting) spanning coast to coast and
border to border. You can thank VW’s
diesel emissions scandal for that.We prefer the Electric’s interior
design, but the gas Kona’s easy-
to-use shifter is more traditional
than the EV’s button approach.On the freeway, the electric Hyundai
Kona feels surprisingly normal.So we devised a plan: We’d drive both
cars north to the growing vineyard town
of Paso Robles, with Reynolds driving the
gas Kona and me the electric one on the
northbound leg, swapping cars for the
return south.
Normally a 220-mile trip that would
take between four and five and a half
hours, depending on traffic, the drive is
about the same distance as a trip from
New York to Washington, D.C. or Chicago
to Detroit. In other words, it’s a realistic
distance that the average American
family may expect to travel to visit family
or friends in a distant city a couple times
per year. Too near for an airplane but too
far for an EV?
To level the playing field, we decided to
treat the two cars as equally as possible.
We’d both leave our L.A. headquarters at
the same time, fully charged and gassed
up, take the same route on both legs,
and drive in the same manner north and
south. To make matters more difficult
for the EV, we weren’t going to bother
with any fancy route-planning apps—we
knew there were both ChargePoint and
Electrify America fast chargers along
I-5 near Paso Robles, so if we needed
a charge, that’s where we’d go. Once in
Paso Robles, we’d fully fuel both vehicles,
turn south, and start out again.
Before the trip I was a bit apprehensive
that the Kona Electric would only make
the journey with great difficulty. Truth
be told, though, the experience couldn’t
have felt more normal.
I’d left the Kona Electric’s drive mode
in its default Normal setting (Eco mode
nets you a couple extra bonus miles of
range), I had the heater going damn near
full blast to deal with the cold January
air, the heated seats and steering wheel
were in use, and I was charging my phone
and blasting music over the stereo. In
other words, I treated the electric Kona
as I would any other car.COMPARISON
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