Owner Review: 2021 Hyundai Kona Electric Highlander

NRMA member John shares how he replaced his first 2019 Hyundai Kona EV with... a 2021 Hyundai Kona EV: a secondhand vehicle purchased with insurance payout money after an accident.

Our original decision in 2019 was to have a car that could easily do the Sydney-Canberra trip, since we have children and grandchildren in Canberra.  

There were only two choices available at the time, the Telsa Model 3 and the Kona. The Kona was around $10,000 cheaper.  

When we had to make a decision of what to do with the insurance payout, it quickly became clear that a second-hand Kona would best fit our needs, since we loved the first one. 

Originally the Tesla Model 3. There is much I like about the Model 3, but I think my partner would have found the centre display not as helpful as the more traditional Kona instruments. 

We mostly charge at home, for the first two years off a 10 amp “granny charger”. The concerns about charging that people spread seem overblown to me. We charged on average once a fortnight at home, it is no great burden.

Charging stations are better now than when we bought the car, but there is more competition for them.

We have only been really been put out once. Coming from the Mid North Coast to Sydney, several chargers were out of service, and there were seven EVs at Karuah waiting to charge.

Using Plugshare, we found a Level 2 charger at Medowie that got us enough charge to get to the NRMA charger at Wallsend. It added maybe an hour to the trip home.

The Kona was below Tesla standards in 2019 and is now quite off the pace. I would always choose a faster charge rate if possible. 

Maybe once or twice since 2019 have we worried about range; it varies depending on temperature and terrain.

For Sydney to Canberra we get a range of 400km (travel 280km, range left 120km) For the opposite direction it is more like 500km (220km range on arrival). Over 80,000km in two Konas we have averaged 14.1kWh/100km, that’s an implied range of 450km. 

We paid $65,000 for the original vehicle, and $53,500 for the replacement.

I'm quite happy with it, value-wise. The interior fit-out is perhaps a bit downmarket for the price, but the actual functionality is great. Performance is more than I need. I never use sports mode, and the handling is very good.

It has more tech and safety features than I expect. I can’t think of anything they could add.

Our original Kona had a number of issues, but not really any more than our previous ICE vehicle.

We had the battery replaced as a recall, but never had any issues with it. The air conditioner was also replaced under warranty. The original 12v battery gave us some trouble and was also replaced under warranty.
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Maintenance has been exactly what Hyundai published: much cheaper than our previous ICE car which was $165 a year.

The cost to charge it is much lower than buying petrol. I don’t particularly seek out free charging, but we did a 3000km trip to Broken Hill, Mildura and back and paid less than $20 thanks to NRMA's (then) free chargers. 

This review has been edited for clarity, however opinions expressed herein are those of the EV owner/reviewer and not the NRMA.