An Electric Car in Denia

Very nice choice and hope it all goes well for you and enjoy your motoring, drive safely.

On 5th November the DGT announced that this month the traffic law will be modified to allow drivers with licence of the category B to drive electric and hybrid vans up to 4.250Kg.

Nowadays B licence allows you to drive vehicles up to 3.500Kg, but due to the weight of the batteries used in these vehicles, the law needs to be modified increasing the weight up to 4.250Kg in the category B.

Good luck and stay safe and healthy my friend.

Thanks for that. 

The Kona only weighs 1.760kg so well under those weight limits. I guess the impact of the battery weight is balanced somewhat by having an electric motor rather than a heavier petrol/diesel engine? Certainly doesn't seem to affect performance with 0 to 100kph time under 7 seconds. 

Stay safe! 

What kind of impact will the use of aircon have on the range? 

Maybe you could do a real world write up after you've been driving it for a bit, we live on a community with shared parking and no electricity hook ups - so unless things change it probably wouldn't work for us. Have you had to spend much on your own charging solution?

Congrats on your purchase and hope you have fun.

Thank you, its been a great drive so far. 

I've not noticed the aircon having any significant impact on range. I guess it must have some though? The Kona uses a heatpump for heating and cooling, which I know is more efficient. So perhaps that's why I'm not seeing much of a difference so far? 

I've only had the car just over a week. The dealer had it charged up to 100% for when I picked it up. The property has its own garage but I've not had a wallbox installed yet. We've been out in it every day, mostly running about town but some longer trips too. Only charged it the once so far, in the rain even, at the Iberdrola fast chargers while we were in the shopping centre. Took it from 75% to 95%, just to try out the charging really. From now on, unless I'm doing a long trip, I'll just take it up to 80% as that takes better care of the battery. It has an 8 year warranty but it doesn't hurt to be careful.

I'll do an update once I've had it a while longer and have more information to share.

So charged my Kona at one of the Iberdrola charge points at the Balearia Port in Denia today. There are 2 fast chargers in the long stay carpark there. So you have to take a ticket to get in but the first 45 minutes are free. Since my charge was just a quick top-up to 80% that worked out fine, but its only 0.70€ or so an hour anyway. Its a good location with cafes/restaurants right near by. So you can chill and get a coffee etc while your car charges if you want. The charger worked flawlessly and I was done and out in 30 minutes with no parking to pay. Overall, good chargers at a very good location. 

Interesting thread, thanks for posting!

Good luck with the Kona, sounds like a great option.

Steve

Thanks, it's been a great drive so far. I keep finding new features that I didn't realise it had, so learning all the time! We intend using this for some long road trips once things start to open up again so will keep you posted as we do more with it. 

I'm not an electric car owner but I do have an electric outboard motor for the inflatable tender on Kedr :-)

This seems ideal if used gently but lacks the power of an old fashioned petrol motor, but the advantages outweigh the deficiencies for us.

Steve

I'm finding it a very smooth and responsive drive and the regenerative breaking (which puts energy back into the battery) is outstanding. Drove the 5 or 6km from our home in La Predrera down to the marina today, starting out with 79% charge on the battery. By the time we had driven down and parked up the battery was at 80%. So not only free fuel for the drive but a bit of a top-up too. It seems really efficient too. For today's trips it reports an overall efficency of 9.2km/kwh. That implies for a full battery a total range of 588km? At just over 7€ for a full "tank" when charging at home that makes shoe leather more expensive! 🙂