The Hyundai Kona Electric is currently up to 484 kilometers on a single charge, but that is nothing compared to the range that Hyundai has now managed to squeeze out of its electric crossover!
The Hyundai Kona Electric is available with two battery packs, with the smallest 39 kWh and the largest 64 kWh. The Kona Electric with the largest lung capacity, according to the WLTP cycle, is 484 kilometers far on one charge, a range that pales in comparison to the range that Hyundai itself managed to squeeze out of the 64 kWh package.
To start with the bad news, Hyundai has not miraculously managed to more than double the range of the Kona Electric. However, the brand has left three Kona’s Electric on the 3.2 kilometer long German Lausitszring hypermilers. In hypermiling, the driver of the car has only one goal in mind: to squeeze as many kilometers as possible from a full tank, or in this case a full battery pack. The three Kona’s, which were all equipped with the 64 kWh battery pack and according to Hyundai had not been further modified, each reached more than 1,000 kilometers on a charge. The absolute winner was the bright red copy that managed to drive no less than 1,026 kilometers before every electric drop was consumed. The ‘record-Kona’ consumed only 6.24 kWh per 100 kilometers. Considerably less than the value of 14.7 kWh / 100 km determined by the WLTP method. The two remaining Kona’s Electric traveled 1,018.7 and 1,024.1 kilometers. At least as impressive.
Hyundai has carried out various driver changes and had them each make their kilometers at a speed of ‘average city traffic’. The average speeds that the teams have covered over the 1,000 kilometers driven varies from 29 to 31 km / h. In fact, the three Kona’s and their drivers competed against each other. The climate control was allowed to be used, but of course nobody chose to turn on the air conditioning and increase the electrical consumption. Quite a task at a temperature of 29 degrees. The infotainment system was also not used by any team. Incidentally, the Kona’s were on the regular Nexen Nfera SU1 tires with low rolling resistance, the ones that Hyundai itself folds under the Kona’s.