Hyundai Kona Electric preview: ‘Finally, a cure for range anxiety’ | Martin Love

A real-world electric car that will do 300 miles on a single charge and costs half the price of a Tesla

Hyundai Kona Electric
Price 29,440
Battery 64kWh
Power 204bhp
Range 300+ miles

'Range anxiety' are two words that have seriously slowed the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs). It refers to the specific fear that your vehicle will have insufficient charge to reach its destination and you will be left stranded on the hard shoulder, miles from a usable plug. It's a totally understandable worry given that so many of the first-generation EVs were doing well to manage a miserly 100 miles between charges - and depending on conditions or the way you drove, often a lot less than that. EV manufacturers argued that given the average commute was only 10 miles that was plenty, totally overlooking the fact that we love our cars for their promise of freedom - whether we take them up on that or not. Well, this new car from Hyundai is set to be the best of both: it's an EV with a real-world range of 300 miles. It's an electric game-changer. It's possible to charge up to 80% of the battery in an hour, using DC chargers up to 100kW to replenish its 64kWh battery, so a trip of, say, 400 miles with a single stop is now highly possible. And you'd need a coffee/pee break anyway. To drive it's full of zip and, like all EVs, it's astonishingly smooth and quiet. The cabin is a pleasant place to spend time though it's not as luxurious as a Tesla, but then it's not as expensive either.