That's a rather long way of saying that the Kona Electric is a very reassuring car, because I had driven to that point 171 kilometres. Which you may recall, was about a good total range for the early Nissan Leafs which were the vanguard of Irish electric cars. It shows how things have progressed in a relatively few years in this business.
So do the sales figures for the first two months of this year, with more than 1,100 electric cars registered, compared to 176 for the same period last year. The Kona Electric is the biggest chunk, 42pc, of these, with Nissan's latest Leaf not far behind.
The Kona Electric comes with a stated (and real, in my experience) 445 kilometres. A figure critical in psychological terms. Over 400km is past the range anxiety barrier, it has been generally believed. Certainly for Ireland, where — if I may be Dublin centric for a moment — you could drive from Dublin Airport to Baltimore in Co Cork in a Kona Electric without having to worry about recharging. And still have over 70km in the 'tank'.
So I didn't worry at all about the fact that I don't have a charging unit at my home. Even though, because of the sheer capacity of the 64kWh battery, it is pointless trying to charge it off the 13A mains. There isn't a public charge point in my town yet, either. But there is a Kia dealer, who had no problem with me plugging into his forecourt charger for a couple of hours while I did a few chores. The same kind as would typically now be installed by the private owner of an electric car, and it generally added 20pc charge over the hour and a half I was footing it around town.
The logistical maths says, with a charger at home feeding the Kona Electric while I slept, I would always wake up with 445km or so available. If I did that distance every day, it would total over 162,000km a year, a patently ridiculous figure. The average family motoring of 20,000km/year is a mere 56km a day. OK, all that is quite simplistic, but the real world answer still comes out well in favour of the electric option.
Stylistically the Kona is a good looker. The lack of an actual radiator grille is one of the few giveaways from the outside that it isn't a standard petrol-powered car. The black roof/white body combination of the review car stood out well, especially with the chunky black wheel arches.
To drive, it's fun if you want to throw range to the accelerating wind, but in normal use it is just sweet to operate. There was cold, even snow when I had it, so I used the recommended trick of the seat heaters instead of a high interior temperature. I kind of felt that actually had me more alert too?
Is it worth it? OK, at half the price of a Tesla it gives you a similar range. At around twice the price of a standard Kona before the €6,000 or so incentives are factored in, it may be hard to justify, depending on your mileage. But if you have a serious climate change conscience, there can be serious justification (I'm not going to get into the argument about whole life costs here, except to say that as we shift our electricity production towards sustainables, it gets better).
PRICE: €37,630, after incentives. WHAT I LIKED: A more clear conscience. RATING: An electrolicious 4 from five.
