Automotive News Europe - March 2020 - 38

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

FINAL WORD

Luca Ciferri

is Associate Publisher
& Editor at Automotive
News Europe. He
can he reached at
lciferri@autonews.com.

The good, the bad and the
pricey of driving electric
E

uropean Union regulators would like
us to drive electric vehicles to reduce
emissions, but is all of Europe ready for
the transition?
After three weeks of living with a battery-powered car in northwest Italy, I still
don't have a definitive answer to that
question. Let me explain why.

❚ Product: I drove a Hyundai Kona Elec-

tric compact SUV in Excellence trim,
which comes with a 64 kWh battery pack
that is homologated for 449 km of range
under the WLTP cycle. The real-world
range of about 350 km allows for urban
daily use and reasonable weekend trips.
Even on battery-saving "eco" mode, the
Kona's 204 hp let me outrace many internal combustion vehicles from a stoplight.

❚ Home charging: With a standard Italian

outlet of 3 kWh, a full charge should take
a little more than 21 hours. But in reality, the available power varied from 2.1 to
2.7 kWh. "Range anxiety" prevented me
from running down the battery all the way,
but my charging times included 23 hours
to go from 26 percent to 100 percent,
and 2.3 hours to go from 96 percent to
100 percent.

ly's largest charging systems) in around
two hours, at a cost of 16.43 euros.
On top of this, several charging stations
were blocked by non-electric cars. Maybe in a few years it will be as easy to find
a public station in Italy as it is in Norway,
but right now it's a part-time job.
❚ Real-world range: Not a simple answer. In city driving, at 9 km per kW used,
you could potentially achieve a stunning
576 km by recovering a significant amount
of energy through diligent "one pedal" driving, slowing down through regenerative
braking. On the highway, at 5 km per kW,
range should be around 320 km. And the
expected range is calculated by use patterns. Thus, with a full charge, I was usually
shown a range of 400 km, which peaked at
411 km the day I returned the car. But
even this was around 10 percent less
than the 449 homologated range.
❚ Range anxiety: As I got to know the
Kona and its actual energy consumption,
the fear of getting stuck with a dead battery decreased - but it never went away,
particularly with a fragmented charging
infrastructure. I could not convince my

wife that having to drive on the highway
at 100 kph with the cruise control on and
radio and heat off to save energy is the
way of the future. I'm told that air conditioning is even more energy hungry.
❚ Cost of ownership: Automakers say
that the total cost of ownership (TCO)
of an electric vehicle is the same or less
than that of an internal combustion version. It's hard to come to that conclusion
when electricity prices show huge differences. At home, I paid 22 cents per kW,
while Enel X stations cost 45 to 50 cents
per kW, and Ionity fast charging on highways is 79 cents per kW. In real terms, a
full charge at home could cost just 14 euros but would take nearly a full day, while
on the highway it might take just a few
hours but cost more than 50 euros.
❚ Price: The top-spec Kona Electric Ex-

cellence has one of the largest batteries
in the compact segment, permitting true
all-round use, but at 50,350 euros in
Italy, it remains a tough sell, even after
deducting an EV bonus of 4,000 euros,
which can increase to 6,000 euros when
scrapping a high-polluting vehicle. ANE

Reasonable? Well, until my washing machine kicked in. When it heated the water, it increased electricity consumption,
and combined with charging the car,
overloaded my household circuit. I had
to go outside to my garden, detach the
charging cable, then switch the power
back on. On a cold, rainy winter day, you
might dream of having a diesel.
❚ Public charging: This was something
of a nightmare. The closest public charging stations were about 5 km from my
house. There were none on the three
public highways that depart from Turin.
But on the plus side, I found a 7.2 kWh
charger at a shopping mall that pumped
in about 14 kW of electricity - or 22 percent of a complete charge in about two
hours -- for just 2 euros. However, I took
on about 38 kW at an Enel X (one of Ita-

www.autonewseurope.com

The Hyundai Kona Electric Excellence has an actual range of about 350 km and superb acceleration, but at 50,350 euros in Italy before incentives it's very expensive.

MARCH 2020

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Automotive News Europe - March 2020

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