Went to the LA auto show, Kia and Hyundai have by far the most competitive options out there for EVs, nicer features and interiors than any other brand and lower starting points too.
Maybe the lesson to be learned is ‘don’t make shite EVs’?
A while back, I had the gut feeling that South Korea had a lot of potential to succeed at the EV switchover. Obviously less inertia and stubbornness than the Japanese manufacturers. And, a lot of technology-forward attitude and faith.
Then I looked at their actual plans and offerings and was so disappointed in how far behind they were.
Now, I feel validated in my baseline faith. And, given that big change, I’m super excited for their trajectory and future.
Makes me feel bad for the companies (US and Japanese) that are being dragged backward by their working environment.
Until we see profit numbers on EVs it doesn’t matter how many vehicles are sold by a company.
Bolt sales didn’t matter if they “pulled ahead” because it didn’t work for the company which is why they cancelled it.
Also October numbers were down compared to last month and last quarter so we should continue to pay attention to see what happens next.
It does matter how many vehicles are sold because of economies of scale. Profitability is only possible once the production has been scaled up sufficently because of the big investments that are necessary.
Bz4x…
amazing what happens when you build what most people want and can afford instead of highline trophy vehicles. Prices still need to come down a bit but they are closer than US manufactures by a long shot.
Question about the
I love my Kia Niro. Perfect car for us!
Pulling away from what? Certainly not the industry leaders
“Leaders”? With an s? There’s only one. Everyone else is jockeying for second place right now and Hyundai has as good or better claim to it than anyone else.
Been waiting for close to two years for a Ioniq 5 in Canada. Friend just got a BZ4X after 2 months.
Don’t mind waiting
Wait 4-5 years for those cars to start falling apart like a lot of Korean cars do.
Kia/Hyundai offer better cars are features.
- Heads up display
- Sun roofs
- 800V fast charging
- FWD on long range versions vs. RWD.
Niro and Kona are the best budget EV’s around. Bolt EUV makes the list also.
FWD offers little (to no) advantage. Might be a marketing advantage? For example, Volvo has switched from FWD to RWD, because FWD isn’t better for EVs
Kia/huyndai self driving is great.
Media psyops are doing my head in. Please someone help
If this is true, I hope more ev makers take note of Hyundai/kia having the ability to charge rather quickly at fast chargers. The faster cars can charge, the more likely people will be interested in buying them.
I’ve said it before in other threads but the top two things needed for increased ev adoption are increases in dc fast charging locations(which is sort of being handled with Tesla opening up and nacs adoption) and faster charging speeds.
Totally agree with this.
I’ve said similar before that real world range in the 250-300 mile ballpark is plenty for me because that’s about the maximum distance I can comfortably drive without stopping anyway. Stopping to plug my car in for the 15 minutes I’d already take to stretch my legs, buy a soda, use the bathroom etc doesn’t add any time to my overall journey.
A battery that can get me more than 250-300 miles on a single charge doesn’t add as much value to me as one that can replenish that 250-300 miles in 15-20 minutes at a rest stop I’d have pulled into on the route I was driving anyway.
Hyundai claims the Ioniq can do 10-80% in 18 minutes at a charger that supports fast enough speeds, so if we can get that tech into every EV and build out the charging network enough that I’m guaranteed to have a charger that can hit that rate where I need it then I’ll be pretty much set as far as battery/range questions are concerned.
That 18 minute claim is 100% real too. It’s an actual game-changer for road trips. I’ve driven two 2000 mile round-trip drives in my EV6 and it barely ended up taking longer in real time than when I did that same trip in an ICE since most of my stops were restroom/food breaks I would’ve already taken in my ICE.
Yup. I have a Rivian.
Still few enough fast chargers that I have to check their availability before I go (and a crucial EA station is completely inoperable right now! Only one in that area, but I can plan around it now that I know). When Tesla opens up, problem solved.
But man, if the Rivian could hold its charging curve better (200kW for longer) consistently, that would be absolutely great. 5 minutes longer doesn’t seem like much, but even browsing the web, if you got a family of six in the car, 5 minutes of dead time feels a lot longer than it actually is.
Rivian is the textbook example where higher voltage makes sense to get around the 500 A of CCS limitation and other such a huge pack
Plus better thermal design since it gets thermal throttled quite easy, their cooling strategy is the same as Lucid, which doesn’t result in the best charging performance C rate wise
This is such a great point, and one of the primary reasons we bought an Ioniq 5.
the top two things needed for increased ev adoption are increases in dc fast charging locations(which is sort of being handled with Tesla opening up and nacs adoption) and faster charging speeds.
Strong disagree on charging speed, as 95% of EV charging is done at level 2 chargers. Charging speeds on the level of Teslas and the e-GMP cars are as much as we really need. So I’d put #1 at “more DCFC stations” (to alleviate non-EV owners’ range anxiety) and #2 at “more Level 2 chargers” (to actually serve EV owners’ charging needs).
Make L2 charging ubiquitous throughout places where people leave their cars parked for a while (shopping malls, movie theaters, grocery stores, etc), and heavily incentivize apartment landlords to install them, and EV adoption will be hindered only by how fast carmakers can manufacture them.
How have Hyundai and Kia’s EV’s held up? I’m about to hit 13 years in my 2011 Kia Optima and, while it still runs fine, it’s a bit of a gas guzzler now. Adding to that, I literally just recieved notice of the 5th or 6th recall on the car, the amount of major recalls it’s had has completely killed any resale value it could’ve had. I really wanted to move on from Hyundai / Kia, but I want an EV to ease my long commute and the other brands are really expensive.
The EV6 has had its fair share of ICCU issues:
https://www.kiaevforums.com/threads/ev6-iccu-recall-discussion.8731/
https://www.kiaevforums.com/threads/12v-battery-died-towed-back-to-dealer.9969/
https://www.theautopian.com/why-everyones-favorite-electric-car-keeps-stranding-its-owners/
If you Google " ICCU failure" you will see that new issues keep popping up.
Curious as well as their 2.0/2.4 liter four cylinder engines had issues for a decade that they never fixed.
Yeah, this is the biggest issue with my ‘11 Optima. I had the engine replaced for free, but they just replace it with a new engine that has the same problem, so eventually I guess I’ll have to have the engine replaced again.
These kinds of issues make me a little skeptical of the long-term reliability of their EVs.
Resale value on a 13 year old car, lol
I never had an issue with my '11 Soul before I traded it for an EV6.
Well in Toyota world, resale value is a thing on 13 year old vehicles.
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/0a6f5e38-b4aa-4ed3-b8e8-de9ca541c6cd?aff=share_other
Our other car is a 10 year old Toyota. Private party value is maybe 60-70% of the original price lol
Resale value on a 13 year old car, lol
Wait a couple more years and it’ll be worth a small fortune for its parts.
Antique with all those gauges!
Is that a real CD player?
/s
I’m not expecting tons for it, but it’s barely worth a down payment for a new car. Go look at what equivalent preowned cars are being sold for right now.