I’ll save you the suspense: it’s a Hyundai Kona Electric.
More specifically, a three-year-old Kona Electric in Ultimate trim with somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 miles on the clock. I can say that with some confidence because that’s exactly what’s sitting on my drive.
Here’s how I ended up buying one, why it’s been one of the easiest cars I’ve ever owned, and why two other people I know have since bought exactly the same thing. One of them quite literally bought the same car, right down to the colour.
Why a Hyundai Kona Electric?
Even before I started looking at specific models, the maths pointed me towards a used EV.
A three-year-old electric car had already taken the biggest hit in depreciation, would be cheap to run on the right electricity tariff, and would cost less to maintain than an equivalent petrol car.
The difficult bit was deciding which one.
I was tempted by a Volkswagen ID.3. I’ve driven several over the years and always thought the criticism they received when new was a bit over the top. I probably wouldn’t spend £40,000 on one, but at £15,000 it’s much easier to forgive a niggly infotainment system and some flimsy interior finishes.
The problem was finding the one I wanted. I was after a Tour model with the larger battery, but they were either over budget or had spent their lives pounding up and down motorways as fleet cars.
The Kona won on the boring things that matter once you actually own a car. It came with a longer warranty, more equipment for the money and a stronger reputation for reliability. As the Ultimate, mine has adaptive cruise control, leather seats (heated in the rear, heated and ventilated up front), a head-up display and even a sunroof.
It wasn’t a decision that came from desire. It was a spreadsheet decision. I’m fine with that.
15 months, 18,000 miles… and one £70 repair
I’ve now owned the car for around 15 months and covered roughly 18,000 miles.
In that time, exactly one thing has gone wrong: the 12-volt battery died. Not the big battery that actually powers the car. The little one that runs the electronics.
A replacement from Halfords cost about £70, took 10 minutes to fit, and that was the end of it. Nothing else has broken. No warning lights. No weird charging issues. It just works.
I haven’t even paid for servicing, because I negotiated three free services when I bought the car. So after fifteen months and 18,000 miles, the total cost of maintaining the car has been £70.
That isn’t meant as a “look how clever I was” story. It’s simply what owning a sensible used EV has been like. You charge it, you drive it. It’s all very easy.
What about the big battery?
This is the question everyone asks about used EVs.
At its most recent service, the battery health report came back showing 100% State of Health, despite the car now having covered more than 60,000 miles.
That’s just one car, of course, and it doesn’t mean every Kona battery will be identical.
But it does show that modern EV batteries aren’t necessarily the ticking time bombs many people still imagine them to be.
Five winters. More than 60,000 miles. Two owners charging it however they pleased. And it’s still performing exactly as Hyundai intended.
How I became influential in the world of Hyundai Konas
I’ve now persuaded two other people to buy Kona Electrics. Whether that’s a sign I’ve made a good recommendation or should stop talking about cars over dinner is open to debate.
The first is my boss, who swapped her Range Rover Evoque company car for a Kona Electric on my recommendation. She loves it — genuinely, unprompted, brings-it-up-in-meetings loves it. From an Evoque to a Kona Electric is not a small downsize on paper, and the fact that she hasn’t looked back says more about the car than anything I could write here.
The second convert is my dad. He didn’t just buy a Kona. He bought my Kona.
Same model. Same specification. Same colour.
Apparently watching someone run a car faultlessly for over a year is all the convincing he needed.
He could at least have chosen a different colour, though.
Would I buy one again?
Without hesitation. At around £15,000 you’re not buying the newest EV or the one that’ll impress the neighbours. You’re buying something that’s already proved itself.
Something that’s comfortable, well equipped, cheap to run and, perhaps most importantly, almost completely uneventful to own.
The comparison that really matters isn’t with another EV. It’s with what else £15,000 buys you.
An equivalent petrol car will still need fuel, oil changes, exhaust work, brakes and all the other things internal combustion engines eventually ask for.
Mine has needed one £70 battery in fifteen months. Everything else has simply worked.
Once you factor in home charging costs on a good electricity tariff, it stops feeling like a close contest.
My boss agrees.
My dad agrees.
And, after 18,000 miles, I still do too.
