Over Mother’s Day weekend, I drove ~700 miles from Coffeyville KS to home in Huntsville AL: $0.00 – Joplin MO, reward for Tesla referral $0.00 – Lowell AR, reward for Tesla referral $4.86 – Ozark AR, reward and charging cost $9.72 – Little Rock AR, straight charge $3.51 – Brinkley AR, straight charge $13.34 – Memphis TN, straight charge ~$9.10 to drive ~695.2 miles. Over all, I’m pretty happy with my Tesla mileage costs, the GREENback Yankee dollar, out-of-my pocket costs. I’m especially happy that Tesla rewarded my referral code for ‘free’ charging. You ‘all get that too, right? Bob Wilson
Bob, thanks for the Tesla ad. But not everyone drives a Tesla. I opted for the Kona EV for these reasons _ and it was not the battery. - Rightly or wrongly I was concerned about Tesla's build quality - For us, the seating was 'too close to the ground' - it was hard to get OUT - The energy efficiency and range of the Kona is close or at par with some Tesla M3s - While the Tesla supercharger network is a definite advantage, DC chargers are popping up all over the country. - The price. A Model 3 would have set us back with an other 10K. Overall we are very happy with our choice.
Memorial Day and later, July 4th, are coming up. Perhaps you might document a Kona trip? BTW, I don't resent your choice nor feel any desire to throw ashes on it. I had to decide in 2019 from what was available: For my Tesla, I added: Blue paint exterior AutoPilot (had to pay for it in 2019, now it is standard) I also have a 2014 BMW i3-REx. Testing before buying the Tesla revealed the CCS-1, fast DC charging networks were expensive, unreliable, and even slow to charge (aka., EVgo at less than 50 kW.) My understanding is the CCS-1 networks have improved. Sharing you Kona experience on a holiday weekend would help. Bob Wilson
