Recent content by Kiwi_ME

There are more detailed photos posted here. The presence of a stupid torsion beam rear suspension is a disappointment for me and I'd really prefer it had RWD. I used to own a 2014 Polo with the same and it was jittery around bumpy corners but otherwise a jewel of a car. Another slight...

A number of Kona owners several years ago used external magnets to avoid the appearance of a 'modification' in case of a related warranty claim. I did bench-test that option (see video) and found that it did work in a lab setting with iron filings. All sorts of mickey-mouse arrangements to...

There's been some indication that the 2nd-gen Niro/Kona has the same drive unit as the Ioniq 5 rear. I've also noticed Hyundai using the "E-GMP" term for 400V models as well. I can't answer your question with any authority but being that this is a relatively-simple 2-stage parallel-shaft gear...

The single motor (FWD) version been on the market here for just over a year. It's about the same size as the outgoing Niro and I suspect has the same powertrain. I quite like it myself but am not looking for a new car yet. There have been a tiny handful of reported "ICCU" failures, the item...

That video was hilarious and yet she said it all with a straight face. Big screens and flush door handles? Where did those ideas come from? Car manufacturing is difficult and the Chinese automakers have gotten most of it right and are improving very quickly. The stuff she mentioned is easy to...

You cannot determine the actual charging ranges used and the SoH is intended to be the overall summary. You can see that the battery has accumulated 531 'full-charge cycles' where you should expect to get at least four times that, simply because the cell vendor has already limited the charge...

Good choice! Hyundai-Kia made some big improvements in this 2nd-gen Niro, the same underneath as the 2024+ Kona EV. Notable are that the liquid cooling is placed underneath the battery enclosure rather than inside, for safety. Also the cells are 3x larger than the earlier model so that no...

It wasn't fixed until the 2023 model year unfortunately, which is also an entirely new car from the ground-up. There's been no evidence the faults are related to anything further than what I've mentioned in my previous posts. Nor is it particularly related to miles. Some are hitting very high...

Not many have done this but there is a thread here on Ioniq forum.com. Because it’s a pumped system you can really only do a drain and fill like a conventional automatic. You’ll have to use the dealers ATF or find an equivalent. It’s different from the older EVs like mine that use gear oil.

GM's EV-1 had this, at 6.6 kW according to the article.

I've changed mine (7) times in 33,000 km, partly in the interest of research of course but also because the gear reducer can fail in all Hyundai-Kia EVs made prior to the Ioniq 5, perhaps up 20% according to (2) polls. I've also been experimenting with a thicker grade to quieten it down, a...

It's worth taking into account that Tesla (Musk himself, really) has a special attitude when it comes to entrenched standards. The same juvenile thinking he uses for other more-public concepts. It's not the customer he prioritises, it's the idea of rebellion, 'no maintenance' included. Tesla's...

Hyundai-Kia specify their ATF ("HK ATF 65 SP4M-1") for all their EVs from the Ioniq 5 onwards, all of which use oil-wetted motors in both the '400V' and '800V' architectures. I've not researched it thoroughly but not seen in forums any indication that the ATF has specific dielectric properties...

Oil looking like that has been a 'feature' of Hyundai-Kia EVs for nearly nine years, many looking far worse. I wrote about my own adventure (2018 Kona) in this post here years ago, and on many of the dedicated EV forums. It's not the oil but the absence of proper sequestration or filtering of...

Perhaps better to leave the science to those who are appropriately educated. It's a complicated subject.