[HN Gopher] Kona EV Hacking
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Kona EV Hacking
Author : AnnikaL
Score : 111 points
Date : 2026-03-11 21:26 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (techno-fandom.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (techno-fandom.org)
| sgt wrote:
| Recently bought a second hand BMW i3 - what a cool car! Not
| planning to 'hack' it but nice to read about ideas.
| nubinetwork wrote:
| I've seen videos of that car... don't they only have like 40
| miles of range, and the range extender only holds like 5
| gallons of fuel?
| mschild wrote:
| For the original version released in 2013, range was a bit of
| a concern.
|
| Later models, 120ah full electric version, the range is about
| 250km. In comparison to newer cars, not a lot, but
| considering you can buy newish used ones for under 15k, its
| not a bad deal if it fits your needs.
| sgt wrote:
| Funny how I'm downvoted for even mentioning an i3. I've
| also heard several comments insinuating that I must be gay
| for driving such a car. Are we still there in 2026?
| skrebbel wrote:
| don't read too much into a downvote here or there. as i
| read this the downvotes are already gone again. some
| people are just idiots. also some people just misclick.
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| I get downvoted to hell and gone for saying such
| controversial things as "AI doesn't really solve any
| problem I have", so I just assume people who downvote to
| disagree instead of commenting to explain why they
| disagree are too lazy or too stupid or too stoned to get
| enough of a spark across a synapse and not really worth
| caring about.
|
| If I was in it for the karma I'd be in the billions by
| now.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| Complaining about downvotes is boring, don't do it
| HNisCIS wrote:
| This is Superiority Complex News. If people aren't making
| themselves feel better about the state of the world by
| dunking on each other then why are they posting?
|
| If it would help, we can call you cis instead?
| sgt wrote:
| You don't want the range extender - it makes it fiddly and
| potentially unreliable.
|
| As for the range, I'm getting about 110 miles of range. It
| depends how you drive. This is the 94Ah battery, the later
| models had more range.
| chipsa wrote:
| Range extender was definitely a requirement when I got mine
| in '19. But that's because I did not have reliable charging
| available in the area.
|
| It also came in handy for a bad road trip (charging
| stations more than my range apart, so I couldn't otherwise
| get there from here, but hold state of charge kept it up at
| 75% with frequent gas stops)
| sgt wrote:
| Glad it worked out for you. I am in South Africa so there
| still aren't many charging stations but we're getting
| there. Most people charge from their houses though and
| that's what I do as well. With solar it's practically
| free to drive around town, school runs etc.
| mmmlinux wrote:
| the thing that makes them unreliable is lack of use. when
| you leave some gas in there for 6 months because you never
| travel farther than the grocery store, when you actually
| use the engine it goes and sucks up a bunch of trash
| expired gas.
| postalrat wrote:
| I was shopping for a range extender version and bought a
| battery only i3 when I saw one for the right price. Then I
| got a i3 rex for parts and it made me really appreciate the
| bev. So much more room in the engine bay and simpler
| overall.
| smallerize wrote:
| To be eligible for a specific subsidy, the gas engine had to
| have less range than the better. So they electronically set
| the amount of gas you were allowed to use from the gas tank
| even though it held more. Sure the difference was only a half
| gallon or so but it's stealing your gasoline, and making it
| staler.
|
| It was either 1.9 or 2.4 gallons depending on the model year,
| but they physically had the same gas tank.
| anarticle wrote:
| In an interesting turn of events there is a pack upgrade for
| the i3 that gives it more range than it started with!
|
| https://mtgbattery.com/
|
| This is the kind of hacking / upgrades I'd love to see. All in
| cost was about $6k when I last checked probably a little more
| now. You get a pack teardown, and new CATL cells. Range goes to
| 400km~.
| sgt wrote:
| That is very cool! I can see myself keeping this car for a
| long time. It's just so well built and the interior is also
| something to behold (compared to a lot of cars). Range is not
| an issue at the moment (we have a Land Cruiser for longer
| trips) but once the batteries get really old this would be a
| great option.
| MaKey wrote:
| Their battery upgrade is trash though: https://www.goingelect
| ric.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2350326#p...
| zorg-is-real wrote:
| There is a way to make the Android Auto work wirelessly
| entropicdrifter wrote:
| Yeah, I have a $60 dongle that does it in my Kona EV
| physhster wrote:
| I think talking about "hacking" a car without a mention of OpenAI
| is not really hacking: https://comma.ai/vehicles#hyundai
| PetitPrince wrote:
| Installing a non-standard button that hijack the light control
| of the car to light all of the rear one is not hacking ?
| https://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/ev/yb.html
|
| I appreciate the autopilot effort of comma, but if this isn't
| hacking in the most classic sense of the word I don't know what
| is.
| codeulike wrote:
| _At some point later I got around to playing with DC fast
| charging ... That market still has a long way to go as far as
| sorting out its business model, as billing based on time vs
| energy is completely unfair ... An excuse that 's offered less
| and less often is that pricing by kilowatt-hours delivered is
| prohibited in some states by utility regulatory rules._
|
| I didn't know they were billing for DC charging in the US based
| on Time instead of kwh. Thats odd. In Europe its just kwh.
| ranguna wrote:
| In Europe, sometimes it's just kWh, other times it's kWh and
| time. After charging is done, it's just time.
| rcxdude wrote:
| Arguably it should be both. Sitting and occupying a DC fast
| charging booth, especially once you're not charging at the full
| rate, represents an opportunity cost since someone else could
| be using it.
| hvb2 wrote:
| > especially once you're not charging at the full rate
|
| I don't think you want that as no car will be able to charge
| at 250kW for very long for example.
|
| And I believe we're starting to see even higher peak charging
| rates. As always, there's no simple answers
| cjrp wrote:
| I used a Tesla charger (as a non-Tesla driver) recently. I
| think their pricing model is pretty good: pay per kWh (varies
| between peak and off-peak), and if the station is busy they
| can impose a "congestion charge" for anyone occupying a
| charger and not charging, or charging above 80% when it's not
| necessary for their journey (presumably only works for Teslas
| where the satnav knows about your journey and charge
| locations).
| bojan wrote:
| > In Europe its just kwh.
|
| In the EU, yes. When you go to those dark corners of Europe
| that never achieved the membership, all bets are off.
|
| In Montenegro and Serbia they charge per minute because the
| only entity allowed to sell kwh's is the national electricity
| company (in Serbia it's owned by Russia, so it is heavily
| legally protected).
| close04 wrote:
| No need to go further than dead center EU to see chargers
| where the cost has a time component, and an energy component,
| and even a (small) one time fee. Sometimes the charger is
| inside a paid parking, there that comes on top. These aren't
| shady operators either either, just the way they saw fit to
| prevent abuse and make more money.
|
| Some have reasonable limits to prevent abuse [0], others just
| charge the customer as much as they can get away with.
|
| [0] https://www.tanke.io/oeffentliche-ladestationen/
| GCUMstlyHarmls wrote:
| Is _abuse_ here just parking in the charger and leaving for
| a few hours, assumingly skipping any parking fee if you 're
| only paying for kWh?
| margalabargala wrote:
| Abuse means leaving your car parked while it is not
| actively charging.
|
| Fine to leave for a few hours if your car needs a few
| hours to charge fully.
|
| Not fine to leave for a few hours if your car was 15
| minutes from full.
| spockz wrote:
| In Italy there are enough chargers that charge for both kWh
| and time connected. kWh for what you use and connected to
| discourage being connected all the time.
| a96 wrote:
| I think fast chargers in rush hour times will also bill for
| time to discourage long/slow charges on them. Naturally that'll
| vary on whoever sets the costs, but it does exist in EU as
| well.
| StilesCrisis wrote:
| I've never paid by the minute. Tesla Superchargers often
| deliver less energy per minute when they're busy (sometimes
| much less!) and it would be frustrating if they charged per-
| minute.
|
| Other systems I've seen (Chargepoint) also seem to be energy-
| based.
|
| The Supercharger network is well done. It's a shame that they
| took this long to open up to other car models because they
| really do get a lot of things right.
| gausswho wrote:
| Careful. Some superchargers will now charge you extra per
| minute as soon as you cross 80% capacity (regardless of your
| charge limit).
| jerlam wrote:
| Does this also apply to non-Teslas? I'm guessing there's a
| bit of two-way communication from car to charger, for
| authentication/billing purposes but also for congestion
| fees like charging beyond 80%. Does the app notify you to
| take your car off the charger?
|
| I understand the reasoning but sympathize with the luddites
| who shun all this technology. Imagine going on a road trip
| with your EV, stopping for a bite to eat and refresh while
| putting your car on the charger. Maybe there was a long
| line or you needed a long bathroom stop, so your car sits
| at the charger "too long" and you get a nice penalty.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| I've charged in 30 states, it's kwh every single time.
| bluGill wrote:
| Mowt states have changed the laws in the past 10 years. When
| nobody (other that lead acid convestions done at home) had an
| ev it did't matter that the law didn't allow for charging by
| kwh as nobody other than a utility wanted to do that anyway.
| When evs changed to mainstream laws changed. There are still
| some free public chargers near me from before the law change
| (at 6kw max charge rate they not often used and so don't cost
| them much to keep it.
| joeyh wrote:
| Amusingly, the only DCFCs near me that charge by time and
| not kwh are run by utilities.
| ubertaco wrote:
| It's almost all by the kWh here, but perusing PlugShare I've
| seen a few level 2 chargers here and there that charge by the
| minute. Usually that's a sign of a charger that was set up a
| while ago and is owned by someone who hasn't checked on it
| since.
| stetrain wrote:
| My understanding is that some US states have regulations
| against selling power by the kWh unless you are a registered
| power utility. This is an old regulation meant to be about
| landlords marking up electric rates to tenants etc.
|
| Most states have updated their laws to account for EV charging
| providers, and in those states we pay per kWh.
| yardie wrote:
| In some states, like Georgia, you are considered an electric
| company if you bill in kWhs. So some DCFC companies simply
| billed in the time equivalent. $0.30/min-$0.50/min.
| pjc50 wrote:
| Later on ( https://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/ev/dcfc/app-
| problem.h... ) he talks about the app problem, and I believe
| the UK and possibly the EU are mandating that chargers must
| support contactless payment, so you can just do it with your
| regular bank card.
| bdcravens wrote:
| I know Electrify America used to, but in recent years, I
| haven't come across any time-based chargers (but I haven't used
| a charger outside of Texas since 2022, so may be an issue in
| only certain states, as other comments have alluded to)
| ezfe wrote:
| Time based billing is almost completely eliminated. It was
| always state-by-state, due to local laws not being setup for
| dispensing of electricity as a business model.
| spicySpy wrote:
| I really like both the e-Niro and the Kona EV for their "normal"
| car look and I did some hacking too. Wanted to play with the Web
| Bluetooth API and Svelte, so created the open source Niro Spy app
| (should work with your Kona too), works on iOS through BLE
| browser. It might be a good template for some OBD2 hacking, you
| can also check Open Vehicle Monitoring System repo and the evDash
| project.
|
| The car is somewhat reliable on the battery side (still have SOH
| over 101% after 90k km / 50k miles), but the gearbox and motor
| bearings issue can be tricky to fix.
|
| Also the MY2019 vehicles do lack remote climate controls and
| battery preconditioning (which I'm still trying to fix with the
| app).
| miduil wrote:
| > [...] due to some dipshit blonde not paying attention [...]
|
| Wow, instantly stopped reading after this. I can't comprehend how
| someone would even remotely have the courage writing such in a
| public posting.
| geonineties wrote:
| Maybe a dipshit blonde wasn't paying attention and caused the
| problem? Sometimes facts really do follow stereotypes.
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| It's possible, but my anecdata is that the four people who
| have run into the back of my car in the past ten years have
| all been middle-aged men distracted by phones.
|
| Two Audis (one of them written off to the point it had to be
| lifted onto the breakdown truck with a Hiab), one Hyundai of
| some sort, and one bicycle.
|
| The cyclist was the only one I felt in any way sorry for,
| because he did actually hurt himself pretty badly and
| obliterated his carbon wheel and forks, but he shouldn't have
| been dicking around with his phone while riding down a steep
| hill at what I can tell from his Strava trail was around
| 35mph.
|
| At no time did my car suffer any more than a bit of scuffing
| and damage to the old tennis ball over the tow hitch to stop
| the grease getting on my trousers.
| brookst wrote:
| Same, stopped there. One of those odd pieces where the author
| is completely full of themselves and hostile, yet somehow
| decries other people's attitudes ("as attitudes have
| degenerated, I found the ability to blind people driving behind
| me to be a critical safety feature").
|
| Weird bit of self-righteous misanthropy.
| Upvoter33 wrote:
| me too. It's like it was written in 1980.
| stavros wrote:
| Yeah, scrolled down to that and closed the tab, it left a bad
| taste in my mouth.
| donkey_brains wrote:
| Elsewhere in the site he publishes her name and address.
| mocd wrote:
| Yeah. I thought "dipshit blonde" was in poor taste; posting
| her name and address genuinely shocked me and I stopped
| there.
|
| No doubt that driver inattentiveness leads to loss of many
| lives year on year. But publishing the personal details of
| someone you got into a car crash with won't do anything to
| improve road safely.
| jandrese wrote:
| I clicked on the link for the "Yuppie button" and confirmed
| that the guy is a nut. The amount of effort required to create
| and install a device that flashes all of your tail lights at a
| tailgater is not something an average person is going to do.
| MisterTea wrote:
| This guy should get a medal for having the balls to fight ass
| hole drivers.
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| That's an interesting view to take.
|
| What would you rather they said instead, to avoid offending
| your delicate sensibilities?
| tiagod wrote:
| For me, just removing "blonde" would be fine.
| dsr_ wrote:
| For people who are not aware: this is the same Hobbit as
|
| https://seclists.org/bugtraq/1995/Oct/28
| ezfe wrote:
| Blog posts without dates on them are super frustrating. If this
| was written today I would have a litany of complaints about the
| details around EV charging.
|
| If this was written 5 years ago they might have a little more
| leeway. Here's one:
|
| > trying to force everyone to download janky apps just to play is
| disingenuous and short-sighted
|
| The biggest networks do not require apps to use their chargers
| (excluding Tesla, who built a huge network with no screens and
| then decided to open it up without hardware retrofits). Some
| offer memberships which obviously use an app, but that's not
| surprising or relevant.
| zie wrote:
| In the USA, I've had several charging stations where the CC
| terminal acts like it works, but it won't actually charge the
| vehicle.
|
| However if you use the App, the charger works. This is in late
| 2025 and 2026, so it's better, but the non-app route is not
| fully fleshed out yet.
|
| My worst experience was a charger near Yosemite ran by the
| local power utility. They required you use a website to turn
| the charger on, and the instructions were incomplete and it
| took me a half-dozen tries to figure out the right set of magic
| steps to get the dumb charger to work. Had it not been the only
| charger in like 100+ miles, I'm sure it would never ever get
| used due to how insanely broken it was.
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