We got far more than we expected on a trip to Ikea
JACK WARRICK
MILEAGE 2244
WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT
To see if Ssangyong’s first EV can stand out among a slew of reputable rivals – and show that the firm has a future
My first week of living in London has been full of ups and downs. Quite literally, in fact, as I’ve moved to one of the capital’s most hilly areas, which is testing for my Korando E-Motion in several ways.
I find the Ssangyong EV really rather pleasant to drive in the city. The ride isn’t the plushest in the class, but it’s quiet, driving at slow speeds is an effortless task and, despite its size, it never feels too big to squeeze past an oncoming bus or during a quick parallel park.
The most comfortable method of driving the Korando is switching it into Eco mode (or Eco Plus, if I’m feeling extra stingy), which improves efficiency and places a soft limit on the crossover’s top speed of 55mph, and engaging level-two regenerative braking.
It’s not quite a one-pedal-driving situation, but it’s definitely handy for saving a bit of energy in stop-start traffic.
So, most things seem positive. Well, then let me tell you about a recent trip to Ikea Wembley, where our honeymoon period came to an abrupt end.
With three empty Gridserve chargers at my disposal, all with an output of 50kW, I had the pick of the lot. I smugly plugged in and went on my way, hoping the dismal 11kW charging rate displayed on the screen would improve as the Korando’s battery warmed up.
An hour or so later (perhaps a record for rounding that shop), I came back to find that the battery had gained only around 30 miles’ worth of energy. And when I then unplugged it, I was presented with an error message on the dashboard stating there was an issue with the power supply and it was unable to shift into drive or reverse.
I had seen this message before, but a restart solved the problem. Not today. After five minutes of deliberating, a grumpy van driver tapped on my window, saying he had been waiting an hour for a charger and asking me to leave.
Luckily, I was able to shift into neutral, and I pushed the Korando out of the way so he could charge his Maxus eDeliver 3 and get out of the way of other miffed EV drivers.
After a call with Ssangyong, who asked me to disconnect the battery (which I was unable to do, because I had no tools with me), I called for assistance. The RAC didn’t arrive for another three hours after this debacle, meaning I sat in the Ikea car park for six hours in total.
It turned out it was an issue with the charging flap, according t
