We own EVs. Ask Us Anything.

[MaddMatt]

We also own an Ionic 5, and also love it. However, I will tell you if you're looking to do a highway trip, the car range estimate is nowhere near reliable. I believe this to be consistent among EVs based on what I've read. I'm not saying anything new but highway commutes of significant distance and towing are not pure BEV strong suits. Ours is rated to be capable of 303 miles. While that may be true around town, we wouldn't have made it 200 on our highway trip last weekend... When we left, according to car projections, I should have been able to make my trip with over 120 miles to spare.

Hoping future technology will result in more accurate estimates and consistent battery discharge. Whether it does or doesn't, I'm opting for the harvester, personally.

It all depends on what an individual intends to use their BEV/EREV for... I'm not implying there is a right answer.

I'll be very curious to find out what our real world experiences are. So far, for around town errands, which is the bulk of our day-to-day driving, and a BEV's strong suit, the car is perfect. We've driven almost 300 miles for free, the alternative would have been 17-18 gallons of fuel, at whatever 87 octane is going for today.

 

[J Alynn]

Happy to, but I hate to have it in two places, is there a way to just move it? Mods, something you can do? Just realized I've been active on various forums for a long time, but have never moved a thread....

Generally the author needs to move it or Jamie. Two places isn’t preferred (in my mind) but in this case your write up would be good there and then in future if you are willing to give other general feedback or long trip feedback it’s a great single source to send new members to so they can learn about others experiences

 

[MaddMatt]

I will try to keep up with my experiences here, if people find it useful. Here's another mindset change:

Slow down. And I mean mentally; physically these are fast cars, drive as a fast as you want. Mentally, there is a lot to learn, to the point of being overwhelming coming from a 12 year old ICE vehicle (and one that was a bit behind technology wise even 12 years ago). Our sales person did a great job of explaining about a million things in about 30 minutes, and my mid-50's brain was full. I'm no luddite, I sell a very complicated software for a living, but its a lot.

A lot of things can be figured out by the trusty hunt-n-peck method, but if you try to hurry the process you'll just get frustrated. For things that don't reveal themselves, there are a lot of great videos on you tube.

Case in point: Auto-hold. I thought it seemed cool, so I turned it on on the way home from the dealer when we picked it up. That was stupid, as previously mentioned, I learned to drive in an SSII - steep hill leaving my high school, long clutch throw, lots of traffic, etc... I haven't had a car roll back on me since high school, so this feature is wasted on me, BUT - the downside is that the car won't move at all unless you give it some juice, and then it moves immediately. There's no slow roll from a stop.

The punch line is I scratched the rear bumper backing into some kids Subaru when our car had 38 miles on it. Now i have an insurance claim for some kids 10 year old outback, and I'm very glad I bought the extra "bumper scratches" insurance when I leased the car. Still waiting for our touch-up estimate, but I'm thinking we won't both fixing it, its very slight. And I turned auto-hold off.

Now that we've got the basics, I'm really just trying to learn one new thing every day....

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I will try to keep up with my experiences here, if people find it useful. Here's another mindset change:

Slow down. And I mean mentally; physically these are fast cars, drive as a fast as you want. Mentally, there is a lot to learn, to the point of being overwhelming coming from a 12 year old ICE vehicle (and one that was a bit behind technology wise even 12 years ago). Our sales person did a great job of explaining about a million things in about 30 minutes, and my mid-50's brain was full. I'm no luddite, I sell a very complicated software for a living, but its a lot.

A lot of things can be figured out by the trusty hunt-n-peck method, but if you try to hurry the process you'll just get frustrated. For things that don't reveal themselves, there are a lot of great videos on you tube.

Case in point: Auto-hold. I thought it seemed cool, so I turned it on on the way home from the dealer when we picked it up. That was stupid, as previously mentioned, I learned to drive in an SSII - steep hill leaving my high school, long clutch throw, lots of traffic, etc... I haven't had a car roll back on me since high school, so this feature is wasted on me, BUT - the downside is that the car won't move at all unless you give it some juice, and then it moves immediately. There's no slow roll from a stop.

The punch line is I scratched the rear bumper backing into some kids Subaru when our car had 38 miles on it. Now i have an insurance claim for some kids 10 year old outback, and I'm very glad I bought the extra "bumper scratches" insurance when I leased the car. Still waiting for our touch-up estimate, but I'm thinking we won't both fixing it, its very slight. And I turned auto-hold off.

Now that we've got the basics, I'm really just trying to learn one new thing every day....

I haven't driven the Ioniq 5, but in my driving with 1PD, this same sort of thing can happen with 1PD to a lesser degree. I will sometimes turn off 1PD when backing up in an unfamiliar place simply because I want super-fine control over the speed of the vehicle and there is a wee bit of a jolt when backing up in 1PD. Not sure if this is just the implementation in the Ford vehicles or if it's noticeable in others as well.

 

[J Alynn]

I will try to keep up with my experiences here, if people find it useful. Here's another mindset change:

Slow down. And I mean mentally; physically these are fast cars, drive as a fast as you want. Mentally, there is a lot to learn, to the point of being overwhelming coming from a 12 year old ICE vehicle (and one that was a bit behind technology wise even 12 years ago). Our sales person did a great job of explaining about a million things in about 30 minutes, and my mid-50's brain was full. I'm no luddite, I sell a very complicated software for a living, but its a lot.

A lot of things can be figured out by the trusty hunt-n-peck method, but if you try to hurry the process you'll just get frustrated. For things that don't reveal themselves, there are a lot of great videos on you tube.

Case in point: Auto-hold. I thought it seemed cool, so I turned it on on the way home from the dealer when we picked it up. That was stupid, as previously mentioned, I learned to drive in an SSII - steep hill leaving my high school, long clutch throw, lots of traffic, etc... I haven't had a car roll back on me since high school, so this feature is wasted on me, BUT - the downside is that the car won't move at all unless you give it some juice, and then it moves immediately. There's no slow roll from a stop.

The punch line is I scratched the rear bumper backing into some kids Subaru when our car had 38 miles on it. Now i have an insurance claim for some kids 10 year old outback, and I'm very glad I bought the extra "bumper scratches" insurance when I leased the car. Still waiting for our touch-up estimate, but I'm thinking we won't both fixing it, its very slight. And I turned auto-hold off.

Now that we've got the basics, I'm really just trying to learn one new thing every day....

This is also great “experience” items for the “we drive EV’s….” Like a one stop shop for those of us completely new to EV’s

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

This is also great “experience” items for the “we drive EV’s….” Like a one stop shop for those of us completely new to EV’s

I also think people coming fresh from non-EV to EV is helpful for a lot of people. I've forgotten too much about the transition from gas to hybrid to EV and so many things are just kind of habit for me that probably wouldn't be for someone new...

 

[MaddMatt]

Today's "mind set change" update:

Discussing our Ioniq with a friend this weekend it occurred to me that we all have a tendency to equate process that we are used to, with "right" - and a tendency to equate process that is new or different with "wrong". He's a software engineer, smart guy, etc... but was having a hard time coming to terms with the concept of charging the car vs. filling up the tank.

Case in point: We are expecting sub-zero (f) temps this coming weekend, and we were discussing how the EV would do in that weather. I said I would likely charge the car on Saturday morning while grocery shopping, just like I have the past two weekends, and not worry about it. I'll be curious to see how much our range degrades, but I won't likely know definitively, since I'm not keeping specific records.

He seemed skeptical. A couple weeks ago I would have been too, but I realized that my "normal" process before a multi-day deep freeze with my ICE vehicles is the same - I grew up in the '70's and '80's, a time when, frankly, nothing was as well built or managed as it is today, and if I know a stretch of sub-zero temps is coming, I fill the gas tanks too. When I was learning about cars, it was drilled into my head that letting having your gas tank below half full when the temp dropped was a bad thing - water in the fuel, sticky valves in the carbs - to be honest I don't know the real reason, but if the temps are dropping and my ICE vehicles gas tanks are low, I fill them up. That feels "right", why would topping off the charge be any different?

I once had to fill a 90 gallon diesel tank in sub-zero temps, with two antsy kids in car seats waiting in the truck, and the fuel was moving through the pump like molasses - that was a long 30 minutes, I'd much rather wander around Target with a coffee in my hand....

Not much value today, but I'm trying to keep sharing while thoughts are fresh....

 

[Derek]

OK, for what it's worth:

Background: I live just outside of Denver, and learned to drive in my dad's '77 SSII, and very excited to have reservations for both a Traveler and a Terra - will decide truck or SUV when the time comes. Clicked the box for the Harvester Option on both - primarily due to two reasons: 1) very easy to get into long drives very quickly in Colorado, and not sure about charger infrastructure and 2) have never owned an EV or even a hybrid.

So both reasons really are one reason: range anxiety.

Currently driving a '13 Xterra Pro-4X, so my "comfort level" is 270-300 miles of range @ 15-16 mpg, a little bit higher on the highway, so used to dropping $50-$75 on fuel at a time.

On a whim, my wife and I leased a Hyundai Ioniq5 last week - there were some great year end incentives in Colorado, from Hyundai, the federal government and the state. We figured it would be a relatively low cost way to test our appetite for a full EV situation. Lease came with 2 years of free charging at Electrify America, which happen to be at our local Target, where we are 1-2 times per week anyway.

So, one week in, here's what I've learned, hopefully it's helpful to other people who have similar anxiety issues.

tldr: EV driving requires a bit of a mind-set change, but if things continue like the first week, I'll probably end up cancelling my Harvester option.

So: This is not a Hyundai review, but holy cow - after 250 miles of driving I kind of wish we'd spent a little more and got the limited package (we went with the SEL, because "this is only a test..."). I love this little car. On "eco" mode its faster (seat of the pants-o-meter) than my wife's Infiniti QX30, which was a seriously quick car. On Sport Mode? Almost terrifying. I am really going to love electric power.

As for the range? I'm only one charge in, and we are in the worst time of year for an EV, I don't think we've turned the seat or steering wheel heaters off since we took the car home, and because it's still a new toy I'm utilizing Sport mode quite a bit more than I will once it's just the "car" and not "the new car". But we got just over 200 miles, including a couple airport trips in the cold, so 75+mph, and went from 90% to 7%. I plugged it into the free-to-me charger (figuring that out the first time took a couple tries, but I got it) and went into Target, got a coffee and did the grocery shopping.

in 36 minutes, the car went from 7% to just over 80%, at what would have been $36 but was covered under our 2 year deal, and continued on with my weekend.

In normal life, thanks to working from home, we don't drive over 200 miles in a typical week anyway.

So here's my first mind-set change: Rather than look at the fuel gauge every time I get in the car, and find a station if its 1/4 or less, I'm just going to hit Target on Saturday mornings while I grocery shop and stop worrying about it. For us, that's very little change in practical terms, just learning a different way to think about fuel. I wake up early and tend to do the grocery shopping anyway, so in a lot of ways it's more convenient than making a stop at the pumps at random times.

Second mindset change: as I've seen in other threads on this board, rather than wait until the batteries are nearly empty, more of an "opportunity" mindset is needed. Hitting target because we're out of papertowels? 10 minutes on the charger will add about 30-45 seconds to my errand, and some power is better than none.

Third mindset change: I've watched a couple (OK, more than a few) videos on youtube about this - can't wait for the summer to do some weekend trips to the mountains, and rather than choose a destination and find fuel on the way, we'll choose a destination and utilize the charger finding options that are built into the car and charger apps. 200 miles between breaks is enough, hopefully my days of 900+ mile drives are behind me anyway.

I'm looking forward to seeing if this really changes our experience, or just adjusts part of it. Obviously Alpine Loop type trips will still be in the Xterra for now, but as chargers hopefully continue to multiply between now and 2-3 years from now, that could change.

That's it - hopefully this is helpful for some people in a similar situation.

Thanks for the insights. I love that you get free charging through your lease, one thing I would really, really stress to people considering an EV or that have one.... The magic of an EV is that you almost NEVER have to charge OUTSIDE of home or think of it. It is only on long trips a few times a year that you have to consider charging outside of your own property. Don't let the "free" charging ruin one of the best parts of ownership of EVs, I just plug it in when I get home and unplug it when I leave for the day. No planning required, no finding a charger, no messing with the charger, no pumping gas, etc.

I own one non plug in Hybrid and just sold one BEV and the HUGE benefit to the BEV (a PHEV would do this too), is that I never had to think about gas or charging on the road. Just charge at home when you pull in, and then go where you want to go, when you want to go without planning for stops for gas/etc.

This is especially nice for me, as I like to be the one to keep all the family cars fueled so my wife doesn't have to. With a plug in vehicle, it's great, I never have to do anything. With the gas cars, I have to "steal" hers once a week to go fill it up.

(edited for clarity)

 

[Slipshod]

I haven't driven the Ioniq 5, but in my driving with 1PD, this same sort of thing can happen with 1PD to a lesser degree. I will sometimes turn off 1PD when backing up in an unfamiliar place simply because I want super-fine control over the speed of the vehicle and there is a wee bit of a jolt when backing up in 1PD. Not sure if this is just the implementation in the Ford vehicles or if it's noticeable in others as well.

That should be entirely a software thing. I think there's still some fine-tuning the engineers need to do on throttle response curves to compensate for electric motors having 100% torque available at 0 RPM. The first time I used 1 pedal drive in my Bolt is was a little jerky (and my wife still won't use it), but I'm at least as smooth (if not smoother) with it than without.

I still end up spinning-out the wheels on crosswalk paint in the rain though. That torque is crazy.

 

[MaddMatt]

Thanks for the insights. I love that you get free charging through your lease, one thing I would really, really stress to people considering an EV or that have one.... The magic of an EV is that you almost NEVER have to charge OUTSIDE of home or think of it. It is only on long trips a few times a year that you have to consider charging outside of your own property. Don't let the "free" charging ruin one of the best parts of ownership of EVs, I just plug it in when I get home and unplug it when I leave for the day. No planning required, no finding a charger, no messing with the charger, no pumping gas, etc.

I own one non plug in Hybrid and just sold one BEV and the HUGE benefit to the BEV (a PHEV would do this too), is that I never had to think about gas or charging on the road. Just charge at home when you pull in, and then go where you want to go, when you want to go without planning for stops for gas/etc.

This is especially nice for me, as I like to be the one to keep all the family cars fueled so my wife doesn't have to. With a plug in vehicle, it's great, I never have to do anything. With the gas cars, I have to "steal" hers once a week to go fill it up.

(edited for clarity)

Thats funny, I do the same - my wife and both daughters seem to find the "low fuel" light amusing, I get stressed if I think somebody is below 1/4 tank. We are planning for a level2 charger at home this year, but in my situation it requires a whole new panel on the house, so no rush. So far the free charging at the Target we go to at least weekly anyway, has worked great.

 

[MaddMatt]

That should be entirely a software thing. I think there's still some fine-tuning the engineers need to do on throttle response curves to compensate for electric motors having 100% torque available at 0 RPM. The first time I used 1 pedal drive in my Bolt is was a little jerky (and my wife still won't use it), but I'm at least as smooth (if not smoother) with it than without.

I still end up spinning-out the wheels on crosswalk paint in the rain though. That torque is crazy.

To be honest, after three weeks of BEV driving I'm not getting the point of 1p driving. We've found in the Ioniq that driving in "eco" mode and level 2 regen feels very much like driving an ICE vehicle, its more than fast enough and we have more than enough charge from our once weekly charges to get through the week. The few times I've tried using the 1p mode it's felt like riding around with a kid in an old bug who just discovered the joy of downshifting but thinks the clutch is an on/off switch.

Can somebody clue me in as to what the benefit is supposed to be? Maybe if we did more highway driving?

 

[Bodie]

To be honest, after three weeks of BEV driving I'm not getting the point of 1p driving. We've found in the Ioniq that driving in "eco" mode and level 2 regen feels very much like driving an ICE vehicle, its more than fast enough and we have more than enough charge from our once weekly charges to get through the week. The few times I've tried using the 1p mode it's felt like riding around with a kid in an old bug who just discovered the joy of downshifting but thinks the clutch is an on/off switch.

Can somebody clue me in as to what the benefit is supposed to be? Maybe if we did more highway driving?

My opinion- it’s to create a basic level of EV efficiency no matter how bad/clueless the driver is. I don’t like it because sometimes it’s better to coast and I find it irritating to need to fine tune the pedal position to create coasting. I prefer the car to coast when I let off the accelerator and choose regen via a steering wheel paddle/ button like a paddle shifter.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

To be honest, after three weeks of BEV driving I'm not getting the point of 1p driving. We've found in the Ioniq that driving in "eco" mode and level 2 regen feels very much like driving an ICE vehicle, its more than fast enough and we have more than enough charge from our once weekly charges to get through the week. The few times I've tried using the 1p mode it's felt like riding around with a kid in an old bug who just discovered the joy of downshifting but thinks the clutch is an on/off switch.

Can somebody clue me in as to what the benefit is supposed to be? Maybe if we did more highway driving?

It's a personal preference. Many technical tests have found that there's minimal efficiency difference between 1PD on and off.

I grew up on manual transmissions, so it feels more like what I'm used to when I let off on the accelerator while the vehicle is still in gear. For most people I know who are used to automatics, they prefer the coasting feel of having 1PD off.

If you drive with cruise control on the highway, there's no difference between having 1PD on and off. If you don't use cruise control, you'll want 1PD OFF because otherwise you'll get a lot more deceleration and while that regens more rapidly, you'll be accelerating again and the sum total is less efficient.

 

[Logan]

If you drive with cruise control on the highway, there's no difference between having 1PD on and off. If you don't use cruise control, you'll want 1PD OFF because otherwise you'll get a lot more deceleration and while that regens more rapidly, you'll be accelerating again and the sum total is less efficient.

Also, if you do 1 pedal driving on the highway, you might make your passengers wish you knew about coasting, or cruise control :/.

I got a ride from a co-worker to work a few months ago when my car was in the shop. I think he changed pedal position every 2-8 seconds (alternating between "lurch forward" and "lurch back"), and was low key nauseating.

 

[MaddMatt]

OK, you guys are reinforcing my opinions - when I was learning on a manual I was taught to try to make the ride smooth for the passengers, so the whole "lurching" thing doesn't work for me. I'm going to just keep 1p off for now....

 

[R1TVT]

Every car (or truck) will be different - the implementation and settings for regen with throttle sensivity (based on drive mode, for example) can affect the "feel" of regen. Not all implementations are equal, and not all drivers are great drivers when it comes to passenger comfort (in gas or EV).

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Also, if you do 1 pedal driving on the highway, you might make your passengers wish you knew about coasting, or cruise control :/.

I got a ride from a co-worker to work a few months ago when my car was in the shop. I think he changed pedal position every 2-8 seconds (alternating between "lurch forward" and "lurch back"), and was low key nauseating.

Frankly, if I'm a passenger and the driver is not using cruise control on the freeway, then I'm the driver next time and every time in the future. It's not worth putting up with.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

OK, you guys are reinforcing my opinions - when I was learning on a manual I was taught to try to make the ride smooth for the passengers, so the whole "lurching" thing doesn't work for me. I'm going to just keep 1p off for now....

It definitely takes some practice. My partner didn't like using it when we first got our Mustang, but she's switched to the dark side after a couple of years of practice. I usually get sick if I'm not driving and her driving with 1PD does not make me sick.

 

[Logan]

Every car (or truck) will be different - the implementation and settings for regen with throttle sensivity (based on drive mode, for example) can affect the "feel" of regen. Not all implementations are equal, and not all drivers are great drivers when it comes to passenger comfort (in gas or EV).

I'd never driven with this person before. And I firmly believe that they'd be in the "not a smooth driver no matter the vehicle" camp, as you correctly call out.

But I do think the "lurch forward/back" feeling was exacerbated by being in an EV (more instant/on off, with the torque to move quickly, etc).

 

[eddiet1212]

I'm not going to volunteer anyone else for this, but I also didn't want to exclude anyone by writing it in the singular. If you own an EV, you're welcome to answer questions in this thread or in your own.

If you have a question, please feel free to ask. I reserve the right to ignore your question if it's rude or obviously not being asked in good faith. I also reserve the right to forget to answer your question.

I've owned hybrids and EVs for more than 20 years.
I currently own two EVs:

• Ford F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck
• Ford Mustang Mach-E all-electric.

As an example, have you utilized this or a similar product to Drive & Charge a Portable Power Solution

EcoFlow 800W Alternator Charger. Utilize the excess energy generated by your vehicle to turn every minute on the road into a free battery recharge.