Three month (almost) update! Just a quick recap here for anyone who is interested. We’ve had our 2020 Hyundai Kona EV for just under 3 months. Here are the approximate driving/charging stats:
Total Miles Driven: 1,712
Total Charging Costs:* $32.50
‘*’ This is an estimate because there was one public charge that didn’t get logged into the app, so I had to approximate from memory. Plus I plugged it in at home (extension cord out the window!) a couple times for a few hours, and I have no way of tracking that, so I just added $5 to the total for that as a wild guess.
Still loving the car. Still saving a buttload on fueling costs. If my math is right, it’s coming out to about $.02/mile driven, which is at least 5x less than my previous ICE car, probably more.
We’re taking it on our first long-ish drive this weekend, about 160 miles round trip. Should be no problem with the car at about 80% charge right now. In August, we’re taking our first long trip - about 400 miles round trip, which is well over a single charge. We’re staying at a place with a (free, solar!) charger, though, so shouldn’t have to stop at a public place.
I’ve probably said this before, but the biggest thing for me is the driving experience. The car has instant power and with no transmission, it’s very smooth. Great for merging/passing on the highway, for just one example. I also love that it’s super quiet and doesn’t ever smell of gas/oil fumes. The particular EV that I have also has a bunch of bells and whistles that I like, most/all of which are not exclusive to EVs.
I also like some of the side benefits, like the car telling me exactly how much mileage I have left, and never having to visit another dirty gas station again.
The only downside for me so far is having to think a little more about when I’m charging, but this is not a problems for most EV owners. I don’t have off-street parking at home, so generally I can’t charge at home, and when I can it’s only at super slow charge rate. But I charge at work, and I don’t drive to work every day (sometimes I bike), so I have to do a little bit of planning occasionally. But really this is so minor as to be almost nothing.
It depends on the fan speed. At the lowest fan speed, I lose about 10-12 miles. At the highest, I think it was 40 miles lost. But I almost never run the A/C for a whole trip, so I’d never lose that much. Generally I run it until the car is cool, then turn the A/C off but leave the fan on to keep things cool. Using the heat in the winter also loses mileage at around the same rate, maybe a touch worse, actually. But this has never been anything I’ve had a problem with, for the kind of driving I do (mostly city/suburbs).
I’ve posted this picture before. It shows my efficiency as a function of outdoor temperature. As the temperature increases over 80, range might drop a bit, but I’m still doing better than the car is rated for.
Primarily there is a range drop in low temperatures. That’s a combination of resistance based heating (in my car), thicker air, and winter tires.
I’ve found that efficiency goes up with temperature, at least until ~85 F, and possibly higher.
It makes sense physically, as well. Air drag is the dominant factor at highway speeds. The air is thinner when hot, and the difference isn’t insignificant. There must be a balance point where increased A/C use negates further gains, but the crossover may be quite high. Especially at the faster highway speeds, say 75 mph.
Note though that this is highway miles only. At low speeds, air drag isn’t a big deal, plus you spend more minutes in the car for any given distance. So the A/C is working longer and the benefit is less.
The more I look at the F-150 Lightning the more I think that it might be Ford’s “killer app”. I’m starting to seriously consider it instead of the Model 3 due to the inherent utility and cost.
The only real drawback is that it’s a big vehicle. If you have a small garage or live in an area with tight turns and narrow roads or you have to park downtown a lot, you might findbthat annoying. Otherwise, it looks really good.
GM just announced it is investing another $35 billion in EVs, probably in response to Ford. Lots of competition is on the way.
Nah, I live in NE Alberta where 80% of the vehicles are pickups/SUVs… I’d just be one more!
I’m lucky that my garage is a double 24’x24’ so it’d fit in there, albeit tightly. While I don’t necessarily need a pickup day to day I do have enough stuff on the go to make it worthwhile, which is ironic considering I said I’d never be one of those “damn Alberta Rednecks”. 30 years has worn me down somewhat, I even listen to Country sometimes…
Yep. No one’s more surprised than I am that I would even think about moving from one to the other but the more I look at what our future plans are the more it makes sense. No matter what my next vehicle will be an EV, and an F-150 with a range extender option may just be the ticket.
The advantage is that it is only used when you need it and stored away when it’s not for day to day use. As it stands now, were I to buy any EV, it would need to be an extended range version as the only level 2 charger is 50 km from my door and the next is 250 km from there. No level 3 charging until 300+ km. In order to accommodate range losses during winter conditions (where it can drop to -40 here), extended range is the only option whether that’s a Lightning or any other EV. The fact I can use both to keep my house running during power outages obviates the need for me to install a separate generator if/when storms knock the power out. In the long run I would be more Eco-friendly , not less.
Thanks. It’s actually original artwork and is sitting on a shelf in my home office. And everyone that I work with knows how geeky I am so I use it as my Zoom avatar too.
Imdon’t know about that. If it fits across the entire bed and is the size of one of those bed-mounted toolboxes, that’s a fairly large generator. You should be able to fit at least a 10kW geneeator plus fuel tank in that space. A 10kW generator would recharge a long-range Ford truck battery from 20% to 80% in 8 hours.
Electricity consumption in the U.S. averages about 900 kWh per month, or call it 30 kWh per day. With the truck battery as a buffer for peak loads, you’d only need a 2 kWh generator running 15 hours per day to keep up. More likely you’d have one larger than that and run it at a lower duty cycle. But a truck plus a decent generator should do the job.
We’ll see. I know that I wouldn’t want to lift a 10kW generator into and out of a pickup on a regular basis. I doubt very much that my wife and I could do it. 2kW would be no big deal.
I’d just be one more!