How PAINFUL is a 3,000 mi Road Trip in a non-Tesla EV? (Kia EV6)
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- We just completed a painful 3,000 mile road trip in our all-electric Kia EV6. In this video I’ll share my experiences with charging, including those of broken chargers and having to wait, I’ll show you how the car performed with range and efficiency in extreme heat, and reveal if our worst fear of running out of battery and getting stranded by the side of the road, ever came true!
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0:00 Intro
0:29 Charging Experience
7:29 Efficiency & Range
9:30 Running out of Battery!!!
13:13 A Shocking Conclusion!
15:13 Tired of it all! Will I Give Up on EVs? 
Авто/Мото
I completed a 6,000 mile trip in my RWD EV6 on July 4, from Tucson, AZ to Manchester, NH and back. 17 days, too many charging stops to remember and many of the frustrations you experienced, at some of the same chargers you used. The heat, elevation change and high speed all impacted the range. We started using ABRP with an OBD device but found the app laggy and crash prone. We switched to PlugShare and it worked well with Apple Maps in CarPlay. Once we became comfortable with the impact of various factors on range we were much more confident in the projections in PlugShare. Never had any close calls with running out of charge.
As far as Electrify America, I too was dumbstruck with some of their charger setups and experienced many instances of having to move from one charger to another due to charger failure. They have to get better, quickly.
We found that some time spent planning at breakfast before hitting the road made each day better. We would check charger status and distances from each other. When possible we identified chargers other than EA that we could use if necessary. Overall the trip went well and we found the EV6 to be a worthy road tripper.
Thanks for your excellent video.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
Thanks for your candid summary of your exciting trip in the EV6. I think you really hit the nail on the head about an adjustment in attitude. I recently took a 4000 mile trip with a Chevy Bolt (through the extreme heat as well:) I bought the Bolt EV in San Hose, CA. I drove it up to Vancouver, BC where I stayed for a few weeks. Then I drove it back to North Carolina through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to get home. It was one of the most amazing trips I have ever taken, seeing and experiencing some of the most spectacular vistas on the planet (my biased opinion:)! And, to complete this in an EV was a dream come true!
Before taking the trip I was apprehensive, but once I got on the way and with the help of Plug Share, and later on ABRP, finding charging was easy and I did not have any fear of running out. So my trip was actually painless and very joyful! Of course I have been driving electric for 10 years now and I started with a Leaf:). I have also driven an M3 and of course Tesla is the King of EVs. But I wanted to do this in the Bolt as it is one of the lowest cost EVs, with a limited 50 KW charging rate. My thought is if this was possible with a Bolt, then any "higher" EV can do this...Although the Bolt takes longer to charge than most EVs, the time passed quickly as I often got into chats with other EV drivers at the station, a benefit that is often not stated (the social aspect of charging). At some point I'll put together a video and perhaps a blog about it.
In general, I drove about 100 to 150 miles between charging and stopped two to three times a day. I usually travel at or slightly higher than the speed limit:). This was especially nice through Idaho, where the interstate limit is 80 mph!. Thus I drove on average 300 to 500 miles per day depending on what I was going to do and visit that day. I did not use any destination chargers and depended solely on fast chargers. I used mostly Electrify America and ChargePoint. There were a few EA, where one or two were down, but I was prepared since Plug Share users usually post their experiences as they charge. A nice surprise was in Utah, where the utility was giving away charging (not through EA, but sometimes through CP) and so I essentially traveled through Utah with no fuel cost:). Some chargers through Colorado cost only $0.10 per KWH!
My take away is that the longer range EVs today (Tesla and non-Tesla) plus ever increasing infrastructure are sufficient for the user to have a fun experience road tripping. And this is only going to get better. However, some realistic expectations are needed, which your video addresses nicely. Thanks again and happy EVing:).
Thank you for sharing your experience!
would have been painless in a Tesla...speaking from experience, having taken my Model 3 on numerous 900 mile runs between the SF Bay Area and Jackson, WY. You didn't mention it, but Tesla does a fabulous job of route planning, even changing charging stops if the intended Supercharger gets too crowded. I do this trip with 4 or 5 charging stops, typically 20-25 minutes per stop. My experience with the Tesla Superchargers is that they are almost never broken. Haven't ever had to wait. We have a Chevy Bolt as well, so are well acquainted with the EA issues you describe. World of difference.
As for efficiency, our Model 3 routinely gets right around 4 miles per KWA cruising between 65 and 80 mph in the summer in similar temps. (about 15% less in the winter) Range predictions in the Tesla are almost always spot on.
This is a great piece, but I think highlights how much real world difference there is between Tesla and the others. I say this as someone who has done a lot of EV trips in both the Tesla and the Bolt. Your experience, I think is similar to what we see with the Bolt.
I do take issue with your conclusion, asserting that EVs require a mind set change. I routinely do the Oakland to Jackson trip in the same time as it used to take in my Prius. The issues you ran into just don't exist with a Tesla. If you don't believe me, suggest you rent a Model 3 and try a similar trip.
Thank you for sharing!
I'm trying to narrow my purchase decision. I like the EV6, but your comparison is strong case for a model Y. I drive a Prius and FFE and appreciate your perspective. Thanks Dan.
I can say, I ran out of juice on my first road trip in my e-tron, the first weekend after I took delivery as I didn’t take into account the elevation on my trip from Phoenix to Flagstaff. I found out about ABRP and used it whenever I have a long trip. I never ran out of juice again. I have driven to California over 4th of July last year and it helped a lot. What didn’t help was that the AC went out on the car, before we finished the trip. Luckily, when we got to Cali, it was much cooler than in AZ. Had to leave the car at a dealer to get serviced.
At this point, getting an EV requires a mindset change. However, I will say stopping about every 2 hours to charge the car and our bodies, was actually a good thing and helped in us not feeling fatigued after the trip. Things will get better with the charging infrastructure and the range on vehicles will improve over time. The cost savings for daily commuting, was well worth it for me to go EV, we already had a hybrid which we can get crazy range out of. The e-tron’s 222 mile range was really 184, driving at the highway speeds in AZ. If you are going EV, get the ABRP App, it’s the best out there so far. Follow the recommendations for charging and go a little (i tended to go to 95% or 100) bit more for hills, especially if you are traveling with a loaded car.
I think manufacturers should test vehicles with a full load of passengers and cargo, with AC or heat (including cooled and heated seat if so equipped) on, and give that range as well.
Thanks for addressing the realistic charging and range concerns that many EV enthusiasts fail to mention. Great video.
Just drove our BMW I3 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Required two charging stops both directions. We intentionally chose Electrify America stations and experienced everything you mentioned in this video. Half of them were broken, some would start charging and then just stop for no reason. And some charged way below the speed they should have been charging at. We thought it was going to add 1 hour each Direction above and beyond taking our gasoline car. It actually turned a 4-Hour road trip into about a 7 hour road trip. Very frustrating. Can't even imagine doing the long trip like you did.
This was an excellent production. Informative and insightful. A shift in mindset seems to be essential moving forward in the EV world. Unfortunately I'm a senior and I probably won't be around and I'm past the age of road trips....but I'll share this with my kids. Good job.
🙏
If you're a "senior" and not doing road trips, an EV would be perfect for you. Local driving and being able to charge at home is the perfect combination, and you'll never visit a gas station again!
@@michaeltaylor3332Of course you're right, but the truth is I'm debt free, not a lot of savings, but debt free. Bottom line? Too set in my ways to get a car payment.
Mahesh, you get my first YT comment. I very much enjoy your videos because you include data. That also means the physicist in me can't help but point out that your range issue was BOTH AC power draw and elevation gain. About 20% of HVB capacity, ~16.7 kWh, was being transferred to elevation as you drove.
Going uphill, you gain energy equal to MGH, mass x gravity x height, or 2,500 kg x 9.8 m/s^2 x 2000 m = 49,000,000 joules. Watts are Joules/sec., so we divide by 3,600 sec/hour to get 16.7 kWh due to a 2000 m elevation gain in a 2,500 kg vehicle.
Wow! Thank you for that information...
Great point, and from personal experience living at the top of a 1,500' elevation, most of that energy expended going up is returned going down!
2:30 Also don't forget to change the default ABRP settings on battery degradation. It defaults to 5% degradation so you should change that to 0% since you have a new car & battery. That'll increase the charging stop interval a noticeable amount.
I was going to suggest that you can add the extra weight of the passengers, change your default speed to the speed limit (or slower or faster depending on how you tend to drive) and even set a maximum speed if that’s how you wish to travel. All these factors (in my experience) help the accuracy of ABRP. But the biggest factor on number of charging stops is your min and max limits. If you’re daring drop it down to 5%. The battery in the EV6 will charge quickly down there. But the downside is that battery warnings will appear.
Frankly what I do is ignore the range guess on my EV6 and instead look at he apparently accurate mi/kWh number. After a charging stop I’ll do quick math to know that ok my small battery car has only 54 kWh usable, and I’m starting at 80% but want to leave 10% at the bottom so 0.7 * 54 is say 38.6 kWh and if I’m getting say 3.0 mi/kWh I know that gives me roughly 115 miles of range at that efficiency number. If I need more range on the fly I need to immediately hit that target efficiency. And so on long legs I start out slow and make sure I’m hitting that target efficiency. If later in the leg the lower speed means I’ve been getting say 3.5 mi/kWh then I know I’m banking a little extra buffer and can go faster later in the leg.
Also a huge consideration is that the amount of energy from 100-75% is not the same as 25-0% SOC on the Korean cars. The SOC is by voltage and not remaining kWh. It’s a continuously dropping voltage and it’s pretty significantly lower. In my small batter car the battery goes down to 500 volts whereas fully charged it’s more like 600 volts. It would be better if Kia corrected for this but for the time being SOC is linear with pack voltage but not linear with remaining energy stored.
Everything else’s you mentioned I completely echo and agree with about road tripping a car. All the benefits and the concerns are spot on. Be it the coming lack of chargers available to the overly fast charging of the Kia EV6 or to the sad state of affairs for healthy food choices. I’m glad you and your family had such a wonderful, safe road trip and didn’t have to resort to a fossil fueled vehicle to enjoy this wonderful traditional summer activity.
I have now taken about 5000 miles of road trips in my EV6 and hope to do more later this summer or fall with an Ohio to Arizona and return trip. And someday I’d love to travel north into Alberta and BC but that will have to be a dream for now as time is limited.
Lesson Learned: If you had left the EV trip planner that you had from the beginning you would of had some delays but wouldn't of risked getting stranded. There is elevations, wind speed direction, weather temperature and other factors that are needed for the accuracy of calculation. Also remember the mileage on the dash board is based on your historical driving habits and assumes you are not deviating from your normal traveling habits. That number will re-calculate with more information the car collects on your driving habits. The good news is the Federal Gov't did pass an infrastructure bill that will help build out more locations you can charge your EV. In addition, Tesla will be opening their network at towards the end of the year! That will make a big difference when traveling. EV's and battery technology is improving fast and faster. The future looks bright!
I just went 2,500 miles in our EV6 (Wind AWD) from Kansas City to South Padre Island and back. I mainly used EA charging as well and had some of the same issues you described. The main difference I used was setting it to Eco mode and setting Regen at 0. This improves the coasting and doesn't feel like you are fighting against the regen process. I also recommend getting the windows tinted to help out the AC work less.
We got the tinting on ours from the dealer as a "mandatory dealer package," but it has helped a ton, especially for the kids in the back seat.
Plug share is helpful when looking for hotels with chargers, it will also tell you what type of chargers are available.
Nice to know there is a drop in range in higher quality evs I thought it was just my e golfs that do that on highways but I see now it's really how evs work
Temperature, weather, elevation, wind kill range pretty badly. You have to take it all into consideration. Add vehicle speed, how heavy your loaded, and climate settings and things can get interesting very fast. So nothing wrong with your Golf. It just takes a lot more planning and thought process. Tesla just makes it seem easy because the route planner and nav are doing the work for you, but even then the car is having to recalculate based on what is happening on the trip.
Tesla is constantly evaluating everything about your drive. Including re routing you if a supercharger is full. This, and the supercharger network itself are 2 reasons so many Teslas are sold. You can go from ICE to Tesla and basically drive the same way as you have without worry.
We bought a Sorento PHEV for the family hauler/trip car a week ago, it replaced my wifes Corolla hatchback and is using significantly less fuel, as she runs it as an EV nearly all of the time, even considering the cost of electricity, it is still cheaper to operate than her last car was, granted MSRP is a thing you cannot ignore, but it was about the same money as the Highlander Hybrid we were originally going to get, is better equipped, (pano roof is amazing!) is cheaper to operate daily than the Highlander would have been, and we get a $6,587 Federal tax credit come tax time (not sure about the state credit, but it's only $750). I'll be moving to an EV at some point for my daily driver, I'm waiting for something to hit the market that I actually want (Currently driving a RWD IS350 F-sport), I don't do many miles at all, so range isn't a massive factor for me; I'd like ~300 miles (so I can live in the 10%-80% range most of the time w/210mi of useable range). Obviously, I'll take more range, the forthcoming Ioniq 6 is supposed to have great range, but I'd want the N model. We won't go exclusively EV until the public charging infrastructure is there. She charges at home each night on a 110v wall plug, if we had a EV I'd definitely install a level 2 charger for home charging, might still do it for the PHEV, haven't decided yet. We do take vacations & travel to visit my family hundreds of miles away, and I'd prefer not to have to unplug their dryer every time I show up.
I drove my Long range RWD EV6 from Florida to New York and back and I didn't have all of those issues. Except for one instance when i accidentally passed a charging station and the next one was a long way away, then i go range anxiety but that was my fault. And of course i could have used other charging stations than electrify America but it was free. Perhaps the west need more Electrify America stations than the East coast!.
I've found that the range of my GT-Line AWD really suffers from using the AC plus highway speeds. I cycle the AC on and off to try to keep the range up and the temperature comfortable. Turn on the vented seats and run the AC for a couple of minutes to get the temp down. Make sure your recirc is on, and turn the AC off but keep the fan on high. Run it like that for most of the time, then turn on the AC when the temp starts climbing. It's a bit laborious, but it really helps keep the range up. Unfortunately, the current gen of batteries just doesn't have enough reserve yet to be able to run with the AC on all the time. It is a definite downside to EV ownership.
I have a awd no tech. I have found the range directly reflects your last 2 charges and kwh use. After a road trip from Chicago to Saint Louis and back. It took 2 charges for me to see the difference set back to my normal city driving. I travel a normally 100+ miles daily. I usually get 35 miles per 10% of battery. Max auto regen.
Thanks for sharing!
I do not think that you could have expected 274 miles of range in 100 degree heat, elevation climbs, plus you were really loaded down. I think that once all of us EV drivers drive them more, we will learn to factor in all of these things when estimating our range from stop to stop. Hopefully technology will continue to improve to give us more range and the EV infrastructure will improve to make these types of trips much easier for us all.
They are going to have to incorporate the functions ABRP in EVs and take in account current weather, changes in elevation, current charger usage & etc. And this must be done live as it is a continue was moving target. What I noticed comparing EVs in ABRP was the huge difference in stops and charging times. Just be thankful you were in a fast charging later range EV. Try making that trip in a Bolt or AWD BZ. At least for now road trips with take advance & continuous planning enroute. Especially on holiday weekends in key locations.
I long for the day when ABRP functions are incorporated into EVs!
Not sure if a lot of people know this but just fyi for ev6 purchasers, anytime you use the heat/ac it uses the high voltage battery for its function. Hence the range drop. Also keep the vehicle in normal mode with auto regen. I’ve had mine for a few months and do mostly city driving love the car. Good informative video 👍
Automatic routing and deadly accurate range estimates are a MUST for EVs. I'm quite surprised the EV6 didn't do so hot with either of those things.
I considered various EVs and in the end got a 2022 Tesla Model 3 RWD with the LFP battery. These cars can charge at CCS1 DCF chargers such as EA and EVGO, via an adapter and, of course, at all the Tesla Superchargers. My M3 is extremely efficient and the in-car nav is extremely accurate, as it takes elevation and weather into consideration. One of the things that should be outlawed is giving away free DC fast charging with new EVs. This encourages owners to DCFC even when they could be charging at home, or at another charging network and the result is chaos at the chargers.
I kind of agree about the free charging. I ran into that several times on my trip where locals were using the EA chargers for the free charge instead of charging at home and thereby causing others to wait...
Excellent road trip coverage! I had a very different experience using ABRP on my 1k miles road trip here on the east coast but elevation is much less of an issue out here despite temperatures being about 110 on my journey in my Ioniq 5
Thanks for sharing your experience. Btw, I enjoy watching your videos... 🙂
Love these road trip videos!
ABRP has a nice tool to show elevation, and you can fine tune your actual efficiency to reduce the delta between forecast to actual percent at each charging station.
Great video and very informative. I liked the elevation, speed and air-condition parts.
Thanks great information 👍👍👍. I have a wind 4wd. I haven't been over 150 in one trip yet but I love the car and the ride.
Very good observations!
Just went to a dealership this week. They have added the charging planning to the never models
Hi Mahesh , I’m from Luxembourg and great video as always. Thank you for all the information and knowledge. Waiting for our Kia long range from almost 6 months
🙏 Hope you get your EV6 soon!
We used ABRP as our route planner on our 1600 mile trip, and using your efficiency numbers plus our own testing we go ABRP to be within 1-2% of our actual arrival SOC. We didn't have the same experience at our EA stops as our were nearly flawless.
Nice to hear!
This is why I say, even now that EV's are great to own 95% of the time except for these long road trips and hard winter drives and it makes sense to keep a ICE car just in case though you may not use it as much. This may change for the better in the future. Will keep our ICE car for these long trips and winters. If you own only an EV, just rent a ICE car for longer drives. Peace of mind :) Road trips are hard as such, I don't need the headache of charge planning on top of that.
Did you ever look at the Energy Consumption screen? In that hot 102F outside temp, the car is using a lot of energy to cool the battery. The Energy Consumption screen would show how much energy is being used to cool the battery.
My experience on travelling across Europe with an EV is that one definitely arrives fresher at destinations after long trips, thanks to having to stop. Actually, I see the car "forcing" one to stop after every two hours as a positive.
I use my EV 6 exclusively for around town driving and charge at home. For long distance trips we use our hybrid.
Thank you so much for documenting this journey; I recently got an EV6 RWD and am curious about how to do long trips properly. Also, I have to say, you have the friendliest voice on RUclips!
Great video! Here in the UK we’re pretty lucky that ranges involved aren’t massive and heat / elevation are rarely an issue. My RWD GT Line Kia EV6 reports 318 miles on a full charge and I can rely on it doing minimum of 200 miles under virtually any conditions.
Saying this, a recent trip from Leeds to London during our recent 35 degrees Celsius heatwave made A/C a must but I did find the range left was usually overly conservative and managed 3.5-3.8 miles per kWh on motorway around 70mph.
I just used android auto for navigation and plan my own stops manually so far. Coupled with using IONITY 350kw chargers with the 25p/kWh promotion for 1 year which came with the car, the experience so far has been excellent!
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for yet another informative video. I wonder if the initial range estimates were with the battery at ambient temperature. We have found that our range estimate is highly sensitive to the battery temp at rest -- once the heat pump brings the battery into ideal temperature, the range estimate is quite accurate.
Love the analysis! All “modern” EVs should have good trip planning by default, at least until road-trip charging is a no-brainer. Just finished 1,230 mile road-trip (615 miles each way) this week in MY, and the Tesla planning made it a no-brainer. Tesla also had me stopping around every 120-150 miles
Thank you for your support - much appreciated! 🧡
Tesla planning is pretty perfect. Other car companies are in the process of copying it for their cars instead of just telling what chargers are nearby.
love the video!
Good video but as people have said the range meter isn’t call GOM for nothing. I have the same car and currently when topped up to 100% it shows regularly over 500km on a good day. I guess on a long road trip top to 100% if stations not busy and you have time as the EV6 still gives really decent charging speeds over 80% so worth topping extra if possible to stop the anxiety range. Also many car reviewers in Europe anyway have showed there is extra juice in the batteries beyond zero and turtle mode that restricts power comes in very late on. So there is a buffer there. As you rightly said in those temps and elevation changes a petrol car would really suffer with quoted range. What i don’t understand is why in the States the range quoted and achieved is less than what we get quoted and achieve in Europe? Really weird and conflicting marketing from Kia 🤷🏻♂️. But again and as rightly mentioned the infrastructure and not the car is the let down here. If we are to all move over to EV’s it needs to be sorted. One person made a valid comment that if most big petrol stations only put one decent charging station at their forecourt, then there would be so many charging stations that it would never be a problem. Good news Tesla will open up as this will help hugely, but more stations required. 👍👍
In the US speeds are often very high compared to Europe. Although technically speed limits are 65-80 mph often traffic is moving 10-20% higher than that. And many areas are mountainous and we have massive temperature extremes. I’m not saying Europeans can find all these conditions sometimes and some places but we often have all of those things compounded together.
I will say I’m extremely optimistic for the CCS1 US network to improve every year. It was non existent in 2018 and it’s quite usable now. Yes Tesla opening up their network may help. But also EVgo, ShellRecharge and ElectrifyAmerica all have been expanding their networks. EVgo and GM announced that Pilot and Flying J truck stops (I think the equivalent of the forecourts you mentioned) will have 350 kW stations in their expansion plans. So it’s certainly onwards and upwards.
35% range drop from speed, heat, elevation. It's like driving in winter on a flatter road. Looking forward to your winter report.
I look at the EA app before heading out toward a charger. This tells me which chargers are offline and, since they are numbered in order, which ones are 350kW. More than once i have chosen to use a 150kW charger to give me more time for a meal break.
The infrastructure bill has been passed and signed. Funding hits states on January 1st. There will be many more charging locations in the next couple years. Even Texas governor Abbott, not your typical EV advocate, has spoken about plans to use the funds to install chargers beyond the interstates throughout the state. Tesla too is looking at opening its Superchargers to CCS equipped vehicles in order to get access to some of those subsidies, just as they have done in parts of Europe.
Travelling by EV is still a bit of an adventure. It takes more planning than most people are accustomed to doing. It would be best for people new to EVs to know that before buying their first one.
Excellent presentation. Very informative.
Thank you!
Well done. Lots of good information. I have added ABRP to my apps. Unfortunately my area has few CCS chargers along the interstate and the highest capacity is 62 kw. And they are rare. So my EV will be more of a local vehicle for now. And that is just fine.
Yep, living in an EV desert stinks. There aren't very many chargers and if you find one they are slow especially if you are off of the beaten path. It takes careful planning and fingers crossed that the needed chargers are actually going to be online and usable. Just a little too much excitement. We need more chargers and faster chargers and soon.
Again, it's such shame that hotels don't offer slow charging more. Even if it's only a few kwh, it still can be a great thing to offer and help a lot with both the crowding and quick chargers and dealing with congestion in the electric infrastructure. When oyu have 8 hours or more to charge, you don't need that much kwh, and even 5 kwh can give you a good head start to your next stop :) . So it's a pity it was so expensive :( . That is most def a point of improvement for charging infrastructure.
Thanks for the excellent info in your video! This is the tupe of info im trying to parse through to decide on which ev I attempt to purchase. Btw, we appear to be “neighbors” (san mateo) and super cute dog!
Hi there, neighbor!
Stick with an ICE! They are still the future..
Excellent! Thank you. I'll be switching from a Tesla to a Polestar 2 in a couple of months and the difference in fast charger availability is a definite downside. I'm on a 4,000 mile trip now in my P85D, and other than one bad segment today due to an unexpected detour after a light charging session, it's been very easy and mostly range-anxiety free, even with a max range of 200 miles with 90% charge.
Curious how long your stops are with an older school Model S. I guess it might not matter too much if there are decent options to relax at the supercharger locations. My impression is that Tesla thought out their locations a bit better than EA did, for instance. Although it’s hard to make such a blanket statement when you’re taking about 48 states and hundreds and hundreds of different charging plazas.
@@skyemalcolm I just completed a round-trip from Denver to Connecticut along I-80. Stopped every 80-140 miles depending on availability of chargers and my mood. I usually charged until the rate dropped below 50 kw/mile, which usually put 120-135 miles on the battery - driving between 70-85 mph. Most stops were probably 20 minutes or so, but I did not really time them. For longer stretches, like from Ogallala to Brush, it took about 45 minutes to put in estimated 175 miles of charge. Almost every stop was a stop I would have made anyway and mostly they took just a few minutes longer than I would have taken anyway. When I was younger, I would have been anxious to get back on the road more. Now, I appreciated the leisurely pace.
Tons of details however this sort of trip is just not what most people do. High heat, deserts, and huge elevation gains. Its really the extreme conditions however it does highlight how charging MUST be vastly improved, car range needs to extend, and car efficiency still has a long ways to go. Also would be interested in cost of electric vs. similar gas car. Supercharging and EA rates are so much higher and negate most if not all savings experienced due to more consumption used to travel than EPA rated range.
Good to know about that route planner app. Took a look at it seems to be a good workaround since the EV6 doesn't have route mapping like you said.
It does now!
Thanks!
Can you try the same trip in a model y LR? Curious if you'd have any anxiety at all?
Think this is some valuable insight. Definitely reliability and placement of chargers needs to be worked on. I had a very frustrating trip between Pennsylvania and the OBX (NC). About the best you get is AC chargers and on the whole OBX only a few AC chargers but lots of Tesla chargers. Still won't drive em away from an EV - but there is a lot of work to be done on infrastructure.
The more you watch these videos, the more you see the EV car isn't the problem.
It's Electrify America, or the infrastructure, is the problem
Amen to that!
To increase in range, Drive slower. Not 75mph. At 75MPH, the wind resistance on the car is too big of a factor. I drive at 60MPH.
Hopefully KIA and third party apps get more data from trips all across the USA the route planning will be a lot better.
I always use the current SOC to calculate how far I can go. It is what it says it is.
You should look up tesla destination chargers where you are going and that will show you where they are in relation to hotels and they normally are free and will charge at 16 miles per hour
Thanks for the video! I got myself a Wind EV6 and am planning a road trip as well. I guess I should follow ABRP very closely! Question: Do you have the dongle that plugs into your car to make ABRP more accurate?
I don't have the dongle... Decided not to get it because of security and other issues... You have to make sure you unplug it when you leave your car, otherwise anyone with a Bluetooth connection can get control of your car. Also, I understand it could potentially drain your 12v battery... Didn't want to have the deal with the hassle of constantly plugging it in and out...
@@THEDRIVERDOWNLOAD oh my gosh I did not realize it adds in such a security hole, may I ask if you have a reference for further reading on this subject? I’ve been using such a Bluetooth dongle with my EV6 and ABRP and it’s quite nice for on the fly calculations.
@@skyemalcolm See here: www.iternio.com/abrp-obd
So Tesla has the best route planning. Kia and other car companies need to pull data from ABRP for their maps. I eventually want to do an ev road trip across the US. I love Tealas but I want something different the EV6 is my next hopefully
A very good video. However I just read Kia updated their route planning to take into account all the issues like wind, terrain, etc similar to what Tesla does, so you should be able to route plan without ABRP. Also, you decided you were going to not follow ABRP directions and then almost became stranded. That would be like not worrying about the yellow low fuel light on a gas car. ABRP is a very customizable tool to.Make sure you don’t have charging issues. I would follow it… if you don’t have a Tesla or quality route planning in your EV.
And lastly, you shouldn’t even look at mileage. A,ways look at percent of battery left only. I was told this when I got my car and that’s all I do and it works out better. I know cars like the Chevy bolt have mileage on the display you can’t turn off and it looks like Kia has it there also, but it’s a good way to have issues looking at that number. Think of an ICE car. You don’t really check the range… you look at the fuel gauge.
Again a great video. The dog was awesome. I’ve done the LA to Phx trip 3 times and yes it’s so hot but it was a fun trip.
I see why people end up going with tesla, due to the gps luxury differences.
This is a total nightmare. Im so glad i dont live in the west coast. People seem more inconsiderate, and just plain entitled. I still want the kia because i mt reminds me of a Subaru in its aggressive look. But, it seems like the tesla suits the interest of luxury.
At 13:45 , is the warning about range estimates also true for Tesla 3 or Y?
Yes... Those range estimates are notoriously unreliable...
maybe an obd adapter and car scanner app would provide more accurate data about power consumption, soc etc
Use ABRP app is wonderful and can and show you how much you have left and the most efficient use of charging stations and show charging stations that are working
Can't image how difficult if driving in cold winter
The charging infrastructure is a train wreck. They are supposed to be networked so we should be able to tell what is going on with online tools. But NOOOOO....
Your charging speeds are impressive, but it is too bad you had to make so many stops. Seems to me ABRP did not take into account your vehicles capabilities very well. Elevation can bite you fast so that does possibly fill in the blanks on the ABRP route providing elevation gain was involved, but you should have seen it spread out those stops when coming back down. Your story explains why people opt to buy the Tesla. Until we have charging stations everywhere the advantages of the Tesla nav system and route planning looks pretty important. Thank you for sharing.
I hate to say this but in order to get the best mileage you should drive at 65 mph and 72 degrees do not go into eco mode use normal mode and regen at automatic setting
Hi, can you do an EV6 longterm ownership review? I hope all is well.
I would love to see a video on the cost of these stops and a comparison topetrol costs.
See starting timecode 14:35
@@THEDRIVERDOWNLOAD thank you! I think many people forget ev is actually cheaper to run, esp from home, but even at recharge stations, prices are better
NICE 🙂
by the way, the lectron j1772 adapter does not work with my ioniq 5, you should try it out before you find out at low charge on a trip.....
Good to know!
this doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy about my upcoming Denver -> Vegas trip
The heat on the trip didn't have a damn thing to do with global warming, and you know it, or you are ignorant. Temps this year have no increase, no matter how much they are trying to cook the books (Pun not intended).
12:20 Do not rely on the range estimator so much. It is notoriously inaccurate and most EV drivers call it the "GOM" (guess-o-meter). Use percent state of charge instead. You did not have to turn off the A/C as it only uses 1-2 kW after the temperature has been stabilized (i.e. once you've been driving for awhile). That's less than 2% battery per hour. Kia & Hyundai overestimate A/C usage in the range estimation and the number decreases almost the same amount as heater usage which is more energy intensive.
12:56 "Barely 29 miles" is actually a lot when you have 14% battery left. Even arriving with just 10% battery on these cars I would consider safe.
Elevation gain of 6000 ft is not something you'd see in most road trips. With just half that gain, the range would probably go from 170 miles to at least 210.
Thank you for sharing!
Change to normal mode and regen to automatic and you will get better range in EV-6
Looking forward to the minimum range 500 mile $30k EV.
I can only imagine EV owners getting into charging rage.
I appreciate your insight, but did you really have to mention global warming when you are driving in New Mexico, Arizona etc, which is HOT!
wrong, ABRP did not get that right with hyundai/kia. these cars will charge very fast even from 0%, and still around 100kw at 90%
Try a Tesla with their supercharger network. Then understand how EVs are supposed to work.
The Kia doesn't plan out charging stops when navigating. I just learned this today with an EV6 rental from Hertz.
This is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
thank you, I now know what not to buy
Lessen learned: EV is not ready for the road trip
I’ve deleted ABRP from all my devices. Worse than useless guidance.
I'm not on board with the global warming thing, but I would consider an EV if it were more practical than a gas car. I suppose I could use an EV for everyday driving, charging at home, and rent a gas car for road trips. Thanks for sharing your information. It is very helpful.
great video. best option. Buy a Tesla.
Sounds like a disaster 😅
I'm korean, and I never buy Korean cars. The resale value is so low, and they break down easily. However, Korean food is really good. You guys should give it try
Lots of whining and complaining. Very annoying.
amigo. intteresting -🙂
Thanks!
Thank you for your support, Warren!
Thanks!
Thanks for your support, David!
Thanks!
Thank you for your support, Jeff!
Thanks!
A lot of really good information
Thanks for your support, Nan!