April ’19- Our two Ioniq electrics have been performing just like any other “normal” cars over the winter – hence my lack of blog posts. But that’s unfair to the Hyundais – to be able to rely on affordable electric cars for everyday use, as well as longer trips in 2019 really is newsworthy!
One aspect that has enabled this is the continuing rollout of Chargemaster Polar chargers, particularly the 50kW Ultrachargers. Each time we do a long trip it seems we discover a new one (or even a cluster of eight). Most recently we drove to relatives 110 miles away, and tried to top-up at an Ecotricity charger at M25 Cobham- no surprise that it didn’t work for more than 5 minutes or so. As we had a following gale, efficiency was so high that we didn’t need any extra charge anyway. On the return, with a slight headwind, we found a nearby Hilton at Cobham with a fairly recently installed Polar Ultracharger. It only took 8 minutes to add over 6kWh, around 30 miles, to give enough of a margin to be able to drive at 70mph for the rest of the trip.
We’ve had some snow in the UK this winter, but efficiency has rarely dropped below 4 miles/kWh on any trip, a real minimum range of 100 miles. In March, with temperatures around 9C, range was up to 130 miles. Day-to-day, that’s enough for two commutes plus odd local trips.
June ’19 – Still do dramas. We had a warm spring in the UK which led to a nice increase in range. I’ve yet to see an indicated range above 154 miles; however I find this is very accurate and the car can certainly fulfill its promises. On the warmest days I’ve seen repeated efficiency of above 6 miles/kWh on commutes, and up to 6.9 on one occasion. Ambient temperature is critical, as you can see. This potentially means a range of over 190 miles.
On a recent trip to Fully Charged Live (highly recommended) we got an efficiency of 5.9 miles/kWh, or in other words we traveled 114 miles with 42 miles of range left, without charging.
Commuting in summer is even easier than in the winter, with greater efficiency from the warmer weather. Over 5 miles/kWh is normal on the motorway at average speeds, averaging around 60mph with some traffic. Even when pressed it’s hard to get below 5 miles/kWh let alone any lower, for example motorway at an average speed of 67mph (25 minutes for 28 miles) resulted in 4.9 miles/kWh.
simonselectriccar 