EV Range and recharge race! Kia EV6 v Hyundai Ioniq 5 v Mustang Mach-e v Tesla Model Y (3) v VW ID4

Here's a similar, but just straight range with no recharging, test. There's good comparison of the interiors and driving experience too.

It has an Ioniq 5, an e-tron, an EV6, a Mach-E (confusingly the short-range one), an Enyaq and an iX3.

Both your post and this one discuss the impact of cold weather on range.

I'd love to see something about the impact of hot weather. A couple of weeks ago I drove the 1200km to Broken Hill with my daughter (in our diesel X3), and it was 44.5C (112F) when I got to BH. In the diesel, the air-con does have an impact on both fuel consumption and power, especially when it's that hot. When I'm in the hopelessly-underpowered Chrysler on that run, I have to turn the air-con off to get enough acceleration to safely pass a roadtrain.

We're having an unusually cold summer here at the moment. But normally in Sydney it'd be 30-40C (86-104F) at this time of year. So I'd love to know what impact hot weather has on range because it will affect me. But the EV tests I see tend to be British, where hot weather is not a thing. I wonder whether, for example, the large glasshouse in an Ioniq 5, or the steeply-raked glass in a Mach-E, might impact hot-weather range more than it would in a Skoda or VW, or if a heat pump is as important and effective for hot weather as it is for cold weather, or if the heat directly impacts the capacity (or the discharging speed) of the batteries. I saw something about an Ioniq 5 slipping into reduced-power mode to stop overheating in a German test.

I don't suppose you've seen anything on this, have you?

 

Ah, yes.

Teslas have been around for a while, though. Which gives me an idea....

@bwilson4web , you live somewhere that I understand can get pretty hot, and you had your Tesla through the last Northern summer. How does your Tesla cope? Does very hot weather hit the range badly? Do you get reduced power on really hot days?

44.5 is rare. But high 30s and low 40s are pretty common most summers. The trouble is, the really, really hot weather that I deal with regularly is in Broken Hill, and that's at the end of a long drive through empty desert, where range does matter. The government is planning to put 150kW or faster charging stations every 100km along country roads, though, so it should still be doable.

 

Truth be told, I haven't worried about it because SuperCharger density in this region is high enough that range is not a problem:


My operational scenario:

• Start day at 100% SOC and head to furtherest SuperCharger. Monitor the range remaining versus distance. If it looks like the reserve drops below ~20 miles, evaluate using a closer SuperCharger and/or reduce speed ~5 mph. This is typically a +3 hour leg.
• Subsequent SuperChargers arrive with ~10 miles reserve. Charge enough to have a 30 mile reserve to the next SuperCharger, typically a 20 minute charge while eating a sack meal after visiting a fast food place.

EV driving is a little different than ICE/hybrid driving. Mostly quiet and low cost.

Bob Wilson

 

Gosh, that is more chargers than I'd expected.

Here, Tesla have a good network in Sydney and Melbourne and on a few major highways. But the government and a couple of private companies are rolling out CCS networks.

I was just wondering whether you'd noticed, for example, a change in efficiency on very hot days.

 

Not on hot days as I'm an 'open windows' driver (i.e., one arm is tanned.) If I button up for air conditioning (i.e., female in car,) there is a hit closer to 10 miles lost each hour. But cold is more aggressive.

In cold weather with a cold-soaked battery, regenerative braking is reduced and the battery has a significant thermal mass to warm up. The best strategy is to enable preconditioning about 30 minutes before leaving while on a charger and then everything is normal if you account for the reduced tire pressure and higher air density. So reduce the speed to say 5 mph and reach your normal destinations.

Bob Wilson

 

That is really interesting. Thank you.

10 miles lost each hour in hot weather is less than I'd have expected. That's given me a degree of comfort.

I'm still waiting for any of the EVs I want (GV60, GV70 electric, Enyaq) to be launched in Australia. But a post like this really boosts my confidence about buying one when they do get here.

 

Five years ago, 2016, I started my EV journey with a 2014 BMW i3-REx. The Range Extender drives a generator so it is an EV with its own, portable charger. I learned a lot including one 'dead end', a Prius Prime.

When moving to a new technology, I recommend going with a used vehicle to minimize purchase price. Use that car to learn what works and doesn't. A lot of Fear Uncertainty Doubt (FUD) will evaporate replaced by new EV skills. If it doesn't work out, resell the experimental car but remember the 'lessons learned.'

GOOD LUCK!

Bob Wilson

 

Thank you again.

The problem here is that, other than Nissan Leafs (Leaves?), which just don't have the space or range I need, and Model Ss, which are still more expensive than many of the new EVs coming out next year, there really isn't much in the way of used EVs in Australia. We have as a nation been extremely late to the EV party. (And we still haven't turned up to the climate change party - we're outside throwing lumps of coal through the windows). If I were in, say, China, I'd be spoiled for choice. Even in Britain I could get a good used EV (probably an i-Pace, much as I have outlined their shortcomings, or a Model S, or an e-Niro), or a good PHEV (maybe one of the many JLR offerings, or a Merc or BMW) for sensible money.

One thing about the cost of lessons learned with an experimental car, though.... As I said, in Australia even the oldest Model Ss are still very expensive. Among the limited number of EVs available, depreciation seems remarkably low. And I know there are people selling their month-old Ioniq 5s at a profit. So I can probably do the experiment without losing too much money if I turn out not to like it.

One thing I am toying with is a lease - something I've never done before. One of our big electricity companies is offering a month-by-month lease package - including a home charger, all the electricity, insurance, servicing, road taxes and all other costs - on a range of EVs, including the MG ZS, the e-Niro, the Kona Electric, the Model 3 and a few others. Doing this for three or four months might be a good way to dip my toe into the pool before I splash out loads of money on buying something fancier.

 

If you are of an experimental mind, I've seen images of a Leaf with a trailer holding a turbine engine driven generator. Although I understand the tradeoffs, I would have preferred to see a 2-3 cylinder, turbocharged, liquid cooled, two-cycle, diesel driving the generator. It doesn't need a lot of power but enough to sustain battery SOC. Tune it for specific power output ranges. A home-made, BMW i3-REx. <GRINS>

Such are the day dreams of this retired engineer.

Bob Wilson

 

An excellent plan.

But if I got a Leaf and one of these....


.... it would already have wheels so I wouldn't need the trailer. I just need to fix a generator to it.

Actually, though.... Might your homemade Rex plan work well if you stuck a petrol motor onto the load tray of a Rivian?

 

Curious that you felt OK with going to the 20-30 mile reserve point. Did you do that with ICE cars prior to your multi-car EV exploration?

I ask because I hadn't gotten that low in a ICE or hybrid in the last 50 years and of course the only danger in an ICE or hybrid is a widespread power outage (though some gas stations have standby generators). And of course there is often a cluster of gas stations as opposed to just one. So the risk of even getting that low in an ICE is minimal by comparison. Yet I don't. My average fill is after less than a half tank.

 

Unlike gas gauges, the battery management systems (BMS) are very accurate. Even at zero indicated, there is a low buffer. But a low state of charge is key to rapid Tesla charging:

• 90 kW initial charge rate for just over one minute.
• 170 kW rate peak on a V3 SuperCharger for about 10 minutes
  • V2 is 150 kW limited and splits power between A/B stalls
• Ramp down over the next hour but usually 20 minutes is enough to reach next SuperCharger

EV driving is different and IMHO better, more precise. For example the BMS reports kW usage so you can accurately adjust speed to reach the next SuperCharger.

Bob Wilson

 

I asked over the concern that the charging station you are expecting and the car's systems is expecting might be unavailable. I realize that the car and the chargers are hooked up to the same network but there are network failures we read about every day. That you have that level of trust is interesting. 37 years in the guts of computers and I don't, I guess.

 

An operating system programmer IBM to VAX/VMS to Unix to network engineering ... I'm used to dealing with the various failures.

Bob Wilson

 

Lots of experience in the early days with the hardware software interface which is why I have doubts. Later with reliable secure systems which only reinforced those doubts. It can work millions of times and then it doesn't. We aren't talking about systems that had 10 years of testing (with 10x the testers than developers) with all the automated tools, code analyzers, etc but ones which at the end have humans. And some of the recent decisions show me the lack of discipline ... sure we should play games while the car drives us there.