Shedtastic's Cars: New experience, Hyundai Ioniq 6 Electric

[shedtastic]

Years ago, probably around 20 years ago, I came up with a list / scorecard in excel of all the types of cars I thought a person should try. So there was a section on makes (where I think I lumped all the Japanese brands together to score one point, but bonus points for Alfa or Lancia, and certainly a Jag) and types (saloon / sedan, 2 door, convertible, etc) and engines. I wasn't a diesel fan, but I figured everyone should try one (so that got you one point) but there were many sub-categories for types of petrol powered cars: 2cyl, 3cyl, 4cyl, 5cyl, 6cyl (both V6 and straight 6 each scored a point) 8cyl, 10 and 12. Turbo'd and supercharged types had their own checkboxes.

I was in my 20s, I think I'd just bought a used K reg (1992 for the non-Brits) Nissan Sunny GTi (The 2.0L one, that looked a bit like a GTi-R is you squinted, and that should have made me realize that the Japanese brands should not have been all lumped together as they did have their own unique interesting traits..) and I thought I'd be working my way through that list for the next 60 years.

Looking back, I've not made very good progress. I've had a few weird and wonderful cars, but never strayed into the 10 or 12 cylinder cars, even after i moved to the US and the fuel was cheap. (It turns out the distances increased by the same factor that the fuel price decreased..)

Also looking back, I never considered a point being awarded for a Korean made car. (My brother in law had a ~$100 very used Hyundai pony at that time, which I thought was a POS, it may have influenced my opinion...)

And pertinently for today, I certainly didn't include on my list "electric" as a powertrain option. I guess 20 years ago, BEV weren't even on my radar.

Anyhow these days everyone has an opinion ("Elon Musk is a genius" "Electric cars will save our planet" vs "The infrastructure!" "The battery will need replacing in 5 years like your mobile phone" etc), and I've been slowly coming to terms with the idea that they might be, well, at least interesting..
Combine that with the fact that I now fit the right deomgraphic:

1) have a private driveway / garage to charge it
2) live somewhere with cheap electricity (currently $0.11 per KWhr, I believe its currently 25p or $0.31 per KWhr in the UK, and in places like California..)
3) we have another reasonably recent car (with a petrol engine) if we had to do a cross country trip..*

Now I don't want to buy an electric car for many reasons:
a) I might not like them
b) The range issue might be a big deal after all
c) I might really miss the sound of a smooth straight six BMW too much (I really didn't click with the 428i I had for this reason alone)
d) I worry the tech might be unreliable, expensive to maintain ("replacement battery prices!"...)
e) I worry the tech might be outdated very quickly and I'd be left owning the equivalent of a Lectric Leopard (http://www.renault-5.net/usa_lectric.htm - check it out!)

But last month in the US, Hyundai must have felt the need to sell a lot of electric Ioniq 6s because they half-heartedly did a nationwide promo with Ioniq 6 SE (77KWhr battery, so 'long range', RWD) cars for 2 year leases for $239 a month (nothing down). Short enough that if I don't like it, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and cheap enough to basically be the cheapest lease you could get in the country on any car at all. Oh, and it included 2 years of free '30 minute fast charges' at Electrify America's network of chargers.

The upsell: So the $239 a month price is pre sales tax (7% in my state) and the dealer claimed there would usually be a $500 documents fee that would get spread across the duration of the lease, so roughly $17 and $21 extra per month respectively, taking it to around $277 a month. Plus he didn't have a RWD (single motor) one in stock anyway. But he offered a dual motor AWD one for $299 a month instead, so I thought why not.. $22 a month extra to get AWD and an extra near 100bhp, at 320bhp, doesn't seem bad..
The spec is odd: Modern multiple screens / touchscreen, remote app control, adaptive cruise and lane 'following', combined with cloth seats (I'm fine with that) and no sunroof and the basic wheels that look like they escaped from a food processor.
And the styling is, well, also odd. Strange wannabe 911 back end, on a saloon / sedan, and a front end that in my opinion looks like a no-brand Chinese electric car.

I picked the car up from the dealer in Indianapolis 3 weeks ago and these are my thoughts so far:

I was surprised that really that my usage pattern (2nd car in the household) meant that I was doing just fine with the included 110v 12A charger, plugged into a regular American 100v wall outlet. Most of the time I was just doing 30-50 miles a day and 12 hours quietly plugged in at 1.1KW was more than enough to top back up.

So far I've got myself a cheap portable 240v 24A / 32A type 2 charger (~$150) and had a 240v 14-50 outlet (to plug it into) installed in my garage. (~$600 which unfortunately included some extra expense at the main fuse box to make room for the extra circuit. And I still need to patch the plasterboard/drywall back up...)


I am loving:

1. the smooth silent refinement (Hyundai really seems to have done a good job on the cabin rattles and squeaks, road noise transfer, and the good aerodynamics seem to have really kept the wind noise down)
2. the fact that you can zip away from the lights faster than anyone else, without drawing attention to yourself & subsequent judgement..
3. I should get to do 300 miles for about $10 instead of 300 miles for $45. A fuel cost saving that should pay for 1/3 of my lease...
4. Nice stereo, I'm slowly getting to grips with the Infotainment / HVAC- it seems mostly intuitive. To be honest, I don't think I've opened the owners manual..
5. Remote 'warm up the cabin' feature from my phone is great. In fact, it's unexpectedly so much better than the 'remote start' (for the same end result, a warmed up cabin) on our gas-engined Honda:
• You can trigger the function from much further away, so it really has time to work as you are walking back to your car
• Because it uses an electric heater to heat the air (I think) it starts making heat for the cabin quicker than a gas engined car (that must start the engine, then only when the engine is warm will it transfer any heat to the coolant, and then from the coolant to the air coming out the vents)
6. Rear legroom is huge, and the rear seat is actually comfortable
7. every morning I get in the car and it has a full "tank" to start the day..

To do / To investigate:

• I've still not used my free "electrify America" membership - but I want to make sure I know how to use the public fast chargers and make sure my account & app is correctly set up before I actually need to use them on a longer than usual journey. I've done 200 mile round trips so far but nothing more. I do plan to make myself use it for some long trips and see how that pans out..
• I'm liking the one-pedal driving (iPedal?) but have yet to work out how to be in that mode most of the time, and yet be able to smoothly come out of cruise control mode.. Sometimes I just want to cancel the cruise control if I see something going on up ahead on the highway, and coast. but if you cancel Cruise and the car is in iPedal mode, it's like hitting the brakes.. I guess I just need to come out of iPedal mode (or even level 3 or 2 of regenerative braking) before engaging cruise control.. Or maybe I should read that owner's manual..
• I really want to know what my brake lights are doing while I'm in iPedal mode. I assume if I completely come off the 'gas' pedal, and decelerate sharply, my brake lights come on. But as I drive through town, slightly modulating my speed just on the 'gas' pedal, are my brake lights constantly going on an off each time I slightly slow? And when I stop at the lights, having ~coasted/slowed to a stop in iPedal mode, do my brake lights stay on when I'm stationary? (I think I hope so)
• Maybe I'll buy a wireless CarPlay USB adaptor - it's a shame my base spec car doesn't have that built in.

But in short, 3 weeks in, I'm loving it - for what I've used it for so far. And, my goodness, using a ICE car now, using friction to slow down feels so primitive and inefficient..

Edited by shedtastic on Friday 12th April 19:56