I'm a serial car leaser. This December, when my old lease was running out, there were not a lot of very appealing lease deals. Some of the best deals were on electric vehicles (EVs). The US offers a tax credit on some EVs for $7500. To qualify, the vehicles must be assembled in North America. But some EV manufacturers that do not meet this requirement are offering a similar rebate out of their own pocket to avoid losing customers to their competitors who do qualify. In short, because many EVs come with a 7500 dollar rebate, either from a tax credit or otherwise, EVs were some of the best deals that I could find.

Naturally, the benefit to the environment was another selling point as well!

I ended up leasing a Hyundai Ioniq 6. It's a very slick car, and there are many aspects of it that I like that are not EV specific. But I'm not going to talk about those here. This post is about my initial thoughts on owning an EV.

EVs Are Fun to Drive

I knew that EVs could produce a great deal of Torque, but I didn't realize how much that impacted the driving experience. The Ioniq 6 can accelerate way faster than I ever need it to. This is useful for merging onto highways and such, but it's also just a lot of fun. I've owned cars with powerful motors, but the instant torque of an EV is a different experience. It's hard to imagine going back to driving a non-EV at this point.

EVs Are Quiet

The only noise that the Ioniq 6's engine makes is a whine that lets pedestrians know the car is nearby. When you turn on the car, the engine makes no noise. None. No ignition sound, no idling; nothing.

Charging At Home Is Nice

The Ioniq 6 includes a "level 1" charger that plugs into a standard 120V outlet. It's pretty slow; it takes about 48 hours to completely charge the battery from empty. But it's probably sufficient for most people's needs. I did have a problem one day when I didn't have enough time to fully charge the car at home before embarking on a long trip, so I had to stop at a charging station. But we'll talk about that in a bit.

Hyundai has a promotion where they will install a "level 2" charger for you, so I now have a "level 2" charger that charges the battery in a few hours.

My car's range is about 200 miles (we'll get to that in a bit), so unless I'm going on a long trip, I can easily charge my car at home. This is super convenient. I never have to go to a gas station. Every time I get in my car at home, it's fully charged and ready to go.

Public Charging Is Not As Convenient As Gas Stations

My car's range is about 200 miles, so for long trips, I need to stop and charge on the way. There are more public chargers than I thought, but they are not as common as gas stations, and they have different speeds. There are extremely fast, DC chargers that can charge a car in minutes, but they are not as common as the slower, level 2 chargers. In theory, my car can be charged in less than 20 minutes. But in practice, I have yet to experience that. Charging speed is greatly effected by temperature, and I have never experienced anything close to that optimal charging speed. The Ioniq 6 has a preconditioning system that is supposed to prepare the battery for high-speed charging by warming it up, but all I can say is that it hasn't worked well for me, and all of my public charging experiences have been significantly longer than 20 minutes.

The longest trip I have taken with my EV has been to Pittsburgh. This trip is largely on the PA turnpike. There are no chargers on the turnpike itself, but there are several DC charging stations a few minutes drive off the turnpike.

When you combine the time it takes to leave the turnpike, and the longer time it takes to charge an EV versus fill the gas tank, the bottom line is that long trips will take longer in an EV. On my first trip, I expected my car to charge in 20 minutes as advertised, and for the trip to take only slightly longer than usual. But it ended up taking me over an hour longer, which was upsetting.

You may have also seen various stories about charger stations having long lines during cold weather. This is a real problem, and it contributes to the unpredictability of long trips in an EV. It should get better over time as charging infrastructure becomes more adequate.

Range Anxiety

There are so many gas stations that in a internal combustion engine (ICE) car, having an exact range to empty is not that important. But because chargers are less prolific, you would think that all EVs would be able to tell you a fairly accurate estimate until empty. Well, that's simply not the case for the Ioniq 6. Battery performance is greatly effected by temperature, and the car's range drops significantly in cold weather. You would hope that the car, or the car's manual, would provide accurate guidance on how far it can go in various conditions. But they do not. Instead, you need to rely on personal experience or external guidance such as these tests from consumer reports.

I think that car manufacturers are shooting themselves in the foot here by not being more transparent. If you are going to advertise that your car has a 270 mile range, then it should have a 270 mile range in all conditions. If it doesn't, then you should be open about that. I think that the lack of transparency is going to make people less likely to buy EVs. The same principle applies to charging times. It's great if the car can charge in 20 minutes under ideal circumstances. But if you don't openly admit that it performs significantly worse in real-world conditions, then you are going to upset your customers.

I've read that Tesla cars can estimate their range very accurately. But I've been on long trips in which I've steadily watched the buffer between my car's remaining range and the distance to the closest charging station decrease in my Ioniq 6. It's not a good feeling at all, and from an engineering point, I think it's inexcusable.

Fuel Cost

Of course, one of the selling points of an EV is that you don't have to buy gas. You do have to pay for electricity, but it's significantly cheaper. Here's a comparison of how many miles I would get out of my Volvo S60 vs. my Hyundai Ioniq 6 for the cost of one gallon of gas. (The S60 actually takes 91+ fuel, so it would cost even more than the $3.95 listed.)

Conclusion

I'm very happy with my decision to lease an EV. I would do so again. But I think that manufacturers' decision to focus only on performance under ideal conditions is a mistake that will ultimately result in more people being leery of buying EVs. I know it has colored my experiences (negatively). My ultimate take away is this: If you are driving long distances in an EV, plan for your trip to take more time. We have a two car household, and I'm not sure that I would be ready to replace both with an EV at this point. But for everything but long trips, I think that EVs are the way to go.