I picked up my Christmas miracle on 12/21, a '23 red Pro S AWD ID.4. It wasn't the blue ID.4 that I had ordered 8 months ago, but it all worked out fine. I'm very happy with the red color and even happier that I don't have the white interior. The dealer sold it to me for MSRP and I traded in my 2017 CRV for $17K which was about $3K less than I was expecting. I added the YuriK rear plate holder at the dealership and then installed the front plate at home using a kit to install it over the grill. Looks great. If everything goes right I should get $4K back from Illinois and $7.5K returned from taxes. Out of pocket should be around $28K when it's all said and done. Not too bad.
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It was apparently the worst possible time to buy an electric car, with holiday travel, sub-zero temperatures, high winds, snow and unknown charging at the destinations. I ended up missing a visit with my partner in life and she is still reminding of that. The car sat in the garage for several days except for short trips to the store.
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After that weekend I discovered preconditioning the battery and the weather because more normal (around freezing). I was able to make the 150 mile trip to visit my mom. The car performed perfectly. It was quiet and passing was a breeze. I mostly stuck to 73 MPH on the interstate. I stopped at an EA facility on the way there to top off the battery because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use my portable L1/L2 charger at her house. Fortunately a spot opened up for me after a Tesla that was occupying a spot but not charging left. Also charging there were a Ionic 5, an F-150, and a Mach-E, and of course one of the four charging station was down. After arriving at my Mom's I did L1 charging overnight and then ended up plugging into her 240 volt dryer outlet and running the cable from inside the house out into the garage. Thank goodness for long cables! She loved the car and said the interface looked easier to navigate then their Subaru Outback's interface. My Mom says she will get a 240 outlet installed in her garage, now that all of her kids will be driving electric cars. I charged to 93% and decided to take the back way home, which involved many turns and rural highways but cuts 30 miles off the trip. The car did great and I got home with plenty of juice to spare.
At home, my JuiceBox refilled the battery while I got ready to head out to my second destination, this one was only 100 miles away but also with a possibility of a multi-day L1 recharge. This trip also went great and I was able to get an old 240 outlet in a shed to work at my destination after some messing about with ancient screw-in fuses.
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This week I was back to work with a 50 mile commute each way. This is a perfect commuter car for me!
It was apparently the worst possible time to buy an electric car, with holiday travel, sub-zero temperatures, high winds, snow and unknown charging at the destinations. I ended up missing a visit with my partner in life and she is still reminding of that. The car sat in the garage for several days except for short trips to the store.
After that weekend I discovered preconditioning the battery and the weather because more normal (around freezing). I was able to make the 150 mile trip to visit my mom. The car performed perfectly. It was quiet and passing was a breeze. I mostly stuck to 73 MPH on the interstate. I stopped at an EA facility on the way there to top off the battery because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use my portable L1/L2 charger at her house. Fortunately a spot opened up for me after a Tesla that was occupying a spot but not charging left. Also charging there were a Ionic 5, an F-150, and a Mach-E, and of course one of the four charging station was down. After arriving at my Mom's I did L1 charging overnight and then ended up plugging into her 240 volt dryer outlet and running the cable from inside the house out into the garage. Thank goodness for long cables! She loved the car and said the interface looked easier to navigate then their Subaru Outback's interface. My Mom says she will get a 240 outlet installed in her garage, now that all of her kids will be driving electric cars. I charged to 93% and decided to take the back way home, which involved many turns and rural highways but cuts 30 miles off the trip. The car did great and I got home with plenty of juice to spare.
At home, my JuiceBox refilled the battery while I got ready to head out to my second destination, this one was only 100 miles away but also with a possibility of a multi-day L1 recharge. This trip also went great and I was able to get an old 240 outlet in a shed to work at my destination after some messing about with ancient screw-in fuses.
This week I was back to work with a 50 mile commute each way. This is a perfect commuter car for me!
