[hilld]

I just dropped off my ID.4 at the dealer for some issue (dead displays and when it does come back a plethora of error messages) and since they don't have loaners, they arranged an Enterprise rental for me. Of course, after having lived the good life of EV's, who wants to get back in a gasser.

Long story short, they were going to stick me in a Mazda MX something and I happened to ask if they had any EV's to rent instead. They told me yes, but it only has 25 miles range left (I live about 16 miles away and traffic was bumper to bumper). They told me if I had a place to charge it, I could have it for no additional charge. Quick scratching of my head and some in brain calculations followed by a resounding yes, I will take it.

So, now sitting in a Kia Niro driving home, I get the extremely low battery warning, 8% left. By then I was only 2 miles from home, but the power on the car got reduced, no big deal. Make it home, plug into my 40A L2 charger, expecting around 11k w to flow into the car, but it only indicated 7.3 kw. Guess it will take a little while longer, no big deal, I have all weekend to charge it.

Overall not a bad car, the Niro, I do prefer having buttons for basic functions rather than dealing with digging into multiple screens, but I still prefer my ID.4. Wish it wasn't in the shop so much.

 

[Ciscovet]

8% is like having the needle on E. There is still plenty of juice

 

[hilld]

Might be true, but I have had zero experience with that car. Plus bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway doesn't help when it takes an hour to go 3 miles. Accidents and flooded roads.

 

[Nai3t]

I drove a 130-mile range i3 for two years. I got pretty comfortable seeing 8%. The Niro is a 250 mile range car, isn't it?

 

[hilld]

I think so. So far I have driven it for 15 miles and there is no manual in the glove box. The joys of rental cars. But it isn't terrible, no ID.4 but better than some of the other rental car choices.

 

[Nai3t]

The Niro was the first EV I looked at. I agree, not bad, but meh... and the torque steer was no bueno.

 

[Ciscovet]

Might be true, but I have had zero experience with that car. Plus bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway doesn't help when it takes an hour to go 3 miles. Accidents and flooded roads.

Actually bumper to bumper traffic is not as bad as you think. You could drive farther at 15mph then 75

 

[hilld]

I get that, but you are still running the fan, heat (it is colder here in the PNW), so the more time stuck on the road, the more power you use.

 

[Dougie01]

Look for manual deep in trunk, still in shipping wrapper

 

[TT97]

Do they not charge it at all at the rental place? Is there a minimum charge % you need when returning the car? (I am assuming it is not a "full tank" like ICE cars.)

 

[Manybees]

I get that, but you are still running the fan, heat (it is colder here in the PNW), so the more time stuck on the road, the more power you use.

Actually, the power your car uses on these things while stuck in traffic is much, much less than the higher levels of power you'd be using when driving 65mph+ on the highway (and still running the heat etc.). The EV will always be more efficient at lower speeds no matter the weather conditions (unlike fossil cars). So the upside of getting stuck in traffic in an EV is that you get more range than if you were at highway speeds.

 

[Sam Raj]

Do they not charge it at all at the rental place? Is there a minimum charge % you need when returning the car? (I am assuming it is not a "full tank" like ICE cars.)

Haha maybe return it to 15%

 

[Don]

Might be true, but I have had zero experience with that car. Plus bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway doesn't help when it takes an hour to go 3 miles. Accidents and flooded roads.

The bumper to bumper traffic is probably what saved your bacon - If you had driven the freeway at 70, you might not have made it home

All EV's get better mileage at slow speeds and really good mileage at really slow speeds. All cars should be this way because pushing a box through the air at high speeds is a real energy hog, but most ICE's get better freeway mileage than around town because they are so wasteful around town with starting and stopping and sitting idle waiting for traffic lights to change, plus they don't get any energy return while slowing like EV's do. Every EV I know of is rated for better around town mileage than freeway miles

And, as you discovered, few EV's have 11Kw onboard battery chargers - Certainly the lesser priced ones don't

Don

 

[hilld]

The bumper to bumper traffic is probably what saved your bacon - If you had driven the freeway at 70, you might not have made it home

All EV's get better mileage at slow speeds and really good mileage at really slow speeds. All cars should be this way because pushing a box through the air at high speeds is a real energy hog, but most ICE's get better freeway mileage than around town because they are so wasteful around town with starting and stopping and sitting idle waiting for traffic lights to change, plus they don't get any energy return while slowing like EV's do. Every EV I know of is rated for better around town mileage than freeway miles

And, as you discovered, few EV's have 11Kw onboard battery chargers - Certainly the lesser priced ones don't

Don

Oh, I get it. I do have an EV, so very familiar with what sucks down range and what doesn't. The anxiety was really not knowing this particular EV as it was a rental. I know how to hypermile when necessary, but that actually requires you to be moving. :-D
This post wasn't really a complaint, but rather an observation with a to me completely unknown vehicle and its behavior. I had no idea how accurate the lie -o- meter is on a Niro.

 

[jgoodnough]

I owned a Hyundai Kona Electric, with the same motor/battery/technology combination. It was definitely slower to charge than the ID.4. My experience with the GOM was that it was quite accurate, even in colder temps.

 

[Islander]

Actually, the power your car uses on these things while stuck in traffic is much, much less than the higher levels of power you'd be using when driving 65mph+ on the highway (and still running the heat etc.).

Well, much less in any event. By my calculations, it takes roughly 19 kW for the ID.4 to overcome air and rolling resistance at 65 MPH in ideal conditions. What is the average power draw of the ID.4's auxiliary systems in hot or cold weather? 1 or 2 kW?

The EV will always be more efficient at lower speeds no matter the weather conditions (unlike fossil cars).

Well, not always. Let's assume you've got a 200 mile drive ahead in your ID.4 on a flat dry road, and you're going to run AC and other systems drawing 1.5 kW. Looking at a rough calculation, the ID.4 requires about 4.5 kW at 27 MPH to overcome air and rolling resistance ... and this is going to be about the most efficient speed you can drive. True: at slower speeds the power you need will drop, but it will also take longer to get where you're going, and you'll be running those ancillary systems at 1.5kW for a longer time. Slower than about 27 MPH, the power savings from driving slower are outweighed by that of driving over a longer period.

But ultimately, I agree with you. The OP probably saved power by driving slower, compared to doing so at higher speeds. In the example I posed, driving at 65 MPH is still less efficient than driving at 10 MPH. And if you're crawling along at 5 MPH and you're worried about range, just turn off the climate control!

 

[Dougie01]

It's also going to depend on how hot it is. According to the 881213 self-study document from the NHTSB website, the A/C compressor for R1234yf (US version) can draw up to 5.5 kW. It would presumably only run continuously at this power if it were something like 125 degrees outside and you were going 100 MPH.

 

[Dougie01]

What I want to know is, what is the "C25 Intermediate Circuit Capacitor 1" used for? It has a pretty fancy bidirectional, cooled "A19 Voltage Converter," but I can't see what the capacitor actually does.

 

[hilld]

Turning off climate control in my case heat is not feasible during pouring down rain or the windshield quickly fogs up. I only took the car from the rental place as I was pretty sure I could make it home but I certainly didn’t expect a parking lot on the freeway. After driving the Niro for 2 days and about 200 miles I miss my ID.4 a lot.

 

[p7wang]

If you went to Hertz, maybe you would be driving a model 3. 😀