Time Flies When You're Driving Fun! (Click to enlarge) | Rocinante
Half-Year Anniversary July 4, 2024 |
This month we’ll cross the half-year threshold since taking delivery of our Ioniq 5 Limited AWD. It seems fitting for July 4th this year to celebrate our continuing Independence from fossil fuels by posting a summary of how our 3rd EV is shaping up after 6 months.
Recently its odometer crossed the 5K threshold, as you can watch in this movie:
As of this post, here is the odometer reading that also shows our miles-per-kWh energy efficiency to date:
’Tis true that Rocinante is not as energy efficient as either our previous LEAF or Model 3, but so far its miles-per-kWh average exceeds the EPA’s rating of 99 MPGe:
3.4 mi/kWh x 33.7 kWh/gallon = 115 MPGe There is no way a gasoline car could hope to achieve that level of efficiency. Here is a table with more stats:
Lately I have seen a real blitz of anti-EV articles, videos, and comments on the internet, obviously funded and posted by pe’trolls who work for the greedy fossil fools. I can only conclude that the purpose of their campaign is to discourage consumers from buying EVs and encourage them to just keep burning their gasoline to pile up more and more profits —no matter the consequence to people and planet. One of their arguments is that EVs pollute as much as gas cars by shifting their emissions to a “long tailpipe” at the power plant. They also claim that fueling EVs costs just as much as gasoline. The following graphics for Rocinante over these first 6 months clearly debunk such myths:
Just like when powering our EV with our rooftop solar at home, Electrify America only uses renewable energy with its DCFC stations, so our roadtrips are just as pollution free as when driving around town locally. As for costs, Rocinante came with two years of free 30-minute charge sessions with Electrify America. Consequently, that fee of $20 shown above was what I had to pay at one station that was on reduced power, thus slowing the charge to longer than a free session. My guess is that the slower rate was probably because some naysayer idiot had cut off one of the station’s cables:
(Click to enlarge)Whenever pe’trolls express the above criticisms of EVs, I suggest that they use my online tool to compare the emissions and fuel costs of their gas vehicle with my Ioniq 5, and report back to me their results. Funny thing… they never do. The petrolganda they have heard convinces them that they’re right, but they quickly go silent when facts and math prove them wrong.
Another petrolganda argument disseminated by pe’trolls is that owners will need to replace their expensive EV batteries after only three, four, five years. That claim is a gross exaggeration, concocted from half-truths that might have once been the case over a decade ago, but it is now pure, unadulterated FUD.
For example, my first EV, a Nissan LEAF, came with a 5-year/60,000-mile warranty on the battery that its capacity would not drop below 70%. During the 6 years that I owned it, I carefully tracked the battery’s SoH (“state-of-health”) on a regular basis via an OBD-II device and a LEAFStat app on my phone. Here is a screen shot I took of the app when I first downloaded it. It reported that the battery had dropped to 83.54% capacity:
Unlike current EVs, the LEAF didn’t have a thermal management system to keep the battery at optimal temperature, and because we live in a very hot, dry, desert climate, just a month before the 5-year mark, the battery had indeed dropped below the warranty threshold:
Consequently, Nissan had to replace the battery free-of-charge. Of course, I also continued to monitor the SoH of the replacement battery until I sold the LEAF after more than 6 years and 62,339 miles:
The Model 3 came with an even better 8-year/100,000-mile warranty on its battery. My only complaint with it was that, unlike other automakers, Tesla flatly refused to cover the electronic components in its HV Battery Service Panel under the HV Battery Warranty —which cost me a huge repair fee out-of-pocket. That refusal was one of the reasons —among many others— why I decided to get rid of the Model 3 and buy this Ioniq 5.
I couldn’t use my OBD-II tool with the Model 3, so to monitor the battery’s SoH, I simply extrapolated its capacity according to the predicted range every time I charged it. That method worked surprisingly well, and when I traded it in after nearly 6 years and 78,737 miles, the battery seemed to retain about 94.35% of its original capacity:
Out of curiosity, when I brought the Ioniq 5 home, I thought I’d try extrapolating its battery capacity using range estimates, like with the Model 3. That method has proven entirely futile. The range display in the Ioniq 5 is what we EV aficionados call a “guess-o-meter,” for it can only guess at the miles remaining in the battery according to one’s driving habits over the last several miles. If you’ve driven around town on city streets with lower speed limits, the range guess’timate is huge. If you’ve driven on a roadtrip at freeway speeds, the range guess’timate drops precipitously. Using that method, I’ve seen battery capacity guess’timates as high as 147.12%, and as low as 88.12%. Below is a graph of those extrapolations that I have compiled to date. You can clearly distinguish the roller coaster highs when driving locally, and the deep dips when on a roadtrip:
Obviously, such guesses are nothing more whan wild speculation, and certainly not a reflection of the battery’s true capacity.
The good news is that my LEAF’s OBD-II tool also works with the Ioniq 5 using a new phone app “Car Scanner.” This app is much more powerful and sophisticated than LEAFStat, capable of measuring practically every particular of the battery pack, from individual cell temperatures to overall capacity. Here is a screenshot of just one of its 27 displays that shows the latest battery SoH in the upper right hand corner:
I have committed to use this tool on the first day of every month to determine the actual battery capacity in Rocinante. So far, these are how the SoH readouts plot on a true capacity graph:
There is no doubt that the Ioniq 5’s battery is still at 100% capacity. I’ll be curious to see after how many months and years the line starts to barely inch downward. Time will tell! The point is that I very seriously doubt that the capacity will dip below 70% before Hyundai’s 10-year/100,000-mile warranty expires. Yes, you read that right: its warranty is the best of any EV maker to date. And what’s even better news is that Hyundai does cover the battery’s electronic components under that warranty —unlike Tesla.
So… when and if a pe’troll tries to tell you that you’ll have to pay beaucoup bucks to replace your EV’s battery after only 5 years, you can take that accusation with an entire granary of salt. It ain’t gonna happen! Indeed, in many cases, I project that the battery will outlast the car, and then be repurposed for energy storage or recycled.
Likes
Overall, I am more than thrilled with Rocinante. It has many great features that make it the best EV we have owned:
- I have really come to love its heads-up display. It is so much easier to monitor your speed, see if adaptive cruise control is working, view the number of car lengths between you and the car in front, verify that lane keep is engaged, check if there are vehicles in your blind spots, anticipate the next navigation directions. Every car should have this! The only disadvantage is that your sunglasses must be non-polarized to see the display, but I found a pair on Amazon that work perfectly, and are practically identical to the polarized wrap-arounds that I’ve worn for several years.
- I am so happy to again have some physical buttons in the car for the most used features, like adjusting the side mirrors, turning on and adjusting climate control fans and temperatures, opening the glove box, displaying the navigation map, playing media, directing the vents, viewing the cameras.
- The steering wheel buttons are also very welcome. Unlike in the Model 3, I can now push those buttons to turn on, set, adjust, pause, and resume cruise control, as well as engage lane keep assist.
- The cluster in the binnacle has several helpful displays from which to choose, and also shows camera views of your right- and left-hand blind spots when using the turn signals. The side mirrors also show a red warning sign if another car is close to a blind spot. A result of the above features is that you rarely have to look over at the infotainment screen to adjust a function or find a particular readout.
- The HDA-II driving assistance system is so much better than Autopilot in the Model 3. The latter would take control of the car and expect the driver to assist it. Now I remain in control while the system assists me. For example, if I come across some roadkill, or a pothole, or a tumbleweed in the road, I can easily steer around it without disengaging cruise control or lane keep, both of which resume assisting me without a hiccup after avoiding the obstacle.
- Unlike in the Model 3, I have yet to witness “Tourette Syndrome” reactions of phantom braking, red steering wheel alarms, ping-ponging between lanes, paranoid merging. Yes, I still have to maintain my hands on the steering wheel, but I don’t have to apply as much turning pressure on it to avoid the nags. It also changes lanes more smoothly and confidently. The result is that we feel much more relaxed and comfortable in the Ioniq 5.
- Speaking of comfort, I am so glad to once again have a heated steering wheel like was in my LEAF. We’ve also discovered the joy of having ventilated seats when the weather is hot and sticky. Those seats are also more comfortable, more like those we had in the LEAF. The rear seats can slide forward and back, and even recline a bit, something we’ve never seen in any of our other cars. The only disadvantage is that, unlike in the LEAF, the rear seats are not heated, let alone ventilated. Regardless, being able to push a button to close the shade on the glass roof is also a great feature, as are the pull-up shades on the rear windows.
- Another convenient feature in the Ioniq 5 is its center console. You can slide it forward and back if you want to give more room to either the front or rear passengers. Even better, under the liftable armrest is a nice, big cubby bin, perfect for Tamara to store her purse so that it’s not cluttering up her footwell when we’re on the road.
- Getting in and out of the car is much easier, thanks to its larger dimensions, height, and hand grips over the doors. Visibility is also much better in Rocinante. We can both see all around the car without a problem. And the digital rear view mirror is fantastic. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but now turning it off seems literally short-sighted. In my opinion, the digital rear view mirror effectively eliminates the need for a rear window wiper, something that earlier Ioniq 5 owners have complained about. In reality, it’s no longer needed!
- I really appreciate again having a hatchback like the LEAF instead of a trunk like the Model 3. It is so much easier to load large, bulky, tall items. Having a power liftgate on the rear is also very convenient, especially because it will open automatically if you approach it when the car is locked and you have your arms full with whatever you need to load in there. Neither the LEAF nor the Model 3 had a power liftgate, and I now consider it more of a necessity than a luxury.
- I also appreciate how easy it is to change the cabin air filter in the Ioniq 5. In both the LEAF and the Model 3 I had to contort myself, crawl into the passenger footwell, remove covers and wires, to locate the filter compartment up above and behind the dashboard. In the Ioniq, you simply have to remove a lid at the rear of the frunk, and… voilà!… the filter is right there, easily pulled out and replaced.
- Because it has an 800V system, the Ioniq 5 charges blazingly fast. In 18 times that I’ve plugged in at an Electrify America DCFC station, it has taken an average of 14 minutes to fill the battery to 80% —just perfect to visit the restroom. The only problem is… finding a working station, as the EA network is not nearly as widespread and reliable as Superchargers —which I will touch upon below.
Dislikes
In all honesty, I also have to point out that there are a few things that need improvement with our Ioniq 5
- The most glaring problem is that, as mentioned above, despite having two years of free charging sessions from Electrify America, the network is notoriously unreliable and limited. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped at a site where all of the chargers were working, and all too often every station is occupied. Believe it or not, most of the stations sport two cables and plugs, but… you can only use one at a time, which strikes me as a useless waste of equipment. Electrify America really needs to up its game.
In all fairness, I should admit that I was very aware of these limitations when I bought Rocinante, but I also knew that Hyundai had established an agreement with Tesla to be able to have access to the Supercharger network during Q4 this year. Well, we’re now in Q3, and only Ford and Rivian gained that access in Q1. GM, Volvo, and Polestar were supposed to be able to use Superchargers in Q2, but now Tesla’s NACS webpage says “coming soon” —whatever that means. I opine that E’loon Isherwell undermined the entire J3400 transition planned for this year when he fired the Senior Director of Supercharging, Rebecca Tinucci, and her entire 500-member team in Q2. He would claim that it was to “cut costs,” but I suspect that it was done out of petulant spite. To clarify, TIME Magazine had named Rebecca Tinucci one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders” in the world at the end of 2023, and MotorTrend in March ranked her #2 in its list of the 50 “Auto Industry’s Biggest Movers and Shakers,” —while E’loon was ranked at… wait for it… #50. I purport that his fragile NPD just couldn’t handle the blow to his ego.
So when will I be able to have access the Supercharger network? Your guess is as good as mine at this point. I do know that Hyundai intends to start producing the 2025 Ioniq 5 in its new plant in Georgia in Q4, and they have said the 2025 models will come with a plug port for J3400 instead of CCS1. They’ve also stated that J3400 adapters will be available for older models in Q1 2024. In the meantime, I’ve already ordered an A2Z Typhoon adapter, as all the reviews I’ve seen about it give it high marks. Ergo, when and if the Supercharger access is finally granted, I’ll be ready and able to take advantage of it. However, I'm not holding my breath that it will be “coming soon.”
- Another improvement I would like to see is for an OTA update to allow drivers to select i-Pedal as their preferred level of regen, and have it remain set for the next time they start the car. As it is right now, I have to reset i-Pedal every single time, which is irksome. I’ve driven with one-pedal regenerative braking for many years now, and I loathe ever needing to use the brake to slow down and stop completely. Just let me choose i-Pedal and be done with it!
- Hyundai should include a dedicated “climate mode” (like Rivian has “pet mode” and Tesla has “dog mode”) in a future OTA update. It is actually possible to enable such a mode in my Ioniq 5, but it is not an easy process. This is what I have to do so that Tamara and/or Moxie remain safe and comfortable when I have to run into the store for a few minutes.
- I have to put one of my “pet mode” signs in the passenger window.
- I lock all the doors.
- I then open on the touchscreen the setting to enable “Utility Mode” —which leaves the car, it electronics, and climate control on if you want to “camp” in the car.
- I roll down the driver side window, but not all the way, leaving about two inches showing.
- I get out of the car and shut the door —which causes a warning beep to sound.
- I hang another “pet mode” sign over the short edge of the window still showing.
- I reach in through the window and push the button to lock the doors again.
- I then pull up on the button to roll up the window and quickly pull my arm out before it closes!
- To get back in the car, I need to open my Bluelink app and select the icon to unlock the door. You cannot unlock the car by pushing on the door handles: you must either use the app or the physical key inside the fob.
- As I said, it is not an easy process!
- I would like Hyundai to try and improve its “guess-o-meter” to predict a more accurate range from whatever charge is in the battery. While I understand that there are numerous factors that can affect those predictions based on previous driving patterns, such as speed, road conditions, temperature, use of climate control, headwinds, tailwinds, elevation changes, regen settings, load weight, etc., but surely it is possible to “tighten” up those estimates using data from GPS maps and applying a longer period of previous driving in the calculations.
- Similarly, I think lane keep could use some improvement. It is flawless on interstates, but on single-lane backroads it can only handle gentle curves, not tight ones. Of course, knowing that lane keep is there to simply assist me, by default I keep my hands on the wheel to take those curves with the assumption that lane keep will likely get confused and disengage. Once the road straightens out again, it re-engages automatically just fine. Still, that’s better than what we experienced in the Model 3, for any such interventions would turn Autopilot off completely, not simply pause it.
- I have noticed that, if my Ioniq 5 is the only car on the road, and I set adaptive cruise control, but eventually start to arrive at an intersection where there is a car stopped in front of me at a red light, the cruise control does not always slow down and stop “adaptively”! I have no idea why that can happen, but it begs for improvement.
- It would be nice for Hyundai to enable wireless CarPlay and Android Auto in an OTA update, but this is not a pressing need for me. Plugging my phone into the front USB port works just fine to access such functions, if needed, and truth be told… I rarely use CarPlay anyway. The Ioniq 5’s navigation works well enough, and I can always listen to my music, podcasts, and audio books from my phone wirelessly through bluetooth.
- I also wish that an OTA update could enable “Digital Key” for my phone’s Bluelink app so that I could use it like my fob to unlock the car upon approaching it. Apparently this is possible on other Hyundai models, but not on my car. I suppose that it is no big deal, since I always have my fob in the pocket, but it would be helpful to have that alternative in case I ever forget the fob in another pair of pants.
- Finally, I am delighted that Bluelink allows me to pre-condition the cabin before departing, like I could do with both the LEAF and the Model 3. However, I wish an OTA would add the ability to also turn on the heated and/or ventilated seats.
Oooookay! Those are more than enough observations and suggestions for a mere 6-month review. We’ll see what points I can add when we have our first-year anniversary with Rocinante. Maybe, with fingers crossed, we’ll then be able to use a J3400 adapter at Superchargers when the “free” Electrify America stations are broken or completely occupied. Below is a movie with various scenes of our Ioniq 5 journey so far.
Click to watch a slide show movie of our first 6 months with Rocinante: