How far you can drive in your Niro EV

Discussion in 'Kia Niro' started by etcadman, Mar 28, 2021.

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  1. etcadman

    etcadman New Member

    Yesterday I unintentionally tested the range of my Niro EV. Had a series of errands to run with family, including returning one child back to college, and found myself running low on range. Probably could have squeezed a fast charge before heading out for the long drive, but only down to 80% I didn't think I could regain much for less than an hour while also loading the car, etc. So we headed out. By the way, at the end of driving 253.8 miles freeway at the end of the day, my 2019 Niro has 16,900 miles. Normally I would have logged more miles by now, but a year of the pandemic and limited driving.

    After finishing the college dropoff, we were in a hurry to stop by a store for an important purchase which was 52 freeway miles away, with another 30 freeway miles from there home. The range meter showed only 62 miles range remaining. If I stopped along the way we'd possibly missing closing, an hour 45 minutes to go with at least one hour of driving with traffic. So I opted to turn the regen off (easy to do with the paddles) and maintain a steady speed with always someone breaking the wind in front of me, ie drafting. With the freeway fairly level and traffic keeping the flow between 55-65 mph, we managed to get to our destination on time, with 45 minutes for me to quick charge and return to load before actual closing. So quickly found a level 3 50kw charger 3.2 miles away and when I arrived my pack was at 3% and the distance drive since 100% that morning at 253.8 miles. Quickly plugged in Charged for just 20 minutes and unplugged at 25%, showing 64 miles range and zipped back to the store to load up our purchase right at closing, just in time.

    But that's definitely the furthest I've driving on a single charge, with performance at 4.1 m/wh. I only hypermiled for that last let since I had traffic flow and passengers to accommodate most of the time. In round numbers that means the consumer visible capacity is about 64kwh on the pack, which is spot-on for the vehicle specs. (253.8 miles divided by 4.1 m/wh divided by 0.97% used).

    Has others tested the range, and what kind of results?
    I've heard of owners driving long distances at higher efficiencies (>4.0 m/wh), but I have typically driving 3.6-3.9 m/wh on the freeway and sometimes racked up slower city travel as high as 5.1. Please chime in with your comments and stories. 20210327_182635.jpg
     
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  3. TheHellYouSay

    TheHellYouSay Member

    I haven't been doing much freeway driving with my 2019 yet. The one time I did, I drove at high speed (70+) and that just knocked the crap out of the batteries. I don't remember my numbers, but probably around 3.1 m/kwh. It was the only time that the car batteries have fallen below 10%. It was kind of humorous because at about 10% charge remaining the car was flashing messages telling me that I ought to take a break. Repeatedly.

    I think what you did - turning off the regen and drafting at those speeds - probably helped a great deal. I just know that if my wife was with me and we had to get within 10 miles of the range meter, that would have been one scary ride, she's always worried about running out of fuel/juice. The one nice thing about EVs though is that if you hit a freeway slowdown or a complete stoppage, it doesn't hurt as bad as simply burning gasoline. I love that the Niro has so many different modes, auto regen, zero regen, Eco/Normal/Sport etc. that you can mix and match according to your needs and resources available at any given point in time.

    I bought my car in August of that 2019 and put 5K miles on it by March when I was told to cease and desist from driving to work, which was quite a nasty task anyway, so I didn't mind. Now I'm retired and with pandemic and so on, just now closing in on $10K. I think the batteries are holding up well - I get about 229 miles at 80% charge levels. I am eager to take it on a few road trips soon, I think if I slow down a little, I'll be able to go further.
     
  4. So after 22 months of ownership and 23,750 miles of driving, the niro has averaged 4.13 miles per Kwh, which is 138.58 MPGe which is almost the same as the EPA estimate of 139 MPGe. I live in Vermont which means cold winters, studded tires, and heat, but I haven't been stuck yet. In the summer, I have done 249 miles arriving home with 22% remaining. So full range of 319 miles or 4.98 miles per KWh
     

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