Dakota Cole
New Member
On October 25th 2019 we took a 1,342 mile road trip in our new Hyundai Kona Electric. I documented the journey and created a video then posted on youtube check it out.
I wanted to point out a few things I thought was interesting especially when charging the Kona based on time. Originally I designated our route with long range intense segments and only stopping twice between our home and the destination of Las Vegas Nevada. Two weeks prior we went on a short little road trip to Breckinridge, it was 211 miles and the Kona averaged 3.3mi/kwh, it was below freezing outside and uphill the whole way. We arrived at a whole foods in Frisco (10miles from Breck) with 19 miles left on the Kona. That trip was intense on but it made me rethink how far I wanted to push the range due to conditions.
So Montrose to Las Vegas direct via i-70 is about 8hrs and 20min however there is a 222mile gap between Grand Junction and Richfield that has zero charging infrastructure and it had two mountain range passes to climb over… That segment made me rethink my route to avoid that black hole. Since that segment wasn’t an option in my mind I sought out a safer way. So I resorted to google, I typed in “best EV route planner” and boom I stumbled across this awesome tool that revolutionized my route planning. https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ you plug in your EV details, trip conditions, Destination and go. It identifies areas where you will stretch your range based off of speed limit, SOC, distance, payload, temperature and elevation of a segment! ITS AWESOME!!! It predicted my Breckinridge trip almost perfectly. So I had a working model I could trust. I put in my Las Vegas trip and sure enough it identified the i-70 black hole and gave me an alternative. It said go north charge in Price, then go through Spanish Fork hit i-15 and then go south. That was the route we went with, please note that cost was and estimate.
We made it!
This was the data for the trip:
Montrose to Grand Junction 63 miles
Averaged 4.1miles/kwh
Arrived with 74% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $21.21
Departed with 89% SOC
Grand Junction to Price 164 miles
Averaged 3.5miles/kwh
Arrived with 12% SOC
Charged with Rocky Mountain Power $free
Departed with 49% SOC
Price to Spanish Fork 69 miles
Averaged 4.6miles/kwh
Arrived with 28% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $11.12
Departed with 55% SOC
Spanish Fork to Scipio 70 miles
Averaged 3.1miles/kwh
Arrived with 27% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $10.99
Departed with 56% SOC
Scipio to Beaver 77 miles
Averaged 3.1miles/kwh
Arrived with 24% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $free
Departed with 79% SOC
Beaver to Mesquite 145 miles
Averaged 4.2miles/kwh
Arrived with 22% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $13.91
Departed with 68% SOC
Mesquite to Las Vegas 83 miles
Averaged 4.0miles/kwh
Arrived with 32% SOC
Charged at the Wynn level 2 $free
Total spent one way $57.23
Kona DC Fast Charging costs roughly .08 cents per mile Honda CRV costs roughly .11 cents per mile Toyota Prius Plugin Hybrid costs roughly .04 cents per mile Fun fact, when charging on level 2 chargers the Kona costs roughly .02 cents per mile assuming I’m paying to charge whereas most level 2 chargers are free. In my case I always charge at home where I have a solar array and a net meter so it doesn’t cost anything however you could make the case that the cost of the utility meter fee has a cost non the less and even if we factored in that variable it costs me roughly .02 cents per mile (assuming I drive 1020 miles per month) it’s still way more efficient and cheeper then gasoline even when DC fast charging on road trips not to mention the tax credits.
So I noticed something interesting when charging the Kona, Im sure it is this way with all EVs and DC fast charging but I wanted to point it out because it was never explained to me very well. The Kona will charge at roughly 78kw when its at a lower SOC such as 0% to 55% but then starts stepping down the draw it will take on the charger. Below is a graph showing the documented steps I noticed. This is huge when considering what to charge to to reach a destination. It seems that it is faster and more efficient to stay low on the SOC and charge just enough to reach your next charger and not over charge as it becomes inefficient when you get into the 55% and above SOC of the Kona.
Those rates are outside air temp of about 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
All in all it was a fun trip and we are just helping prove the point that EVs are ready for prime time and totally viable for road trips with todays infrastructure. Although more chargers would make trips even faster for diagonal cross county travel in the US.
Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
I wanted to point out a few things I thought was interesting especially when charging the Kona based on time. Originally I designated our route with long range intense segments and only stopping twice between our home and the destination of Las Vegas Nevada. Two weeks prior we went on a short little road trip to Breckinridge, it was 211 miles and the Kona averaged 3.3mi/kwh, it was below freezing outside and uphill the whole way. We arrived at a whole foods in Frisco (10miles from Breck) with 19 miles left on the Kona. That trip was intense on but it made me rethink how far I wanted to push the range due to conditions.
So Montrose to Las Vegas direct via i-70 is about 8hrs and 20min however there is a 222mile gap between Grand Junction and Richfield that has zero charging infrastructure and it had two mountain range passes to climb over… That segment made me rethink my route to avoid that black hole. Since that segment wasn’t an option in my mind I sought out a safer way. So I resorted to google, I typed in “best EV route planner” and boom I stumbled across this awesome tool that revolutionized my route planning. https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ you plug in your EV details, trip conditions, Destination and go. It identifies areas where you will stretch your range based off of speed limit, SOC, distance, payload, temperature and elevation of a segment! ITS AWESOME!!! It predicted my Breckinridge trip almost perfectly. So I had a working model I could trust. I put in my Las Vegas trip and sure enough it identified the i-70 black hole and gave me an alternative. It said go north charge in Price, then go through Spanish Fork hit i-15 and then go south. That was the route we went with, please note that cost was and estimate.
We made it!
This was the data for the trip:
Montrose to Grand Junction 63 miles
Averaged 4.1miles/kwh
Arrived with 74% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $21.21
Departed with 89% SOC
Grand Junction to Price 164 miles
Averaged 3.5miles/kwh
Arrived with 12% SOC
Charged with Rocky Mountain Power $free
Departed with 49% SOC
Price to Spanish Fork 69 miles
Averaged 4.6miles/kwh
Arrived with 28% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $11.12
Departed with 55% SOC
Spanish Fork to Scipio 70 miles
Averaged 3.1miles/kwh
Arrived with 27% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $10.99
Departed with 56% SOC
Scipio to Beaver 77 miles
Averaged 3.1miles/kwh
Arrived with 24% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $free
Departed with 79% SOC
Beaver to Mesquite 145 miles
Averaged 4.2miles/kwh
Arrived with 22% SOC
Charged with Electrify America $13.91
Departed with 68% SOC
Mesquite to Las Vegas 83 miles
Averaged 4.0miles/kwh
Arrived with 32% SOC
Charged at the Wynn level 2 $free
Total spent one way $57.23
Kona DC Fast Charging costs roughly .08 cents per mile Honda CRV costs roughly .11 cents per mile Toyota Prius Plugin Hybrid costs roughly .04 cents per mile Fun fact, when charging on level 2 chargers the Kona costs roughly .02 cents per mile assuming I’m paying to charge whereas most level 2 chargers are free. In my case I always charge at home where I have a solar array and a net meter so it doesn’t cost anything however you could make the case that the cost of the utility meter fee has a cost non the less and even if we factored in that variable it costs me roughly .02 cents per mile (assuming I drive 1020 miles per month) it’s still way more efficient and cheeper then gasoline even when DC fast charging on road trips not to mention the tax credits.
So I noticed something interesting when charging the Kona, Im sure it is this way with all EVs and DC fast charging but I wanted to point it out because it was never explained to me very well. The Kona will charge at roughly 78kw when its at a lower SOC such as 0% to 55% but then starts stepping down the draw it will take on the charger. Below is a graph showing the documented steps I noticed. This is huge when considering what to charge to to reach a destination. It seems that it is faster and more efficient to stay low on the SOC and charge just enough to reach your next charger and not over charge as it becomes inefficient when you get into the 55% and above SOC of the Kona.
Those rates are outside air temp of about 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
All in all it was a fun trip and we are just helping prove the point that EVs are ready for prime time and totally viable for road trips with todays infrastructure. Although more chargers would make trips even faster for diagonal cross county travel in the US.
Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
