Things must have changed. I usually average 700 miles in 10=12 hour day on these trips with 3 20 minute fuel stops. OH to CO or SC. Interstate or Open Road 90% of the way,
On the contrary, most of the people who have a Tesla and an ICEV will take the Tesla on road trips. Charging isn't as inconvenient as most non-EV drivers think it is, and Autopilot/FSD makes the long stretches on the Interstate WAY more enjoyable.
The F-150 hybrid seems to be VERY popular in your cohort.
Well, enough EVs are selling now that in another 5-10 years, maybe less, you can do that with an EV. In fact, depending on what your daily driver needs are, there's plenty of old Leafs out there for "a few thousand dollars".
Nothing wrong with periodically balancing the pack. If you don't, the weaker cells will get even weaker, faster, possibly causing an early module failure.
Three twenty minute stops over 700 miles is very easy to handle in a modern EV and make that trip. Things have changed a lot in the past decade and a half.
Using EVTripPlanner.com, I plugged in Xenia, OH to Topeka, KS in a Tesla Model 3 Long Range, which is probably about your first day - 684 miles. It shows that as 10:35 driving time and 3 charging stops for a total of 1:08, so the "10 minutes behind" thing sounds about right.
They probably want it charges to 100% to ensure all the cells have equal voltage to help the battery management system.
Even here in BF Gallup, NM there are new charging stations going up.
EVs in general require so little maintenance, expect many fewer shops over time. I actually think many rural areas that are serviced by just a couple of small shops, may end up losing almost all local maintenance options due to the lack of demand.
EVs dont' need work.
You thought I was completely serious; right?
Please tell me that screw was the size of a bale of hay...
If it would, making it more efficient, wouldn't the manufacturers already done it?
Probably not. Those few drops of oil would eat into the companies profit margin.
I was conservative and stopped a bit early to charge, which necessitated a second stop close to the destination. The return trip should be easier.
What is the car's max charging rate? Does it precondition the battery when you're navigating to a fast charger and/or can you manually precondition?
That's what you get when the motor is torque-less and drowns out the tire noise.
85kW, if I recall correctly.
I believe the software is an E-GMP hand-me-down, so yes.
85 kW seems low. What is the vehicle? I routinely get around 215 from the 350 kW chargers at EA. I know temps can make a huge difference. Gotta admit, it's kind of annoying seeing a Chevy Bolt taking up the 350kW charger spots when they'd take the same time at the 150kW charger. Luckily I haven't needed to fast charge very often.
I think there is some confusion over the question that was asked. The battery capacity of my 2025 M3P is 82 kWh, while it charges at up to 250 kW.
I thought the same thing so I looked it up. He is correct that the max charge rate on the Niro is 85kW. Only matters on longer trips, of course, but I do wonder why it's so low.
Ah that's right, it's a Niro. I think a lot of times the people using the 'wrong' chargers are rentals and they have no idea. Ironically, the Niro is that car that got me down the rabbit hole of eventually getting the EV9. I still have a few gas-burners, although we've taken the EV on some fairly long trips without issue. Our biggest issue was putting too many miles on the car (25K in the first year!). I didn't realize how much we were driving the other cars, but I knew that we'd save a bundle with an EV. We have 8KW solar to feed it, and we've gone from 2-3x a week at the gas station to 1x every few weeks.
It automatically preconditions the battery.
If an early Leaf is a runabout and a Lucid Air is a dreadnought, I'd say a NiroEV would probably be a frigate.
Ouch! That's painful. Doesn't sound like a very good road tripper. I suspect that a lot of the anti-EV folks think all EVs are like that on trips.
That's too bad. It's so nice for it to all be integrated.
They tried, but they overdid it and their timing was horrific. Coming out of the pandemic, Hertz, and some others, bought large quantities of EV at pandemic peak prices.
FWIW, this is a low end car and 65kWh is where Tesla was a decade ago, so expectations should be calibrated appropriately.
The Tesla UI Just Works(tm). With this one, it took me a while to figure out that you're supposed to read stuff from the bottom up. Who does that? Oh right, the same bungholes who write AHEAD STOP BUS SCHOOL on roads...
Yeah. It is great for in town and out-and-back stuff that you can do on a single charge, and it will shine for low maintenance and relatively cheap charging rates, especially after we get whatever EV package our local utility offers.
No criticism from me. I appreciate hearing your experiences as I had no previous knowledge of the Niro. We need less expensive EVs so more people can learn about, and experience, them. I'd just like to see other car manufacturers do better with their software.
None taken!
As a software guy with... opinions on human factors/interface design... me too.
It's a Wind with the heat pump/heated steering wheel/heated rear seat options.
That's exactly why I asked! I went to the Kia sight and played around with configurations. I was surprised that the heat pump was optional. Clearly superior in an EV. Resistance heating required far too much power.
