We have now been driving an EV since 2019 when we got our little Nissan LEAF, so we have 6 years of EV experience! Hard to believe… I looked back and realized I haven’t done an annual recap since 2022, so it’s time! In this post, I’ll look at miles traveled, gas $ saved and pounds of carbon saved. In 2023, Scott drove the LEAF for 1/2 the year and the Ariya for the other half. I’ve been driving the Ioniq since 2022. So 2024, is the first year that we drove both the bigger EV SUV’s for a whole year. I won’t repeat everything I wrote last June when I reviewed our cars and what it’s been like to be an all EV family for 2 years (now over 2.5). Here’s the link to that post: https://rhondaashurst.com/2024/06/25/looking-back-on-going-all-ev-two-years-later/. I will give some updates on things that have changed since the June post.

Here’s the data:

Annually, we average about 16,000 miles between our two EV’s, saving about $3,000 in gas, and keeping about 13,000 pounds of carbon from entering our atmosphere. Right now we are still on free maintenance, so there is no additional savings from that, as the comparable ICE (internal combustion engine) cars would also still have free maintenance. In the future, we expect to save additional money every year on repairs and maintenance of the EV’s over their comparable ICE’s.

Driving EV’s that are powered by the solar on our roof is the way we save the most money and carbon. We use about 4 megawatts per year of electricity at home to charge our EV’s. Essentially, we drive free on the Nevada sunshine! Plus they are way fun to drive! We love not going to gas stations. People ask how long it takes us to charge our cars and we say about 1 minute: 30 seconds to plug in and 30 seconds to unplug. The charging happens while the cars are just sitting in our garage. Of course, it’s different when we are on the road, which I’ll talk more about below. We take about 3-4 road trips a year that require us to charge on the road, so that is a minor part of our charging experience.

One change has happened to our home charging routine–my Ioniq has decided it doesn’t like our Level 2 charger that is part of our solar inverter. It keeps shutting down the charging session, thinking it is overheating. We have tried it on our neighbor’s Level 2 charger which is on a 220-volt outlet and it works fine, so we know it is an issue with our particular charger. What we decided to do was use the 110 charger that came with the car and set it up on its own outlet. It turns out this works much better for us, because I no longer have to drag the charging cable from the solar inverter around both cars to the back of my car to charge. All I do is grab my charger conveniently located right next to my charging port (thank you Scott) and plug it in. Scott no longer has to unplug my car and drag the cable out of the way in order to get his car out of the garage. Then he would plug my car back in and do it all again when he came home. A pain in the butt! It does take longer to charge my car, so I tend to plug in at around 30-40% for a couple of nights and charge it back up to 80%. I probably do this about once a week, so no big deal. Since the car is just sitting in the garage anyway, it might as well be plugged in. At least it works consistently now and is much more convenient. I do have to pre-plan for a long road trip as it takes a few nights to bring it up to 90-100%. Scott now gets the Level 2 charger to himself and uses it about once every 9-10 days to bring the Ariya up from 20% to 80%. He drives his car less than I do, since I make a few trips across town every week to care for my mother. Another advantage of this new charging system is that we can both charge simultaneously if we need to.

Pro-tip: If you don’t drive a lot of miles (under 40) for a commute every day, a Level 1 (110-volt) charger will work fine for at-home charging. You don’t have to have a Level 2 unless you need that for your commute.

This year I also kept track of all the electricity that went into our cars and we used about 5 megawatts, 4 at home and 1 on the road. Dividing this by our total miles driven, I calculated we average about 3 miles per kWh. This is less than our little LEAF which got 3.7 miles/kWh. It makes sense that these larger and heavier vehicles would get less miles/kWh.

Road Tripping

I have written a few posts on road tripping in our EV’s in the past:

https://rhondaashurst.com/2024/01/23/road-tripping-in-the-ariya/

https://rhondaashurst.com/2023/01/24/road-trip-to-la-selva/

https://rhondaashurst.com/2023/05/09/taking-the-ioniq-into-the-boonies/

Those posts share more about how doing a road trip in an EV works and tips on figuring out how much of a charge you need to get where you are going (pro tip: your EV will tell you it can go farther than it really can on a road trip). In general, we use the Electrify America network and have not had problems with finding available and working chargers. Our travels are all in California so far, which has an extensive charging network along major highways. On average we spend about 30 minutes on a Level 3 charger after driving 100-150 miles. We tend to plan our charging stops around our needs and not the car’s.

During that time, we eat lunch, take walks and use the bathroom. We’ve noticed that we feel a lot better when we reach our destination because we take longer breaks and walk more.

In this post, I’d like to share our experience of paying for Electrify America charging now that our free charging has come to an end. I’ll also compare that against what we would pay for gas if we were driving the Tucson instead of the Ioniq. Here is the data:

As you can see, we save a significant amount of money driving the EV’s, but this is mostly due to the fact that we charge at home before we leave and at my aunt and uncle’s when we arrive. We don’t pay for that electricity, so that makes a big difference.

Just for kicks I calculated what it would cost on the Electrify America network if we had to pay for all the electricity we use on a road trip. It takes about 200 kWh to do the trip in the summer and 224 kWh in the winter. This is because of using heat and lower battery performance in the winter. Electrify America currently charges $.56/kWh in California. So it would cost $112 in the summer and $125 in the winter. Looking at the table, you would about break even in summer and in winter you would pay more than you would for gas. This was not always the case, when the rate was $.43/kWh, but as it has increased, the costs of driving an EV on the road are now comparable to driving an ICE if you have to pay for all your charging.

NOTE: I did deduct the money we paid to Electrify America from the gas savings in the first table.

Overall, we are loving our EV’s and don’t miss driving gas cars at all! They are much quieter, more fun, and it gives us peace of mind that we aren’t emitting any more carbon into the atmosphere. They are also significantly cheaper to drive when you generate your own electricity. But even if you don’t, the 4000 kWh we put in our cars at home would have cost around $500 at 12 cents per kWh from NV Energy. That’s still a savings of $2500 a year driving EV’s.

We are looking forward to being able to charge on the Tesla network, hopefully in the next few months, so stay tuned for an update on that adventure!

We were on a road trip recently and realized that we were near our car’s anniversaries, which led us to reflect on what we think of them after 2 years with the Ioniq and 1 year with the Ariya (preceded by 4 years with the Nissan Leaf). We still love our cars and are thrilled to be driving all-electric vehicles, which are charged off the solar panels on our roof (unless we are charging on the road). Neither of us miss going to gas stations! Both cars are comfortable, fun to drive, have solid safety features, handle well in the snow, offer tons of cargo space, and look really cool! They offer all the features that we like in our cars, though we have found that each car has its advantages in certain areas.

You can look at the past posts in the Driving EV’s theme to see more about the features of our cars and why we chose them, plus what it’s like to go on road trips. Bottom line on road trips is that they work just as well for us as a gas car and we haven’t had any significant problems with charging them. We occasionally have to wait a few minutes for a charger and have had a few minor problems with charging, but never have we been seriously inconvenienced. I should mention that we tend to travel at off times, so we are charging usually in mid-morning/mid-afternoon on weekdays. We have learned that our range for how long we can sit in a car is shorter than the cars’ range before needing a charge! One positive is that it does take a little longer to charge an EV than to get gas, so we walk more, which has actually made road trips healthier for us.

The vast majority of our driving is done around the Reno area and we charge on a Level 2 charger in our garage. Our cable is long enough to reach both cars and we’ve not had any problems with coordinating our charges. Most of our driving is done solo or just the two of us, but occasionally we take others with us. We find that our passengers are comfortable in the back and we’ve spent some time there too. Generally, people prefer the Ioniq’s more spacious back seats that also recline slightly. But the HVAC system is better in the back of the Ariya. I am my mom’s primary driver and she really likes the adjustable passenger seat in the Ioniq. (The Ariya also has that feature.)

Scott still prefers his Ariya and I prefer my Ioniq, so we know we made the right choices! However, we’ve both decided that the Ioniq is the better road car. The driver assist system is superior for mountain driving in the Ioniq and it can take a faster charge while on the road. It also has the more comfortable and cushy ride. But the Ariya is no slouch and is a better choice if we are planning any off roading or need higher clearance. We tend to take the Ariya on shorter, local road trips within a 150-mile radius, and the Ioniq on our longer highway trips over mountain passes.

Service Experiences

We have been pleased with the service through our local Hyundai and Nissan dealers for both cars. We have knowledgeable service techs who have been able to keep our cars running smoothly. We are still on free service for one more year with both cars (3 years with Hyundai and 2 with Nissan). The Ioniq came with the longer service period and longer warranty (5 vs. 3 years). So far the Ioniq has been serviced 7 times in 2 years–4 for recalls/repairs and 3 for regular 5,000-mile services. I expected that there would be recalls and repairs given that this is Hyundai’s first Ioniq EV to come out. Most of the work involves updates to the car’s software systems. I have had problems with a noisy rear hatch, which has been remedied with a cushioning system. I’ve also had problems with the ICCU that controls the 12-volt battery charging system. Recently, my 12-volt battery died and the car had to be towed to the dealer for a recall repair and a new battery. They had it back to me by the next day and offered me a loaner car, but I didn’t need it. I must say it was fascinating to watch the car being towed using a very clever dolly system, which simply lifted it up and carried it off out of my mother’s garage (good place for it to happen!). I also had problems with the car turning off the Level 2 charger due to an overly sensitive heat sensor, fortunately we found a fix for that and it never recurred. Regular services are easy on EV’s and I usually have the car back in a few hours.

Scott has only had to take the Ariya in for one recall for an over-active sensor that could have caused the car to stop suddenly. It was a software update and fortunately it was done before any sudden stops! He recently had his first regular service at 7500 miles and all they did was check the car and rotate the tires.

Would We Do It Again?

Rhonda–Absolutely! I love my Ioniq 5! Still my favorite car I’ve ever driven and I hope she’ll be with me for a long time. I’m also the primary driver for my mother, so I’m glad that my multiple trips across Reno are emissions free and powered by Nevada sunshine.

Scott–If I was making the purchase decision now, I’d buy a Prius Prime Plug-In. I like the looks of this car and it is the greenest car produced in 2024, because of its smaller battery (less heavy metal mining). Given that I’m just driving it around town, I’d probably never use gas. I really like the Ariya and I have no issues with range anxiety, but my main goal was to reduce my carbon footprint, so the Prius Prime would be a better choice today. Plus, it is less expensive with an MSRP of $39,000 for a Premium trim level. This combo would make sense for us as a retired couple-no need to have 2 larger AWD EV’s. However, if I was single and this was my only car, I’d stick with the Ariya for its AWD and cargo space.

R&S–We have loved going all EV and utilizing the benefits of the solar we produce to power our transportation needs. It feels great knowing we no longer emit carbon when we’re driving!

We’ve had the Ariya for about 7 months now. What a great car! We are enjoying getting to know her and wanted to share what we have learned. We’ve been on 7 road trips so far and find that the Ariya is comfortable, dependable, versatile and solid. She handles well in the snow and has higher clearance and a stiffer suspension for off-roading than the Ioniq. The downside of this is that on the highway, the ride is rougher. The Ariya has a larger battery by about 20%, so it as a longer range, which is handy if you have longer gaps between charging stations. The cargo space is a little smaller than the Ioniq, but not much.

Here’s what it looks like when we load up most of our house and go to a rental place:

Charging

The Ariya comes with the EVgo network. Scott tried for a few months to test it out at the station in Reno, but it was never operational. On the road, we have found that EVgo doesn’t have as many fast charging stations as Electrify America, and seems to have more problems with down units. We did find a 350 kW charger in Citrus Heights, CA that we used in November and it worked just as well as Electrify America. Most of the time we use the Electrify America network that we get free with the Ioniq (works for both cars). We’ve had good luck with charging overall, only having to wait a couple of times. But we don’t typically travel at busy times, so that helps. We had one recent incident where for some reason the charger and the app were not communicating and we had to use a credit card. It stopped after a few minutes and we had to restart it again, but then it worked fine. Most of the time, we are charged up and ready to go within 30 minutes. We take that time to stretch our legs, use the bathroom and check our messages; sometimes we check out other people’s EV’s!

When it comes to charging, the only thing we find irritating about the Ariya is that it locks the charger onto the car and sometimes doesn’t want to let go. You have to press lock and unlock on the FOB sometimes more than once to release the cable. It also doesn’t charge as quickly as the Ioniq, but this is compensated for by its larger battery.

Overall, we have not had any problems with charging the Ariya (or the Ioniq) especially using the Electrify America network. We are lucky to have a lot of working stations on the routes we typically drive through northern California. But, the vast majority of the time, we are driving only in the Reno area and are charging at home off our solar panels.

Range

People are always asking us about the range of our cars. That’s an interesting question. It depends on a number of factors: how low you are comfortable going before recharging the battery; your driving style (more aggressive and fast driving uses more power); load (how many passengers, cargo, pulling a trailer); road conditions (flat, downhill, uphill, in-town vs. highway); outside temperature (colder temps decrease battery performance); use of climate control (heat uses more than A/C). EV’s are a different than gas cars in that they use more power on the highway and less in town, due to regenerative braking. This can be a challenge in figuring out how far your EV can go on a road trip, because it’s going to need more power than it uses at home. In general our cars can go from 175-200 miles, leaving us about 15-20% in the battery (our comfort zone). But, here’s the truth, we can only go about 150 miles before we have to get out! So we always say, our range is 150, which is less than our car’s! We plan our road trips around our needs, not the cars.

NOTE: The range quoted by manufacturers includes a mix of city and highway driving, so it will always be higher than you can actually go on a road trip. The EPA estimated combined range on our Ariya is 267 miles. But that would be draining the battery to 0%, which no sane person would ever do! Remember the 267 includes some city driving, so our 200 mile estimate in the table below is more accurate, leaving about 20% in the battery when you reach your destination. This is important if you have any question about finding a charger.

We have found it helpful to keep a road trip charging log so we can figure out how many miles we can actually go per % charge we have in the battery. Here’s the Ariya’s log so far for its first year:

At the top of the log, you will see that we have built a table based on the Ariya’s average miles per % in the battery (2.5%/mile), so we know how much of a charge we need to go a certain distance. This is a very helpful thing to know and can be difficult to figure out unless you have a log like this to tell you your average miles per %. For some reason, EV’s show you the mile per kWh which doesn’t really help you on the road. We have noticed that when we are going uphill in cold weather, we use about 25% more energy, so we need more of a charge to pull mountain passes, especially when it’s cold (see Citrus Hts-Reno and Vacaville-Truckee).

You can also see the difference between what it costs to charge the car with electricity vs. what the comparable ICE (Nissan Murano) would have cost in gas. In the three trips where we tracked this difference, there was over $200 savings! (NOTE: We actually didn’t pay for this charging, since we still have free charging for our cars. The only exception was when we had to pay by credit card in Truckee in January.)

Using Highway Driving Assist Systems

The highway driving assist system in the Ariya (ProPILOT 2.0) does a great job on regular highways of lane-keeping, lane changing, smart cruise control (adjusts speed to car in front of you), and allowing some moments of handfree driving (great for stretching your hands and wrists to prevent fatigue). It won’t let you keep your hands off for too long before it alerts you. The Ariya also watches to make sure your eyes are on the road and will alert you when your attention wanders. The Ioniq doesn’t have this feature, but does have all the other features in its HDA 2 system. What we prefer in the Ioniq is that it allows us better control on curvy mountain roads, like I-80. The Ariya tends to slow down, sometimes drastically, going into a curve and we have not been successful in finding a setting that will turn off this feature. The Ioniq does allow us to change this setting so it doesn’t do automatic braking going into a curve, allowing us to control the speed more fluidly. Because of this issue, we have given up on using ProPILOT in the Ariya while driving on mountain roads. Unfortunately, most of our long road trips include this kind of driving.

Future Road Trips

After 7 months with the Ariya and 18 months with the Ioniq, we decided we prefer the Ioniq for longer road trips, particularly those involving mountain passes. The Ioniq has the smoother ride and the better highway driving assist system, plus it charges faster. The Ariya we use for trips around our local area, like going to Graeagle, Lake Tahoe, Carson and Topaz. If we had a trip where we were planning more off-roading, we would definitely take the Ariya. We would also use it for a trip where we had more gaps between charging stations and needed the longer range. Scott prefers the seating and cabin in his Ariya for everyday use, but on a longer road trip he’s decided he would take the Ioniq. Both cars are a great drive overall and we recommend them to anyone interested in owning a quality EV SUV.

The Ariya Completes the Mother of All Road Trips!

An EV adventure couple just completed their Pole-to-Pole road trip in a modified Nissan Ariya! Yes, that is from the North to the South Pole–a trip of over 30,000 kilometers! Read about it here:

https://www.thenissannext.com/en/PoletoPole.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/15/electric-car-north-to-south-pole-drive/

Or watch the video:

We traded in our sweet 2016 Nissan LEAF for Scott’s new Nissan Ariya in June after over four years of service. BeeBee, as we called her, was such a cute car and the perfect introduction to driving EV’s. It’s always bittersweet and nostalgic to look back on the life of an old car that’s moved on.

When we bought her used in 2019, we had just installed solar panels and realized how much excess electricity we were producing. We decided it was time to take the plunge and buy an EV. We’d just bought a Toyota Highlander Hybrid for Scott to replace his old 4 Runner, so we didn’t want to spend a lot of money. As luck would have it, 2016-17 LEAF’s coming off leases were incredibly cheap at the time. We saved $6,500 buying her over what it would have cost to buy a 2016 Nissan Juke in 2019 (the comparable gas car to the LEAF). Nissan had released the next generation battery with over 150 miles range and no one wanted the old technology anymore. She only had 23,000 miles on her and was in great condition with all 10 bars of her battery life remaining. In the beginning, she could go over 100 miles on a charge.

We fell in love with her zippy speed and cozy interior. We especially loved the heated seats and steering wheel in the winter. She was mostly my car, though we often shared her to save on gas in the Highlander. She was a very reliable car and an easy keeper. We saved a lot of money on repairs and maintenance over my old Subaru Forester, not to mention all the gas savings (see below).

This year her battery lost another bar, down to 7 out of 10 and her range was closer to 80 miles (60 realistically). Scott was needing a car that could go out of the valley if necessary, so it was time to move BeeBee along to a new home. Nissan gave us a good trade-in price for her and one of the employees there ended up buying her. We hope she’ll introduce a new family to the joys of driving EV’s.

Thank you BeeBee for 4 years of fun zipping around town in you, and for helping us get over the EV hump! We’ll miss you!

For the first half of 2023, we drove 1944 miles in the LEAF and saved $318 in gas over what the Juke would have used.

Over the course of her 4+ years with us, BeeBee saved us over $10,000! That’s pretty awesome when you think about it. $6,400 of that savings was from not paying for gas and in the savings of repairs and maintenance over what it would have cost for the comparable gas car. We also saved a lot of money on buying the LEAF ($6,500 over the Juke in 2019), but we gave some of it back on the trade-in ($2,500 less than the Juke in 2023). Still our total savings purchasing the LEAF was $4,000 over the Juke. We also saved about 18,000 tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere by driving the LEAF instead of the Juke.

If you’re thinking about trying an EV, going with an older model that still has life in it is a smart move. As technology moves on, they sell at discounts and then they save you a bunch of money too, not to mention the carbon you don’t put in the atmosphere.