We decided it was time to post reviews on our EV’s for a wider audience now that we have driven them for a few years. Here are the links to our reviews…
2022 Ioniq 5:
https://www.myevreview.com/review/hyundai/ioniq-5-2021-2024/best-car-i-ve-ever-had
2023 Nissan Ariya:
Below is the text of the reviews.
2022 Ioniq 5 Limited AWD
Best car I’ve ever had!
Pros:
- Driving free on Nevada sunshine off our rooftop solar
- No more gas stations! Charging takes about 1 minute–30 seconds to plug in and 30 seconds to unplug. The charging happens in our garage.
- This car saves me $1500-$2000 and 7000 pounds of carbon per year over its comparable ICE car-the Hyundai Tucson.
- Vehicle-to-load capability. There is a 110-volt plug in the back that we can use to plug in appliances, like our garage refrigerator, if we lose power for an extended period. This car also has the ability to be plugged into a bi-directional solar inverter/charger to power our whole house. We would consider this if our grid becomes unstable.
- Power and handling-great on turns, ease of passing and getting on freeways, smooth and quiet ride.
- Good in the snow, AWD works great
- The anti-collision system which has saved me from accidents on more than one occasion. It will actually perform evasive maneuvers and apply the brakes-amazing!
- Heated and ventilated front seats and heated steering wheel
- Highway Driving Assist system is very good, even on curvy mountain roads. We use this as our road trip car.
- Large battery gives us about 200-mile range on the road with 20% battery remaining, but our personal max is about 150 miles! Range is closer to 275 in town with regenerative braking.
- Fast charging rate on superchargers. Free adaptor to charge on Tesla network. Works well, but charging port is in wrong location without extended cables. We prefer Electrify America stations, which are also faster than Tesla.
- Spacious car with a luxury feel to it at this trim level. Passengers in the rear say it feels like a limo and love the large pano roof! We love that the pano has a cover to cut down on glare and heat when the sun is high. We like the light grey leatherette seats, which stay cooler in summer.
- Fun and unique design. I love the blend of white, silver and black on the body. The rims are really cool! This car was designed from the ground up to be an EV. Hyundai used its 7-seat wheelbase, which makes this car feel very spacious. Big windows with good visibility and light. Pixel design used throughout including the headlights, gives it an 80’s retro style.
- Lots of cargo space with the rear seats down.
- Nice, low, two-paneled screen design—not in your face like a Tesla. Heads-up display helps keep my eyes on the road.
- Great backup camera shows you direction you are heading. I also love the overview, 3-D rendering of the car in the screen that I can rotate with my finger in all directions and see exactly where the car is while parking.
- It has controls for the most-used features on the dash and in the steering wheel, so everything is not embedded in the touchscreen. Easier to access while driving.
- Adjustable front seats go to zero gravity and driver’s seat has a foot recliner as well.
- Three levels of regenerative braking allow driver to choose the level they like. For example, I use level 3 for in town and level 1 for road trips. Regenerative braking both generates power for the car and reduces wear and tear on the brakes. It also helps with braking going down mountain passes, so you hardly use the brakes.
- Great Bose sound system
- Nice lighting inside and out-love the blue lights inside!
Cons:
- No heated rear seats
- Problems with charging on our Level 2 solar inverter/charger, so we use a 110 outlet (Level 1) instead. This requires a little more prior planning but is accomplished easily while the car is parked in the garage. Given where the car is parked in the garage, it is actually more convenient to use the 110 outlet.
- Charging access port is difficult to open—it’s automatic, but you have to press hard. It can be opened with the key FOB. The Level 3 charge port has a plug cover that can be hard to open. It does have a cute pixelated display that shows you how much charge the car has.
- ICCU controller issues that have resulted in a few recalls. 12-volt batteries don’t last very long. Got stranded once in my mother’s garage-interesting towing adventure! Now we keep a smart battery jump starter for jumping the car in the back, in case the 12-volt dies, which it did again recently… This is our 2nd 12-volt battery in 4 years.
- EV’s chew through tires faster than ICE’s and the tires are more expensive, but this will ultimately be offset by the lower maintenance costs.
- Having to brake to shift from reverse to forward gear.
- Apple CarPlay requires you to plug in your iPhone manually.
- No rear window wiper. Not too bad in our high desert climate, but a bummer on mountain passes in snowstorms or in heavy rainstorms.
- Noisy rear hatch, especially in winter. Fix is hokey at best, but better than it was before.
- Rear passenger doors require a firm shove to close securely.
Story:
I’m in love with this car! It is my favorite car ever and a true joy to drive—fast and responsive. Of course, my favorite thing about it is that we drive free on Nevada sunshine, thanks to the solar panels on our roof, and emit zero harmful emissions. I love guilt-free driving and saving $1500-$2000 per year over an ICE car!
The Ioniq is spacious, comfortable and the Limited trim makes it feel like a luxury car. It has a helpful Highway Driving Assist system that makes road and freeway trips easier, especially on my chronic forearm tendonitis. I can take my hands off the wheel and roll and stretch my wrists, which really saves me on longer drives. I also like the regenerative braking which makes braking smoother, puts power back in the battery and doesn’t wear out your brakes.
The Ioniq 5 is capable of ultra-fast charging and can go from 20%-80% in 20 minutes on a 350 kW DC fast charger. This car can go comfortably 200 miles on a charge, leaving us with about 20 percent left in the battery. But we can’t last that long! What we have found is that our range in our 60’s is about 150 miles. After that, we need a break. We usually stop for about 30 minutes when we charge so we can take a walk and stretch, eat, and use the bathroom. Driving EV’s has actually made road trips more pleasant because we don’t keep trying to push on or only take a 10-minute gas station break. We arrive at our destination more rested and feel better. We have driven this car into a remote area in northern CA and have not had trouble finding charging stations along the way. We often use the car’s Level 1 cable to charge wherever we are staying.
In the past, I drove older cars with 100,000+ miles on them and no extra features. Driving this car is a real treat with all its bells and whistles and helpful systems (see the Pros above). It literally saved my mom and me when I missed a car coming across a roundabout in front of us, and the Ioniq turned the wheel and slammed on the brakes before I could react.
We bought our Ioniq in summer of 2022 after it swept the world car awards that year in its category. It has won multiple awards, and it deserves them all. We wanted to support Hyundai’s ingenuity in designing this unique and beautiful car, and its commitment to greening its product line. We didn’t even look at anything else. Now, after 4 years and 35,000 miles, we would do it all over again! I hope I can drive this car another 15+ years!
2023 Nissan Ariya Platinum AWD
Nissan surpasses its standards with the Big Brother of the LEAF
Pros:
- Driving free on Nevada sunshine off our rooftop solar
- No more gas stations! Charging takes about 1 minute–30 seconds to plug in and 30 seconds to unplug. The charging happens in our garage.
- This car saves me $1500-$2000 and 7000 pounds of carbon per year over its comparable ICE car-the Nissan Murano.
- Came with a high-end charging cable capable of 110 and 220 charging (level 1 & 2)
- Power and handling-great on turns, ease of passing and getting on freeways, quiet ride.
- Good in the snow, AWD works great
- Heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, and heated steering wheel
- Higher clearance for off roading
- Beautiful blue Nappa leather seats and blue suede dash. Car feels like a luxury car at this trim level. Seats feel like they wrap around me just right and are very comfortable.
- Love the faux wood-grain trim that integrates haptic, touch-sensitive climate controls below the touch screen.
- Nice, low, two-paneled screen design—not in your face like a Tesla
- Good heads-up display, easy to read.
- Rearview mirror can switch to using the back camera, which is great when the car is full to the roof with our stuff!
- Wireless Apple CarPlay-ability to access iPhone via Siri
- Nice lighting inside and out
- Great Bose sound system
- Beautiful pano roof with a sunroof in front half. We love that the pano has a cover to cut down on glare and heat when the sun is high.
- The small hidden glovebox for valuables
- Large battery gives us about 225-mile range on the road, but our personal max is about 150 miles! Range is closer to 300 in town with regenerative braking.
- Plenty of cargo space, especially with the rear seats down.
- Solid car with little maintenance and only one recall so far.
- Easy to charge and we like the manual access door.
- Ability to shift from reverse to forward drive without braking, but we wish the forward gear was a push forward and reverse was a push back. This would make more intuitive sense.
- E-Step brake works well for going down mountain passes. We hardly have to use the brakes. Regenerative braking both generates power for the car and reduces wear and tear on the brakes. In town, we use the B drive option which has a lighter touch of braking than the E-Step.
- Normal door handles, not pop-outs. I like that it locks and unlocks by touch on all doors.
Cons:
- Stiffer suspension makes the ride a little rough.
- Highway Driving Assist system (ProPILOT Assist 2.0) is quirky and beeps a lot which is annoying. We could never figure out how to stop it from slowing excessively into curves on mountain freeways. Hence, we don’t use it for our longer road trips. The eyes forward alert can be especially annoying, particularly when looking into curves.
- Slow Level 3 charge rate.
- Navigating the menus on the left screen with the steering wheel buttons and roller can be challenging and irritating.
- EV’s chew through tires faster than ICE’s and the tires are more expensive, but this will ultimately be offset by the lower maintenance costs.
- Too much shiny black on the exterior for my taste. I wish it had come in a silver color.
Story:
I bought the Ariya in 2023 to replace our Nissan LEAF. It was a 2016 and its range was shrinking, so we decided it was time for a newer EV with a bigger battery. The Platinum Ariya is AWD and has an 87-kWh battery which can easily take us 225 miles, leaving 20% in the battery. This car is a joy to drive—fast, responsive and good around curves. I love the power and how easy it is to pass and merge on to the freeway. It’s also good in the snow and has been a very reliable car, with only one recall.
Of course, my favorite thing about it is that we drive free on Nevada sunshine, thanks to the solar panels on our roof, and emit zero harmful emissions. I love guilt-free driving and saving $1500-$2000 per year over an ICE car!
I chose Nissan because they are experienced in EV manufacturing, and they have done a beautiful job with this car. At this trim level, it is like driving a luxury car. The Nappa blue leather seats and suede dash are beautiful and unique. One of the things that sold me on the car was how well the driver’s seat fits me. Both front seats are completely adjustable and have just the right amount of wrap to make me feel secure. There are other nice touches like the faux wood-grain trim that integrates haptic, touch-sensitive climate controls. The hidden glove box that slides out with the touch of a haptic button is a great place to store valuables. The screens are low profile and have a nice, curved design to them. The lighting inside and outside is very cool. There is plenty of space for rear seat passengers and a good HVAC system in the back as well as the front. With the seats down there is plenty of cargo space. This is the car we take for local trips when we haul half our house with us to an Airbnb. That’s when we change the rearview mirror to use the rear backup camera instead of the mirror. This is a really handy feature when you can’t see out the back window!
I really enjoy driving this car. It is mostly used for around town driving, and I can go several days without charging. I estimate I could get 300 miles out of a 100% charge in town. After 3 years and 23,000 miles, I am pleased with choosing the Ariya and hope to drive it for many years to come.