We own EVs. Ask Us Anything.

[nolen]

Unrelated to the current line of questioning (sorry).

My family just jumped aboard the EV train earlier than expected. With the federal tax credit going away, and some seriously massive incentives by manufacturers to move product before then, combined with the likelihood of tariffs and inflation driving up vehicle prices more over the next few years, we took the plunge.

We picked up our 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 yesterday. We got it for almost 25% off of MSRP. Enough of a discount that instead of paying a premium for an EV, it was actually a few thousand less than a similarly equipped Toyota Sienna/grand highlander.

Still pricy for my blood, but I’ve done the math 6 ways through Sunday, and even compared to used 3 row vehicle pricing, it’s not bad. We paid a few thousand more than the avg used 3 row vehicle with <60k miles on it. And the math shows that over 5 years, the “fueling” costs for the Ioniq 9 is between $6000 -$14000 cheaper if charging at home.

Anyway, we are still learning. But our PHEV experience was good enough we wanted a 3 row family vehicle. Although we did keep the PHEV for road trips for now. Maybe the scout will be a harvester for that purpose when it arrives. Or maybe we will be comfortable enough with EV’s by the time the scout comes out to get the BeV version. We will see.
View attachment 8906

View attachment 8907


These 2 vehicles are 29 model years apart!

I'm really torn on doing something similar. I have found a 2025 Honda Prologue 2WD EX that, if the online quote can be believed, would be $4999 down, $73/month to lease for 3 years, and 15k miles a year (I will probably drive ~20k). I think that plus charging and increased insurance costs comes out to ~$6500 more in 3 years than I would spend on gas a month with my current car, so if I had that much in maintenance and repairs I would be better off leasing the Honda. It is hard to decide which is the better bet. And with a potential government shutdown coming up, I don't know if I want to give up the $5k for the downpayment. But I'd hate to have my car die on me a year from now and not have any good options.

 

[Chuckles]

Okay I have another question. I had to go to an appointment in Chicago today and my husband drove the Supra. It was 100 miles to where we were going. Now between us and Chicago there’s long stretches where it’s just corn fields and no traffic and you look down and you are doing 90.

I keep hearing this 70 mph number for range. Let’s say you do go over that for a period of time how much does it affect your range?

How Does Speed Affect EV Range?
We took a blocky Kia EV9 and an aero-friendly Lucid Air to the test track at speeds between 35 and 95 mph to find out.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a65490029/how-does-speed-affect-ev-range-tested/

 

[Logan]

I'm really torn on doing something similar. I have found a 2025 Honda Prologue 2WD EX that, if the online quote can be believed, would be $4999 down, $73/month to lease for 3 years, and 15k miles a year (I will probably drive ~20k). I think that plus charging and increased insurance costs comes out to ~$6500 more in 3 years than I would spend on gas a month with my current car, so if I had that much in maintenance and repairs I would be better off leasing the Honda. It is hard to decide which is the better bet. And with a potential government shutdown coming up, I don't know if I want to give up the $5k for the downpayment. But I'd hate to have my car die on me a year from now and not have any good options.

Yeah, its a hard decision. Personally, I rely a lot on the math to soothe my indecision.

We purchased ours, simply because I believe that with the tax credit going away, and with many companies saying "the big incentives are going to disappear" (GM said that recently), that EV prices are going to go up. Both new, and used, as I think that the Tax Credit was actually one of the big drivers in EV depreciation so far. This is just because the EV's were almost never purchased at MSRP, so it was almost unfair to look at their depreciation compared to MSRP.

Also, the deals right now really are significant. FWIW, I got my Ioniq9 for the ~same as what I see used EV9's going for right now on Carvana. So if I can have brand new, for the same price as a used vehicle from a year or two ago, that also seems like a win to me, and another sign that once the tax credit is gone, prices for new, and used are likely to go up.

So, for the math, all of those things and more were included in the decision. The other half for us, was the "relative need". We really have been a 1.125 car family for the last 5 years, as I've worked from home all but like 2-3 days a year (it was wonderful ). There were only infrequent occasions 1-2x every 2 weeks or so where we'd have to be two places at once. So my old jeep was totally fine as the second vehicle. However, we're going to have to come into the office more in a few months, which changes things.

And while I love my Jeep, and it has actually been reliable (never left us stranded anywhere), its not the vehicle I would take on our long road trips anymore. Both for space/comfort, cost, and potential reliability reasons. So for us, it was really about having 2 reliable vehicles. I'm thrifty by nature, but I've reached the phase of life where I feel the expectation of reliability for my family has gone up compared to what it was when I bought the Jeep used, 16 years ago (and it was already ~12 years old then).

The Ioniq 9 is going to be capable of road tripping, as it does charge pretty fast (max rate of ~220-240kw, and a 10-80% charge time of ~24min). But we may still end up driving our Tucson PHEV to Utah and back next summer, simply because its still better at road tripping on those big long days. Although, maybe by then we'll prefer the extra space/features enough that we end up driving the newer/nicer vehicle. We will see.

 

[MountainDad]

I'm really torn on doing something similar. I have found a 2025 Honda Prologue 2WD EX that, if the online quote can be believed, would be $4999 down, $73/month to lease for 3 years, and 15k miles a year (I will probably drive ~20k). I think that plus charging and increased insurance costs comes out to ~$6500 more in 3 years than I would spend on gas a month with my current car, so if I had that much in maintenance and repairs I would be better off leasing the Honda. It is hard to decide which is the better bet. And with a potential government shutdown coming up, I don't know if I want to give up the $5k for the downpayment. But I'd hate to have my car die on me a year from now and not have any good options.

If you can install a L2 charger at home and use that rather than fast charging publicly, your payoff *may* be faster, but your running costs will always be lower. My home had capacity for a 50A L2 charger, which was $750; installation was an additional $1300 including running conduit from my breaker box which was already in the garage to the mounting location. This was not including federal and state tax incentives. We started with one 75kWh (usable) EV, which costs us about 6 cents per kWh to charge overnight once per week, typically from about 25% to 90%. We added a second EV which replaced a vehicle requiring premium fuel, with the same size battery. Now our install cost ROI is cut in half. We also charge that one once a week, whether we need to or not. Our EVs are daily driver/town cars.

We still have a large diesel SUV as the family Sherpa which costs about $3.50/gal before grocery points to fill up once per month, more often on occasion when we take road trips to the mountains. Diesel is cheap in Colorado. I have filled it for as little as $2.50/gal. I drive it 40 miles per week to work and back one day per week just to keep it going, and this is the vehicle a Scout Traveler Harvester would replace, mainly because the diesel offers effortless torque at 10,000+ feet in elevation for the Colorado Rockies where we spend a lot of our leisure time, but I would also daily drive it in pure EV mode.

 

[nolen]

If you can install a L2 charger at home and use that rather than fast charging publicly, your payoff *may* be faster, but your running costs will always be lower. My home had capacity for a 50A L2 charger, which was $750; installation was an additional $1300 including running conduit from my breaker box which was already in the garage to the mounting location. This was not including federal and state tax incentives. We started with one 75kWh (usable) EV, which costs us about 6 cents per kWh to charge overnight once per week, typically from about 25% to 90%. We added a second EV which replaced a vehicle requiring premium fuel, with the same size battery. Now our install cost ROI is cut in half. We also charge that one once a week, whether we need to or not. Our EVs are daily driver/town cars.

We still have a large diesel SUV as the family Sherpa which costs about $3.50/gal before grocery points to fill up once per month, more often on occasion when we take road trips to the mountains. Diesel is cheap in Colorado. I have filled it for as little as $2.50/gal. I drive it 40 miles per week to work and back one day per week just to keep it going, and this is the vehicle a Scout Traveler Harvester would replace, mainly because the diesel offers effortless torque at 10,000+ feet in elevation for the Colorado Rockies where we spend a lot of our leisure time, but I would also daily drive it in pure EV mode.

our power co-op has special time of day rates for EV charging (and a $50 credit on the first bill). I think I could hit the super off peak most of the time. I don't plan on fast charging often. We have chargers at work also which are 16 cents/kWh if I need them. Gas currently is about $2.80/gal here. My Flex gets 22mpg with my typical use and 24mpg on long trips.

Summer Energy Charges: April 16-October 15​
On-Peak Monday-Friday 1-6 p.m.	33.69¢ per on-peak kWh
Off-Peak All other times.	7.40¢ per off-peak kWh
Super Off-Peak 10 p.m. – 5 a.m. All days of the week, including weekends and the holidays designated below.	3.98¢ per super off-peak kWh

Winter Energy Charges: October 16 -April 15
On-Peak Monday-Friday 6-10 a.m.	26.42¢ per on-peak kWh
Off-Peak All other times.	7.40¢ per off-peak kWh
Super Off-Peak 10 p.m. – 5 a.m. All days of the week, including weekends and the holidays designated below.	3.98¢ per super off-peak kWh

​

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

Here is a question plaguing me. For those of you driving EV’s, what has been your insurance experience? When buying your first EV did you stay with your same carrier? Who was it? What are your experiences with finding coverage/paying premiums/filing claims while insuring your EV(s)?

Inquiring minds really want to know.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Here is a question plaguing me. For those of you driving EV’s, what has been your insurance experience? When buying your first EV did you stay with your same carrier? Who was it? What are your experiences with finding coverage/paying premiums/filing claims while insuring your EV(s)?

Inquiring minds really want to know.

When we got our Mustang, we had been a 1-car family for about six months. The cost wasn’t different enough to note from the gas car we’d sold. The cost of insurance going from the Tacoma to the Lightning went down slightly. We had no trouble getting coverage. We stayed with the same carrier—GEICO. We haven’t needed to file any claims.

Insurance costs seem to be so region, individual, vehicle etc dependent and the actuary tables have so many parameters that I wouldn’t want to suggest that you will have the same experience.

 

[Chaz26]

Here is a question plaguing me. For those of you driving EV’s, what has been your insurance experience? When buying your first EV did you stay with your same carrier? Who was it? What are your experiences with finding coverage/paying premiums/filing claims while insuring your EV(s)?

Inquiring minds really want to know.

I am with Progressive and was before I got my EV, premiums weren't too much higher. I did shop around a few places but couldn't find anywhere significantly cheaper. I haven't had any incidents in mine so no experience on filing claims.

 

[6-ScoutFamily]

I am with Progressive and was before I got my EV, premiums weren't too much higher. I did shop around a few places but couldn't find anywhere significantly cheaper. I haven't had any incidents in mine so no experience on filing claims.

That’s encouraging. I’m with Progressive at the moment too.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Some family friends just moved from our town to about an hour south of Chicago. They have one EV and one gas car. The EV is a Kia EV6 with approximately 300 miles range. The gas vehicle is an older Honda CRV.

They “raced” the approximately 1620 miles from northern Arizona to the Chicago suburbs. They left at the same time, but they didn’t stick together, didn’t stop at the same places, etc. Every night they stayed at the same hotel.

The pulled into the hotel within 10 minutes of each other every night. And arrived at their new home within 10 minutes of each other.

 

[Chaz26]

Some family friends just moved from our town to about an hour south of Chicago. They have one EV and one gas car. The EV is a Kia EV6 with approximately 300 miles range. The gas vehicle is an older Honda CRV.

They “raced” the approximately 1620 miles from northern Arizona to the Chicago suburbs. They left at the same time, but they didn’t stick together, didn’t stop at the same places, etc. Every night they stayed at the same hotel.

The pulled into the hotel within 10 minutes of each other every night. And arrived at their new home within 10 minutes of each other.

That doesn't surprise me, I beat my in laws on a trip from PA to the Outer Banks, NC doing that. I was in my Tesla Model 3 and they were in a BMW X3. We both stopped for lunch (different places) and I charged while we ate, same again for a quick rest stop whereas they had to fuel after their rest stop so I beat them there by just over 5 minutes.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

That doesn't surprise me, I beat my in laws on a trip from PA to the Outer Banks, NC doing that. I was in my Tesla Model 3 and they were in a BMW X3. We both stopped for lunch (different places) and I charged while we ate, same again for a quick rest stop whereas they had to fuel after their rest stop so I beat them there by just over 5 minutes.

Yeah. Those of us with experience driving EVs know we don’t really take longer to get to where we’re going. But there’s a myth about “the time to charge is so long” that it’s good to talk about the fact that EVs don’t necessarily take longer to get where you’re going.

 

[Chaz26]

Yeah. Those of us with experience driving EVs know we don’t really take longer to get to where we’re going. But there’s a myth about “the time to charge is so long” that it’s good to talk about the fact that EVs don’t necessarily take longer to get where you’re going.

I agree, and it's always when people compare just going as fast as possible where it obviously works out much slower. I'm sure if I drove my EV from here in PA out to Arizona and did it again in my gas car, the time it would take me would be fairly similar. Now if I just raced there as fast as possible, not really stopping to rest or eat, then the gas car would arrive hours ahead, but I certainly don't drive like that, and I don't know too many people who do, regardless of if they drive EV or ICE.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Hehe...

I…um…might have hit the accelerator pretty hard a few times in the last few days. More than a few times.

I usually drive it like a good kid. The nice thing is that you don’t have to drive it wildly. It does so many things well that driving it like a pickup is just as satisfying as driving it like a race car.

When a coal roller pulls up along side you, it’s part of the contract that you pass the next light before they’re out of the first intersection. And you’ll do it silently.

As a fellow motorcyclist, I’ll tell you that the acceleration on my bike feels nothing like the acceleration of my cage. The cage is far more thrilling for me. But also far easier to take it easy too. I haven’t ridden in more than two years.

A RAM TRX wanted to race me today. I don’t think they saw that I was towing a trailer with a gantry crane. No matter. The street was clear and I figured I’d go up to the speed limit and no higher. I don’t think they knew how to make the most of their 700 HP because I was first off the line, first to 40 mph, first to brake, and all without the drama and noise of the Warner Bros Tasmanian Devil.

 

[Logan]

I agree, and it's always when people compare just going as fast as possible where it obviously works out much slower. I'm sure if I drove my EV from here in PA out to Arizona and did it again in my gas car, the time it would take me would be fairly similar. Now if I just raced there as fast as possible, not really stopping to rest or eat, then the gas car would arrive hours ahead, but I certainly don't drive like that, and I don't know too many people who do, regardless of if they drive EV or ICE.

This is sadly how we drive our road trips. Just because if we stop for too long, it quickly goes from "this is manageable in a day" to "this should probably be a two day event", which then adds hotel costs, and a bunch of other stuff.

The last trip from Utah was 830 miles, with 3 stops, totaling 35min of stoppage time. Eat in the car, stop for bathrooms and gas. Otherwise, cruise.

We could make the Ioniq 9 work for road trips, but it would require changing the road trip mentality to include more stops for food (like fast food/eating out), to help make the other charging stops not feel like a burden (ie, if you're stopping for charging already, might as well eat). For the same trip, the betterrouteplanner estimates show somewhere between 1hr 15min of charging time, up to about 2hrs 30min of charging time (depending on the actual efficiency of the vehicle at 85mph with a bike on the back, driving across a desert in 100f heat ).

Manageable, and wayyyy better than it would be in a Chevy Bolt or 1st Gen Subaru Solterra (both verrrry slow charging). But I'm hoping the Scout, and other newer EV's can do better.

A RAM TRX wanted to race me today. I don’t think they saw that I was towing a trailer with a gantry crane. No matter. The street was clear and I figured I’d go up to the speed limit and no higher. I don’t think they knew how to make the most of their 700 HP because I was first off the line, first to 40 mph, first to brake, and all without the drama and noise of the Warner Bros Tasmanian Devil.

Our Ioniq 9 is not near that fast. We got the regular old peasant awd version. Its almost 6000lbs, and has ~303 HP, and 446lb ft of torque. Its not "slow", but its not "fast" either. I think the 0-60 is 6.7 seconds, so almost identical to our Tucson PHEV at full tilt (6.8 seconds).

I was legitimately concerned about the rwd version though, despite it being cheaper. It had only 201hp, and about 9 second or so 0-60 times. Thats less HP than my jeep came with from the factory almost 30 years ago, in a vehicle that weighs 2500lbs more.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

This is sadly how we drive our road trips. Just because if we stop for too long, it quickly goes from "this is manageable in a day" to "this should probably be a two day event", which then adds hotel costs, and a bunch of other stuff.

The last trip from Utah was 830 miles, with 3 stops, totaling 35min of stoppage time. Eat in the car, stop for bathrooms and gas. Otherwise, cruise.

We could make the Ioniq 9 work for road trips, but it would require changing the road trip mentality to include more stops for food (like fast food/eating out), to help make the other charging stops not feel like a burden (ie, if you're stopping for charging already, might as well eat). For the same trip, the betterrouteplanner estimates show somewhere between 1hr 15min of charging time, up to about 2hrs 30min of charging time (depending on the actual efficiency of the vehicle at 85mph with a bike on the back, driving across a desert in 100f heat ).

We often bring our own food, find a place to picnic and eat while charging. We’ve been doing this for more than 25 years, though, so it’s kind of just habit these days. We found it made us all less exhausted at the end of the trip.

ABRP is super conservative and doesn’t include overnight charging on L2 unless you purposefully plan it. I’ve found it’s inaccurate for all but the shortest drives (i.e., if you have more than one or two charge stops, it isn’t very accurate).

We do a twice-yearly drive to northern California. It’s about 950 miles (16 hours) one way. We’ve only twice ever tried to do it in a day. Once was successful and the other we ended up both being too tired to drive the last four hours. Those kinds of marathons are mostly behind us. Both of those attempts were with gas vehicles. I would feel more rested with the Lightning as our road trip vehicle: it’s easier to drive, the stops to charge break up the marathon and make it easier to do keep going.

But I know a lot of people don’t like to stop. I used to drive like that too. I’ve just found it’s so much more pleasant and I’m more ready to visit with family/friends when I arrive if I’ve taken the drive a little more calmly.

To be clear: I’m not trying to tell you to change your habits.

Manageable, and wayyyy better than it would be in a Chevy Bolt or 1st Gen Subaru Solterra (both verrrry slow charging). But I'm hoping the Scout, and other newer EV's can do better.

Yeah, most EVs with higher range charge much more rapidly than the Bolt, Solterra, etc. There are some weird decisions that those manufacturers made that I don’t understand. I think it’s to do with the thermal management system—probably didn’t want to spend much on it.

Our Ioniq 9 is not near that fast. We got the regular old peasant awd version. Its almost 6000lbs, and has ~303 HP, and 446lb ft of torque. Its not "slow", but its not "fast" either. I think the 0-60 is 6.7 seconds, so almost identical to our Tucson PHEV at full tilt (6.8 seconds).

I was legitimately concerned about the rwd version though, despite it being cheaper. It had only 201hp, and about 9 second or so 0-60 times. Thats less HP than my jeep came with from the factory almost 30 years ago, in a vehicle that weighs 2500lbs more.

Honestly, I’m a little bit worried about the Mustang’s acceleration. It’s not quite as quick as the Lightning. But we plan to give it to Spawn when we trade for the next vehicle and it’s too damned quick. I’ll need to get in there and adjust the top speed and the maximum acceleration.

 

[Logan]

We often bring our own food, find a place to picnic and eat while charging. We’ve been doing this for more than 25 years, though, so it’s kind of just habit these days. We found it made us all less exhausted at the end of the trip.

ABRP is super conservative and doesn’t include overnight charging on L2 unless you purposefully plan it. I’ve found it’s inaccurate for all but the shortest drives (i.e., if you have more than one or two charge stops, it isn’t very accurate).

We do a twice-yearly drive to northern California. It’s about 950 miles (16 hours) one way. We’ve only twice ever tried to do it in a day. Once was successful and the other we ended up both being too tired to drive the last four hours. Those kinds of marathons are mostly behind us. Both of those attempts were with gas vehicles. I would feel more rested with the Lightning as our road trip vehicle: it’s easier to drive, the stops to charge break up the marathon and make it easier to do keep going.

But I know a lot of people don’t like to stop. I used to drive like that too. I’ve just found it’s so much more pleasant and I’m more ready to visit with family/friends when I arrive if I’ve taken the drive a little more calmly.

To be clear: I’m not trying to tell you to change your habits.


Yeah, most EVs with higher range charge much more rapidly than the Bolt, Solterra, etc. There are some weird decisions that those manufacturers made that I don’t understand. I think it’s to do with the thermal management system—probably didn’t want to spend much on it.

Honestly, I’m a little bit worried about the Mustang’s acceleration. It’s not quite as quick as the Lightning. But we plan to give it to Spawn when we trade for the next vehicle and it’s too damned quick. I’ll need to get in there and adjust the top speed and the maximum acceleration.

To be honest, the way that power/acceleration has been "democratized", is sort of scary to me.
Its two things.

The fact that the parlor trick of EV's for the last decade has been insane acceleration (imo, it was a way to make it "cool").

Also, the gas engine has gotten... a lot better over the years. My dad is a muscle car guy (first car was a 65 Corvette convertible that he got from someone who crashed it racing, and rebuilt it when he was 18. Put something like 3-4 engines in it, etc). We have often remarked that the "muscle car days" are having a bit of a renaissance this last 10-15 years. It used to take a dedicated performance vehicle to crack a 0-60 time under about 6-7 seconds.

These days, every moms minivan can beat that. Heck, my buddies 4 cylinder crew cab/4wd silverado can get to 60mph in under 7 seconds. But its not so much those vehicles that scare me.

Its the Dodge Challenger/Charger Hellcats/Demons that will be interesting to see what happens to them. I can imagine a world where they depreciate a lot, and become the new "high school kid that loves cars" sort of car. EV's are the same way, just... sneakier .

And while there are amazing 18yr old drivers out there, statistically, I worry what will happen when many new drivers will have access to 700+ HP.

Thats actually one area that I think Kia/Hyundai has been doing well with. They've been "right sizing" the power output of their EV's IMO. While our Ioniq 9 isn't "fast", its not "slow" either. I'd actually say the 303hp/446lb ft of torque match it pretty well. No need for 1000hp on this thing, all I need to do is merge safely with a 2 lane highway from a surface street, and I'm good.

 

[J Alynn]

Some family friends just moved from our town to about an hour south of Chicago. They have one EV and one gas car. The EV is a Kia EV6 with approximately 300 miles range. The gas vehicle is an older Honda CRV.

They “raced” the approximately 1620 miles from northern Arizona to the Chicago suburbs. They left at the same time, but they didn’t stick together, didn’t stop at the same places, etc. Every night they stayed at the same hotel.

The pulled into the hotel within 10 minutes of each other every night. And arrived at their new home within 10 minutes of each other.

That’s funny but very telling and great to hear that

 

[J Alynn]

Yeah. Those of us with experience driving EVs know we don’t really take longer to get to where we’re going. But there’s a myth about “the time to charge is so long” that it’s good to talk about the fact that EVs don’t necessarily take longer to get where you’re going.

These stories are great. SM should post these types of stories

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

These stories are great. SM should post these types of stories

I mean, if they need someone to run a couple of 10,000 mile road trips in a pre-production vehicle, I’d be happy to do it. I’d even bring it back at the end of the trip.