My electric road trip with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 showed how EVs can help beat high gas prices, even with expensive quick chargers. The line of Avis rental car locations in New York City was full of Memorial Day weekend travelers wearing sunglasses and hats, dragging carry-ons behind them and winding backpacks over their shoulders. In the pickup area, employees turned their freshly cleaned SUVs into parking lots one after another, preparing for a long holiday drive from the city.
A friend and I headed to Upstate New York to escape the city's cacophony and spend the weekend around Lake George before hiking in the Adirondacks. Amtrak tickets sold out over the weekend, Metro North was impractical where we were going, and the price of the rental car was exorbitant. Even economical cars like the Chevrolet Spark and Toyota Corolla were either fully booked or ridiculously expensive. The cheapest car available is the EV and you can choose from two options: the Kia Niro EV or the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Oddly enough, they were sold for the same price, even though the whole generation was separated. The Ioniq 5 was a very easy pick, thanks to its faster charging speed and longer range.
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EVs would not be the first choice for every traveler. But I know that being around the block and finding a place to charge in the northeast isn't that troublesome. Plus, with the average gas price in New York hovering over $4.50 per gallon amid the ongoing conflict in Iran, I was relieved at the thought of avoiding gas stations altogether. I didn't expect to save a lot on refueling because I rely exclusively on public fast charging stations, which are much more expensive than plug-ins at home. But after more than 500 miles of driving, I was stunned by how much I saved by going to electricity.
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As we set out, I was reminded of how great Ioniq 5 is. It is one of our favorite cars here. The latest update, with a larger battery pack and a Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) port. The rental car is an older model with a CCS charging port, and a 77-kilowatt-hour battery capacity, and allowed an EPA range of 260 miles with AWD trim. It also lacked wireless Android Auto and used a USB-A port instead of USB-C, so I was forced to stop by the store and buy a USB-A cable to get the phone mirroring to work.
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It feels modern, my friends and I were impressed by its smoothness, comfortable ride and incredible charging speed. The Ioniq 5's 800-volt architecture, when connected to a 350 kilowatt fast charger, allows a 20% to 80% charge stop in just 10 minutes. Since it was a rental car, we did not bother to set a charge limit of 80%. But what stood out most was how little road travel would ultimately be compared to a gas crossover. Avis handed me the Ioniq 5 with a state of charge of 61% and an indicated range of about 190 miles. That gave us enough buffer to leave the city before we needed to stop, which was important because the charging rate would be pretty cheap as you venture outside NYC.
Our first charging stop was Evolve NY station, about 100 miles north of the city, near Catskill, at 350kW. I plugged in at 14%, charged 92% and paid $31 for $0.47 per kWh. It added enough scope to comfortably reach our Airbnb and drive to the trailhead the next morning. The trailhead was deep in the mountain and there was no cell service or a nearby charger, so we decided to top it up again as a precaution. Its second stop will cost another $20, taking the battery from 30% to 80% with a similar charging rate.
The third charging stop on the way back was enough to take us to the city. In total, the trip required only 560 charging stops with about 3 miles of driving. The raw charging math looked impressive. On those main charging sessions, I spent about $67. Before returning the car, I had to top it back to its starting state of charging and stop at the last at an expensive station near the city to avoid a penalty from Avis. That brought the total charge cost for the trip to about $80.
This is much less than what you pay to fuel a gas-powered crossover at the same distance recently. And it shows how rising gas prices are changing the math for EV ownership. Historically, the common wisdom has been that by using cheap household electricity and charging at home, we got the maximum cost-effectiveness of driving an EV. It is still true. But now relying solely on public charging infrastructure is also more economical than driving a petrol car.
At the average gas price last weekend in New York — $4.58 per gallon — you have to average about 32mpg to match the cost per mile of my trip with Ioniq 5 - a typical 25mpg SUV cost over $100 to drive the 560 miles I covered. Driving a hybrid sipping fuel rated at 40 mpg would cost me a little less than the EV did: $64. So, at the end of the day, the Ioniq 5 beat out both hybrid and combustion cars comparable to the total cost.
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Vehicle expenses, 3 days, 560 miles |
Hyundai Ioniq 5 |
Comparable hybrid crossover at 40 mpg ($4.58 per gallon) |
Comparable gas SUV at 25 mpg ($4.58 per gallon) |
|
Rental cost for 3 days |
$480 |
Ranging from $600 and up |
Ranging from $600 and up |
|
Tolls |
$60 |
$60 |
$60 |
|
Charging/Refueling |
$80 |
$64 |
$103 |
|
Total |
$620 |
More than $700 |
More than $750 |
I did not hypermile or meticulous route planning to save costs. We drove normally, used a public fast charger, overcharged the car several times, blew up the air conditioner, and treated Ioniq 5 like an ordinary road travel car. With powerful acceleration from the E-motors instant torque and buttery smooth and quiet cruising, the driving experience was also an order of magnitude better.
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