My last internal combustion engine died on me, and I bought a new car. That was the plan all along – I wanted to keep my convertible as long as possible for I really enjoyed driving with the roof down, and get an electric car as a replacement– but the engine failure came as a surprise.
In a sense, it came at just about the right time. I don’t have a garage, so I need to rely on the public charging infrastructure. I decided to buy a Ioniq 5, for its has an intriguing design, a very decent range (300 miles), and it has fast charging capabilities, an interesting feature when fast charger are starting to materialize all over California. The best thing is that I get 2 years of free charging – so I drive essentially for free.
Charging my car at night feels very Blade Runner
Experience
I really enjoy driving that car – it is so smooth, and almost drives itself. Since I work on the hills of Berkeley, it has also quite a bit of oomph that makes the hills feel like a gentle rollercoaster, and it’s very silent, ideal to listen to music.
Dealing with an electric care means dealing with limited energy option, so you need to look carefully for charging station. My car goes from 30% to 80% in about 20 minutes, at a station that is pretty close to my place, and it’s quite convenient. Something I didn’t fully appreciate beforehand is the fact that when you rely on public charging, the effective range of the car is half of that is on the tag, because you never want to go below 30%, and fast charging isn’t very good about 80%. My effective range is thus 150 miles, which is quite decent, though I drive that amount in three days when I’m going to work (25 miles both ways.)The cost of the car is also quite low: I lease it for $250/month, which is probably less than what I was spending on gas (typically $150/month already) and for my previous car, not event accounting for gas.It’s only been a week, but I’m pretty happy about the shift – it does feel like the future is coming