In August of 2022, we purchased a Kia EV6, after my wife’s Subaru Impreza was stranded in Las Vegas after a road trip. After two trips back and forth between Idaho, we decided to sell it after dealership still hadn’t fixed a suspension problem that was causing the car to burn through tires and smoke at highway speeds. Shortly after, we moved back to Madison, Wisconsin and decided on an EV6 because my wife would be commuting 30 miles round trip to work each day. We had a garage and figured it would be a great time to jump on the EV bandwagon.
Honeymoon
We really liked the car at first. It was very fun to drive, super fast and had the perfect range for getting around town. It had lots of space for bikes, gear and our dog. We even took it on a few road trips, which required some planning but as doable. It was capable in the snow, had a lot of cool features and was generally a great car.
Personal Infrastructure
We had to install a 240V charger in our garage. This required a trench and some electrical work by a contractor for about a $1,000. After a few months, we started to notice a electrical burning smell in our house and had an electrician come out to inspect. We found that our 100-year old home’s panel wasn’t up to the task of handling the load of the EV charger and had to upgrade our panel. This cost about $5,000. It may be likely we would had to have done it in the future but the EV charger certainly accelerated the need. That said, it was great to be able to charge at home and not have to worry about finding a public charger.
I also bought a portable trickle charger that could be used on 120v circuits to slowly charge the car if we were in a pinch. This was nice when visiting family and friends who didn’t have a 240v charger, but it was very slow and not ideal for regular use. It adds about 4 miles per hour to the battery.
We also installed a 240v circuit and charger at the cabin to accomodate charing up north. The closest public charger is about 30 miles away.
Public Charging
Public charging is not totally a nightmare, but close. Seemingly every charger has a different app that you must make an account with and load money into before you can use it. Often times these chargers are out of order or occupied. Most of the time the apps are good about indicating which chargers are available, but it still requires a lot of planning just to charge when on the road. It’s really frustrating to have to setup a new app and account when it’s 10 F outside. Many chargers in our area are located in less than ideal locations, such as car dealerships and Walmarts. It means either waiting in the car, buying something from Walmart or walking on busy roads to get to a restaurant or store from a remote dealership lot.
We eventually bought a $500 adapter for our J1772 plug to be able to connect to Tesla’s Supercharger network, which provided more options when charging. In the end, it’s just another app we had to install.
Roadtrips
Road trips are personally my least favorite part. They require a lot of careful planning to ensure you have enough range to get to the next charger. You have to hope that the charger is working and available otherwise you could be stranded or have to wait to charge. You have to hope the mileage your car is suggesting is accurate and you need to worry about turning on things like the heater or AC if you don’t have enough range. It just isn’t a pleasant experience. Range anxiety is real and it can be very stressful.
Recently, we’ve been traveling frequently to the cabin in northern Wisconsin, which is about a 5 hour drive. In this summer, this requires one or two stops to ensure that you have enough range to get there. In the winter, it requires at least two stops. We started to stay at a hotel halfway between to break up the drive, otherwise it would take about 8 hours.
Maintenance and Reliability
The car has required almost no maintenance. It had a handfull of recalls, but most were just software upgrades and only required an hour at the dealership. We did have to buy new tires at about 30,000 miles. We had some issues with the infotainment system. It never remembered seat positions but would change settings, like Winter Mode and Daylight Savings Time when switching between profiles.
Repairs
While the car has been very reliable, we had a couple of accidents that really started to make the car feel less than ideal. The first was when my wife back up and broke the side view mirror. The mirror was about $1,500 dollars, without paint. We decided to just keep it white, the car is blue, to save money.
The second, and much more troubling issue, was when we hit a racoon on a dark country road about 5 hours from home. The driver side bumper shattered and took with it an accuator for a vent on the front. After this happened, the 120v AC would no longer charge the car. We were already low on mileage when this happened and about 45 miles away from the nearest DC charger. After some bungy cords and some slow driving, we managed to get to a DC charger that, luckily, charged the car. My wife was able to drive it home and we dropped it at the Kia dealership to have it looked at. To our shock, the cost to replace the front bumper and whatever was in it, was $9,000.
To put this in my perspective, I rolled my 2021 Jeep Wrangler on a country road. I had a off-road tow come out, roll it back over and I drove the Jeep home. I bought a $400 side view mirror on Amazon and replaced it myself. The total cost of the accident was about $1,400.
Cost of Ownership
We purchased the car for about $50,000 and after 4 years, it’s worth about $22,000 and only has 37,000 miles on it. With the cost of repairs, the charger, the panel upgrade, accessories to be able to charge at other places, and the inconvenience of charging, it’s had to justify the cost of ownership.
Farewell EV
Our lifestyle just isn’t conducive to owning an electric car. We drive to far, live in too cold of a place and don’t have the infrastructure to support it. We’ve looking around at hybrids to bridge the gap.