Used EV recommendation

RonnieL

Hi folks,

Some context: My wife and I share two cars at the moment, a 2014 diesel 7 seater, and a 2014 24kw leaf. We are both working from home at the moment, and when things re-open, we're both likely to be working from home 2 or 3 days a week, so we've decided to give single (electric) vehicle life a try. Our commutes when we do need to go in are about 20K round trip. We also make about 8 weekend trips a year to Dublin to visit relations (214km door to door). Oh, and we have 3 kids aged between 4 and 10.

I refuse to buy brand new cars, so I'm looking for used EV recommendations!

I also feel like we don't necessarily need a car with a huge battery considering our low day to day mileage. Having said that, I don't want our Dublin trips to turn into epic journeys, hopping from charger to charger!

Would an Ioniq be a good shout? What version would people recommend? Is there any chance the bigger battery model would make the 214km spin, with 5 people and bags on a motorway? Based on my leaf experience, I'm guessing not! Any other cars I should be looking at?

Thanks for reading!

Ronan

ELM327

Ioniq 28 you'd have to charge once for ~5-10 minutes on 50kW DC.
Ioniq 38 you'd do the 218km without charging.


The 28 is a much better EV in every sense, and charges much faster, but your use case is one of the few where the 38 works better, 0 charging stops vs 1!

RonnieL

ELM327 wrote: »

Ioniq 28 you'd have to charge once for ~5-10 minutes on 50kW DC.
Ioniq 38 you'd do the 218km without charging.


The 28 is a much better EV in every sense, and charges much faster, but your use case is one of the few where the 38 works better, 0 charging stops vs 1!

Thanks for the reply Elm. I'm interested in your comment about the 28 being much better in every sense - I had read about the 38 not charging quickly on fast chargers which is concerning, but I didn't pick up on any other deficiencies - if you don't mind, could you elaborate a bit?

ELM327

That's the main one. Really bad fast charging speed.
The Irish spec is also not as good as the 28 was, but it's just little extras like LKAS

Black_Knight

RonnieL wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Elm. I'm interested in your comment about the 28 being much better in every sense - I had read about the 38 not charging quickly on fast chargers which is concerning, but I didn't pick up on any other deficiencies - if you don't mind, could you elaborate a bit?

The price you pay vs the 28 and you end up with slow fast charging and a bit more range isn't worth it in many people's eyes. €35k new is/was it?

RonnieL

I'm still conflicted, so I'll have to have a proper look around to see what's available second hand. Perhaps better to go for a 28 and see how we get on, and if it's not working we could always change for something else.

As an aside, I discovered https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ so I put all the info in, and for both the 28 and 38 versions it suggests stopping half way. So, that would be another argument for the 28 I guess.

2nd aside - despite owning a leaf for a couple of years, I've never used the public charging network. Do any of you happen to have experience of the route from a charging perspective - are there typically chargers free around half way?

Thanks for the replies!

zg3409

RonnieL wrote: »

2nd aside - despite owning a leaf for a couple of years, I've never used the public charging network. Do any of you happen to have experience of the route from a charging perspective - are there typically chargers free around half way?

Thanks for the replies!

From where to Dublin? Can you charge at home both sides? How long will you be in Dublin e.g. Overnight?

Public charging in general is a disaster
If you are on main roads at peak times there is a high chance the charger will be busy, but it depends on where exactly you intend regularly topping up. Sometimes the single 50kW charger on a site breaks and it can be weeks or months before it is fixed. 214km should be do-able in a 38kWh ioniq, but it will be very low on arrival and you need to fill it up at destination. You may need to drive below speed limit in deep winter to be sure to make it. The 28kWh you are nearly guaranteed to need a stop with associated risks. Personally I would avoid regularly using any public chargers unless you have to.

RonnieL

zg3409 wrote: »

From where to Dublin? Can you charge at home both sides? How long will you be in Dublin e.g. Overnight?

Public charging in general is a disaster
If you are on main roads at peak times there is a high chance the charger will be busy, but it depends on where exactly you intend regularly topping up. Sometimes the single 50kW charger on a site breaks and it can be weeks or months before it is fixed. 214km should be do-able in a 38kWh ioniq, but it will be very low on arrival and you need to fill it up at destination. You may need to drive below speed limit in deep winter to be sure to make it. The 28kWh you are nearly guaranteed to need a stop with associated risks. Personally I would avoid regularly using any public chargers unless you have to.

Galway, so pretty much the entire journey is along motorways (M6/4/50). I have a charger in my house, but the in laws don't, so I'd be looking at granny cabling or using a charger nearby. We'd tpyically just go for a night.

baldshin

RonnieL wrote: »

Galway, so pretty much the entire journey is along motorways (M6/4/50). I have a charger in my house, but the in laws don't, so I'd be looking at granny cabling or using a charger nearby. We'd tpyically just go for a night.

We do Galway to Dublin in a 28kw Ioniq somewhat regularly. Stop at Kinnegad on the way up and fill to 90% or so. Continue to Dublin and stop again in Kinnegad on the way back and that's all the charging we need. Granny charging overnight would allow shorter stops at the fast chargers, but Galway to Dublin and back can be done handy enough on 2 charges.

RonnieL

baldshin wrote: »

We do Galway to Dublin in a 28kw Ioniq somewhat regularly. Stop at Kinnegad on the way up and fill to 90% or so. Continue to Dublin and stop again in Kinnegad on the way back and that's all the charging we need. Granny charging overnight would allow shorter stops at the fast chargers, but Galway to Dublin and back can be done handy enough on 2 charges.

Thanks for the reply baldshin. How long do you typically charge for then? It would be handy to avoid having to charge with a granny cable, because the logistics at my in-laws wrt sockets and stuff will make it messy.

baldshin

RonnieL wrote: »

Thanks for the reply baldshin. How long do you typically charge for then? It would be handy to avoid having to charge with a granny cable, because the logistics at my in-laws wrt sockets and stuff will make it messy.

Sorry, only just seeing this now! Normally would charge for maybe 20-25 minutes and that would be plenty.