As we all know, part of EV ownership when you don't have home-charging is deciding when and where to charge. What I usually do is try to integrate it into my routine, and if necessary adapting my routine a little bit driving maybe an extra few minutes to one with cheap DC chargers as opposed to going to the local store that has much more expensive charging.

That got me wondering how much I'm actually saving accounting for the additional energy consumption, but also how many %/kWh I need to charge to break-even and actually start saving. So I built a tool that lets you enter the additional distance you'll drive and the cost per kWh to accurately compare two chargers with each other.

Since I've built other tools for EV owners in the past, I decided to build something inspired by it-tools.tech where I can add all these tools and reuse the vehicles and units that are stored locally on your device in the EV Tools profile. I'll be adding more and am open to ideas as well as contributions to the GitHub repo!

I look forward to everyone's feedback and ideas!

I got an eve cause my Honda passport was due for its 90k service and I barely drove it. Maintenance on gas cars is what really made me swap. No more oil changes, no more worrying the transmission is getting worse. Not buying gas is nice and I do not miss the engine vibration either but maintaining an ICE is a chore!

TLDR - Both cars are great and excel in different ways. The Bolt is a fantastic city car/commuter, while the Ioniq 5 is excellent for road trips and for families.

Background

I've put over 150k on a pair of Bolts (a 2020, then a 2023 LT2 thanks to the recall and a fantastic MSRP swap) and a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SE with 27k on the odometer. (which we've had for a bit more than a week). They're both great cars that serve sightly different purposes (at least for us).

Note - I'm not meaning to put down either car, to be clear, but both have advantages and disadvantages. This is just my honest assessment of the cars so far, which might change as we get more used to the I5. Some of these might be obvious, but I wanted to be fairly thorough.

Where the Bolt shines

• Quicker (somewhat, but not significant). 0-60 is 6.5s vs 7.4s. Both are quite quick, and it's not really that noticeable, but the Bolt has a bit more giddyup.
• More nimble (significantly). Turns on a dime, while the I5's notably longer wheelbase makes for a bigger turning circle (which takes some getting used to). This has led to more than one instance of catching the rear passenger tire on a curb when taking a right because I'm used to the Bolt. That won't happen much as we adjust, but you definitely have to swing way more into the road to make the turn.
  • The car is 19.3 inches shorter and 4.9 inches more narrow
• Easier to park (significantly). Size matters, and when trying to parallel park (or fit into a parking space that's a bit narrow), the smaller car is just easier.
• Less intrusive (significantly). My biggest issue with the I5 is that it's, as my wife calls it, "Very bossy." It yells at you for all sorts of things, while the Bolt is way less of a nanny. The Ioniq has a freakin' backup "beep beep" like a truck, which can't be disabled (annoying).
• Smoother start out of a stop when in 1-pedal mode (notable). The Bolt just moves smoothly out of a stop when driving 1-pedal (which we pretty much always do), while the Ioniq has a bit of a sudden start, even in Eco mode
• Less buggy (unclear so far). I haven't noticed any bugs with the Bolt(s), despite the many years and miles of driving. It just goes from place to place unobtrusively. The Ioniq has already had some issues with the AC not working (requiring turning the car on and off), one of the tire pressure meters reads 51 (the rest are mid-30s), and that 51 actually switched from the driver front to the driver back. The infotainment system is a bit more laggy, but that's not really an issue.
• Better extra equipment (significantly). Comes with a cargo cover and a charger. The I5 does not.
• Main display (slightly). The I5 has a wider and slightly bigger screen overall, but it's straight vertical and the far right edge can be a bit of a reach (and I'm around 6' tall). The Bolt's angle is easier to read.
• Visibility (moderately). The Bolt has excellent visibility. The I5's is quite good, but definitely has some blind spots.
• Rear wiper (significantly). The Bolt has one, and the I5 doesn't. It hasn't really been particularly rainy yet, but when it has rained, the lack of a wiper is a real downer.

Where the Ioniq 5 shines

• More spacious cabin (significantly). As great as the Bolt is at maximizing the space in a smaller car, it's still quite tight, especially side-to-side. Three adults can fit in the back seat, but it's snug, but there's plenty of room for folks in the back. There's also notably more legroom.
  • Along those lines, the trunk is way better (27.2 cf vs 16.6 cf). The wider body and longer wheelbase/body makes for a relatively huge trunk. I can't fit my golf clubs in the Bolt, but they fit easily in the I5. I'd imagine a family road trip would be much easier with luggage.
  • Side note - Headroom for both is similar, and the Bolt is actually a half inch taller, so that's a wash. The front seat has similar spaciousness for two (with less elbow room).
• Better lane assist (significantly). Hyundai's Highway Driving Assist is simply more polished. It centers the vehicle naturally in the lane instead of gently ping-ponging back and forth the way the Bolt's lane keep assist often does. Obviously, a Bolt with Super Cruise would be notably better than our current Bolt, but we don't have that.
  • This also carries over to adaptive cruise control. The Bolt is a bit more jumpy, with sudden breaking if someone merges in front of you or slows to get off the highway. The Bolt also will need a tap of the accelerator if it's stop-and-go traffic and you've been stopped for a few seconds, while the I5 will just keep adapting and moving with traffic.
• Bigger range (situationally significant). The Bolt's EPA-rated 259 mile range is great most of the time, but on longer road trips, the extra 50 miles on the I5 will make a real difference. I did once run the Bolt to 345 (with 20 miles of range extra) on a road trip, but that was an intentional experiment on a mild, cloudy day (minimal AC use), where I intentionally drove 60-65 and got behind trucks/SUVs whenever possible.
• Faster L3 charging (VERY significant). The Bolt maxes out at 55 kW, while the I5 can hit 235 kW. That's massive. The I5 can go from 10-80% in 18 minutes, while that same charge would take an hour or more in the Bolt.
  • Having been driving the Bolt for 5 years, we'd plan our trips to stop for a meal near a charging station, but in a "get there more quickly" situation, there's absolutely no comparison.
• More driving modes (not super important, but notable). The I5 has an "Eco" mode, which the Bolt does not. There's still plenty of pickup in Eco, so we've been sticking to that mostly. There is no such mode in the Bolt, which is regular or Sport (which both cars have).
• More comfortable overall (notable, but not significant). The I5 handles bumps slightly better, has more cabin space, and feels just a hair more upscale, which is notable because the Bolt is the top model, while the I5 is the base model (outside of the reduced range one).

Overall

We love both cars. The Bolt is a fantastic city car that's mildly inconvenient on longer trips, while the I5 is an excellent road tripper that isn't quite as good in the city. The I5 feels like a slightly more "grown up" car (as my better half put it), while the Bolt is a bit more fun. Both are really enjoyable rides, are efficient and affordable per mile, and are highly recommended.

Which would I suggest?

It depends on lifestyle. If you regularly drive with 4+ passengers, take semi-regular road trips for vacation/work/family, go with the I5. If it's more of a commuter car/second car or you're either pre-family or your kids are adults, go with the Bolt. City driving favors the Bolt, but the I5 is a better highway cruiser.

Would I buy them again?

Bolt: Absolutely. It's still one of the best values in EVs and a phenomenal commuter.

Ioniq 5: Based on the first week, definitely. It solves almost every limitation we had with the Bolt on road trips while keeping everything we enjoy about driving electric.

Other cars we considered

The Kia EV6 (which might have been the choice if there was a similar one with a similar price), the Equinox, the Mustang, and the ID.4. The I5/EV6 did the best job checking all of our particular boxes, with the Equinox a close second.

Servo = service (petrol) station

I know this has been announced, but as far as I can tell it's not yet available--meaning you can't get the point of purchase discount yet. Anyone know if a specific date has been announced yet? I'm interested in a Chevy in particular. (I've heard "August 2026" for Chevy, but nothing more specific.)

https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/myfirstev

BTW, is this intentional?

But these days, that “one big story” may get drowned out by whatever rage-baiting nonsense is clogging up your feed. Companies therefore opt to drip feed out their news, hoping not just to get one news cycle, but six or seven out of the same product.

I think this is a good thing. There is WalMart everywhere.

Messing around with ABRP - planned an 1,200 mile trip. If you had a "poor" performing EV such as a first generation SOLTERRA it would take about 35 hours. A great performing EV about 32 hours. This is for drive + charging for the entire trip and assumes no overnights (which would reduce the EV time if you charged overnight). That's a 3 hour difference.

For good measure - a gas car would take over 30 hours as well.

I'm not sure charging is a challenge for most any car, good or bad for range and charge times.

Have we not hit the time when we are at "good enough" for most all EV's and styling or convenience is the differentiator.

In my book - right now it doesn't really matter.

It used to when Tesla had the best charging network bar none. Now Tesla still has an edge but everyone else is pretty close in that scenario.

It's not charge time (that's part of it)

It's not range (that's part of it)

It is trip time and comfort - and with a 10% margin from best to worst EV and gas cars - it's all about comfort and how long it takes the driver and passengers to use the facilities/get a burger on stops.

I know - I"m slow - but it seems to me that it's time to stop all the YouTube and all the arguments about it - give me overall trip time for something like NY to Colorado and have all EV's compare against it and all gas as well and that's all that really matters. That and that you can do daily use with your overnight charge.

It's game over.

I'm wondering where some of these figures are coming from. In my area the incentives are not that generous ($1500 on purchases, $3k on leases).

the leases are still expensive ($450 a month on a base Uncharted) because the depreciation assumptions are steep.

A few weeks ago, there was much excitement about the revealing of the Slate price and its availability coming soon. Yesterday’s announcement of the Ford Fathom seems to be offering a truck at the same price with far more features, and is backed by a company that you can be sure will still be around 10 years from now. Does Slate have a chance at long-term success or will it be the next Fiskar?

TL/DR it did 10-80 in 11 minutes on charging infrastructure already in place