Welcome Home Voltron

Fleet Update 

Elektra - She is doing just fine.  20,000 miles since I got her 3 years ago.  My daily driver and errand runner.  She did complain a little during the coldest of days with a whine from her reduction gearbox.  I will get that fluid changed at her upcoming yearly maintenance interval.

Voltron - New addition to the fleet.  A 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6, and this is the trip report for bringing him home.

Decision Making

After 3 years with Elektra, I knew I wanted to expand my fleet of electric vehicles. Based on the 3 years of ownership, the one thing I wanted in my next car was faster charging.  To that end, I thought I was going to go with a Genesis GV60, and that is what I had been looking for over the last 6 months.  But, when it came down to it, I realized, I still need and want a sedan and not a SUV.  After following deals on several GV60s, when I changed my mind to go to an Ioniq 6, an excellent deal immediately popped up in my first search. Once again I found the car in Illinois, just like Elektra, but this time instead of in the Chicago area, Voltron was for sale in the far west of Illinois, almost Iowa.  I called the next day and in a matter of hours had the deal agreed and started to make plans to travel to pick up the car.

Getting to the Dealership

Up very early I had booked an Uber to take me to the airport. I watched in the app as the driver stopped for gas before picking me up. Other than dropping me off at the wrong door, the ride was uneventful. I few from Detroit to Chicago to the Quad Cities.  Flying with United, which I don’t use and connecting through O’Hare; which surprisingly I have never flown through before.  From O’Hare, I flew to Moline, IL and the Quad Cities Airport. Outside of a couple of minor delays at each departure of less than 15 minutes each, and the need to turn the plan off and back on again at O'Hare, the flights were also trouble free.

The team at Green Family Hyundai in Moline, IL treated me very well. They picked me up at the airport and had Voltron ready to go. The paperwork process was fairly painless and they had me out the door in a very reasonable amount of time.  They have a great facility and are very forward thinking about EVs with a great selection of both new and used cars. Doug the salesman and Tyler the business manager made the whole process run smoothly.

Departure

I was hoping to data log the trip back, but in the morning rush I did not grab my OBDII port tool.  This is not a big deal as the application that I use in Elektra, that I thought would work with Voltron, does not actually support 2023 and beyond vehicles.  Anyway, I was off heading east toward home.  I got on I-80 East at exit 9 and proceeded to head directly west.  When I left the dealership the GOM showed an overly optimistic range of 340 miles.  My first stop was 150 miles away in Orland Park, IL.  Compared to the cold and wind and unknowns of the first stretch when I brought home Elektra that was a 100 mile stretch, this first leg had no concerns.  I followed I-80 East to exit 145 and headed north on US-45 for 5 miles to the mall parking lot for my first charging session.  I was a little nervous heading to the site as all the live data I was seeing was showing 3 of 4 units in use.  All it would take is one more car to show up and charge, and then I would be waiting or looking for other options.  However, when I arrived only 2 of the 4 units were in use.  There was a F150 Lightining and a MB EQE SUV charging, or idling with no drivers in site.  Knowing this was going to be a quick stop, I plugged into the CCS/ChaDemo unit at the end.  Since I had set the car to precondition the battery for the stop, the car almost immediately went to 170kW charging speed.  The advantage of the 800V architecture in the eGMP cars, is that they often pull the maximum power from stations.

Leaving this site, I was trying to be smart and avoid the tolls where I-80 and I-94 meet.  I opted to follow US-6 East towards I-57 and then head south to I-94 avoiding the tolls.  This was going well, if a little slow, until there was a train stopped on a crossing.  A long detour, and sitting in traffic later and I was back on the highway.

 

I planned 2 charging stops, one on the south side of Chicago and then another in the Kalamazoo area in Michigan.  With a rated range of 300 miles, I could have done the trip in one stop, but 2 stops breaks the trip up into somewhat equal 2+ hour legs of driving. For the second stop of the trip home, I was looking for a stop in the Kalamazoo area. Now, I have already been to the Electrify America location here multiple times and know that it is not a good road trip stop, due to it being far from the highway on a very busy road. I was looking for something that could potentially provide peak charging speeds. I found that the West Michigan International heavy duty truck facility was showing as having two 350kW units available. This stop provided an easier on/off highway experience and was cheaper than the Electrify America location. This stop on the west side of Kalamazoo is 130 miles from home, leaving me a quick final 2-hour leg of driving.

One of the two dispensers was clearly marked as out of order, and it seems like the associated power module was also not working. According to the technical data sheet for these ABB Terra HP chargers a single unit can do 175kW max and 375A max. They can be paired to provide up to 350kW and 500A maximum output. Since, I never saw more than 175kW power output, I am assuming that only one of the 2 power cabinets was working during my visit. I did note that the cables were properly rated and cooled, so 400V cars can pull the 375-500A listed and not be cable limited. Even with the limited power, after plugging in at 25%, I was ready to leave the station just 18 minutes later with an 80% charge. Doing the math the car averaged 165kW which is a really good speed to go from 25% to 80%.

The rest of the drive went without issue and I arrived home with about 30%. With the heavy cross winds and colder temperatures, I only averaged 3.2 miles per kWh on the drive home. Definitely would need to get better efficiency than that to achieve the 305 mile rated range of the car, but I am quickly learning this car is not the winter range winner. Hopefully with warmer weather the numbers will improve on highway driving. I look forward to updating some site reviews and planning all new trips, which will go faster with a car that is more efficient and faster charging.