Going Electric 11
Since I’ve done
3 months hybrid electric driving it might be time to give an account of my
experience. In truth my experience has been fairly limited because of Covid. As
a vulnerable person I’m sheltering which has meant our travel has been limited.
I’ve had very little experience using the normal hybrid mode combining the use
of electric and internal combustion ( IC
) engine and none at all with the two modes of power combined together.
Pure electric
driving is excellent. Before I had wondered about the true electric range as
this has been a bone of contention with different standards. In this case
Hyundai claim 30 miles and this is what I’ve got. This is the range from fully
charged down to 15% charge at which point the car switches to its internal
combustion engine. This level of charge is necessary for the car to run in
hybrid mode switching between electric and IC. If anything this is a very
slight underestimate of range as depending on route and driving style more than
30 miles is possible. Since most of our journeys are local this means that
electric drive is the most usual mode of travel. Unfortunately this doesn’t
mean no petrol is used. The car is heated by the IC engine which means in winter the engine runs at tickover
intermittently to warm the cabin.
The all
electric performance is very good. I had thought that a 60bhp electric motor
was not very generous but in practice it has no problems. If anything it is all
too easy to find oneself exceeding the speed limit because it is quiet yet powerful.. Hill
climbing is fine and there always seems to be enough power to keep up with
traffic. 70 mph is possible on motorways although I suspect at a cost in
battery range.
I find I’m
using the trickle charger from a domestic 13 amp socket to charge the battery.
Although this takes maybe 4 hours with the car parked by the house, cable
through a window, walk away and leave. There is a handy system to show the
extent of charge and it automatically stops when fully charged. The only
downside is that the window has to left open enough to pass the cable through
which on cold days is shivery.
The electric
revolution globally I see as another matter. Batteries have two big problems-
they are heavy and expensive. Very roughly the 9kWh battery I have weights
100kg. While specific power to weight ratios are coming down there is little
prospect of any major change just incremental improvements. The cost issue is even
more vital. To have the modest battery in the Ioniq has cost roughly £4000
compared with the small battery in the self charging version. So to go from
2kWh to 9kWh is rather expensive. I particularly wanted the plug in version (
Annette insisted as the price of getting a new car ) but this is an issue with
spreading electric usage. Again battery costs are coming down on a cost per
capacity basis and I think the prospects are rather better than with weight per
capacity.
The IC engine
is another matter. I suspect Hyundai in searching for the best economy have
gone a bit too far. The IC engine develops its power at high revs. Even quite
minor hills have the car changing down a gear. Coming from a diesel car with a
lot of low end torque I’m finding it a bit hard to adjust At least the IC engine is fairly quiet and
unobtrusive on fairly flat roads. I’ve been looking closely at the engine
specification and it appears very modern in design and incorporates many of the
latest features.
Hybrid mode
driving is interesting. At a halt the IC engine stops and the electric
accelerates from rest with the IC engine cutting back in as speed rises. The
battery is recharged partly by regeneration and partly by the IC engine. If
there is a period of slow speed then electric persists but I’m unclear for how
long.
The
circumstances of the purchase led me to take the highest spec option. Because
this was immediately available and the high part exchange prices of last autumn
meant the extra cost was negligible I took this rather the somewhat lower spec I normally would have
chosen. This means that I have a bewildering set of gizmos. Some are very
useful such as sat nav and memory seat
adjustment. The lane keeping assistance is disconcerting as it tries to steer
the car to keep in lane. While easily overcome I find it best switched off.
In an effort to
make entering and leaving easier the steering wheel has the bottom section cut
off so it is no longer round. I find this quite strange and something which I
am getting familiar to using. The one thing I haven’t mastered is linking to
music played through a mobile phone. I’m using the option of digital tracks on
a USB stick. I can’t say that music in the car is a major concern. The radio is
far easier to use than my previous car as the station linked to preset is now
noted clearly.
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