On February 18th 2023, our family bought it’s first BEV. A 2023 Ioniq 5 which replaced our 2014 Mazda 3. Over the next year, we drove a total of 35,000 km, with many long road trips through extreme weather conditions. Our experience has been nothing but incredible and has cemented that the future is in fact electric. It saved us money ($3,667.90), it saved us time, and overall it decreased our vehicle emissions for the year by 98%.
For those who care only for the data, you can see that here. For those who want more details on our road trips, please continue reading below.
The Road Trips
Our first road trip with our Ioniq 5 also happened to be our first drive as owners of the vehicle. We bought the vehicle in Castlegar, B.C and drove it back home (at the time) to the Kelowna, B.C region. An almost 300 km road trip, through mountain passes during the winter, which set the tone for the rest of the year.
In the next couple of months, our road trips were generally in extreme winter conditions. Temperatures hovered between -15°C and -25°C, but we did do a drive from Kelowna to Vancouver and back when the temperatures were about -35°C and -40°C. During that trip, we were warm and comfortable in our Ioniq 5 and didn’t even need to stop early to charge.
- February 18th, 2023 – Castlegar to Kelowna, B.C. – ~280km
- March 11th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver and back – 860km
- March 17th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver and back – 735km
- March 25th – 26th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver and back – 951 km
As things warmed up, we decided to go exploring even further with friends and family.
- April 7th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver – 472 km
- April 8th, 2023 – Vancouver to Port Alberni – 270 km
- April 9th, 2023 – Port Alberni to Tofino and back – 247 km
- April 10th, 2023 – Port Alberni to Kelowna – 498 km
- April 14th, 2023 – Kelowna, BC to Canmore, AB – 654 km
- April 15, 2023 – Canmore to Calgary – 220 km
- April 17, 2023 – Calgary, AB to Kelowna, BC – 467 km
- April 22, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver – 374 km
- April 23rd, 2023 – Vancouver to Kelowna – 351 km
- April 25th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver – 529 km
- May 10th, 2023 – Vancouver to Kelowna – 436 km
- May 13th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver – 412 km
- May 15, 2023 – Vancouver to Whistler and back – 279 km
- May 17th, 2023 – Vancouver to Kelowna – 398 km
- May 20th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver – 496 km
After those many road trips during the spring, we settled in for a little over a month, before we did our longest road trip yet. A trip from Vancouver to Saskatoon and back. It would not end up being our longest road trip of the year though.
- July 7th, 2023 – Vancouver to Nelson – 531 km
- July 8th, 2023 – Nelson, BC to Calgary, AB – 536 km
- July 10th, 2023 – Calgary, AB to Saskatoon, SK – 743 km
- July 11th, 2023 – Saskatoon, SK to Calgary, AB – 673 km
- July 13th, 2023 – Calgary, AB to Kelowna, BC – 525 km
- July 16th, 2023 – Kelowna to Vancouver – 393 km
From that trip, we again took another month long break before embarking on the longest road trip we have even taken with any vehicle. An approximately 7500 km from Vancouver, BC to Denver, CO and back. This road trip took the Ioniq 5 through some very remote regions with little or no charging stations for hundreds of kilometers while temperatures during that period were often above 35°C, with the maximum temperature we felt being somewhere around 42°C.
We not only drove the vehicle, but for much of the trip, we slept in our Ioniq 5 with “Maintenance Mode” on, which provided us a nice climate controlled environment to sleep in for the entire night. Overall sleeping our Ioniq 5 saved us a bunch of money, and only used about ~8% of the battery overnight.
We started driving on August 12th, 2023 and arrived back home on August 28th, 2023. A full 16 days of travel.
- August 12th, 2023 – Vancouver, BC to Spokane, WA – 600 km
- August 13th, 2023 – Spokane, WA to Red Mountain Campground, MT – 517 km
- August 14th, 2023 – Red Mountain Campground, MT to Yellowstone National Park – 245 km
- August 15th, 2023 – Explored Yellowstone National Park – 185 km
- August 16th, 2023 – Yellowstone National Park to Grand Teton National Park, WY – 215 km
- August 17th, 2023 – Grand Teton National Park, WY to Salt Lake City, UT – 448 km
- August 18th, 2023 – Explore Salt Lake City, UT – 185 km
- August 19th, 2023 – Salt Lake City, UT to Grand Junction, CO – 631 km
- August 20th, 2023 – Grand Junction, CO to Estes Park, CO – 530 km
- August 21st, 2023 – Explore Rocky Mountain National Park – N/A
- August 22nd, 2023 – Estes Park, CO to Denver, CO – 293 km
- August 23rd, 2023 – Estes Park, CO to Salt Lake City, UT – 815 km
- August 24th, 2023 – Salt Lake City, UT to Boise, ID – 571 km
- August 25th, 2023 – Boise, ID to Portland, OR – 763 km
- August 26st, 2023 – Portland, OR to Friends Landing, WA – 277 km
- August 27th, 2023 – Friends Landing, WA to Sol Duc Campground, WA – 240 km
- August 28th, 2023 – Sol Duc Campground, WA to Vancouver, BC – 731 km
These are just the start and end destination for the day, but throughout the day, we would tend to visit National Parks, roadside attractions, and more.
The Data
Tabulating the data was a lot of fun and insightful. For the entire year of driving a total of 35,000 km it only cost us $1,400.10 for 5837 kWh of energy. The cheapest charging network, beyond Journey which had free charging at the time, is obviously charging at home (Unico Power). while the most expensive was Electrify America. That makes sense due to the exchange rate.
The interesting thing is that charging at home still represented 40% of the energy during the entire year, even though most of our driving was done on road trips. I expect the average person would have at-home-charging represent 80% of their energy.
The cost of charging though had Electrify America represent 40% of the cost, while at-home-charging (Unico Power) only represented a little less that a quarter of the cost (24%).
Overall, the key data is that we saved a total of $3,667.90! That would mean we saved over $300 a month on gas! I view that as a big win, as that does not include any of the savings for maintenance we would have had. I expect that represents an additional $500 to $1,000 in savings.
For those who want to lower their carbon footprint, going electric is the obvious option based on my quick math. I found online from the Government of Canada the average emissions for one liter of gas being approximately 2,300 grams of CO_2, while the average emissions on a single kWh in British-Columbia being only 18.6 grams. With that in mind, we would have saved a total of 6331.42 kg of emissions from entering the atmosphere compared to driving our 2014 Mazda 3. A reduction of 98.31%!
Final Thoughts
Our experience has proven to us that electric is in fact, not only the future, but is the current best option for most people. I think there are pitfalls with some BEV’s being subpar, however the Hyundai/Kia E-GMP vehicles are absolutely phenomenal.
The data also shows that driving a BEV can save a lot of money even when going on long road trips and that the emission savings are monumental. Overall, our first year has cemented for me that everyone should at a minimum be considering a BEV as their primarily vehicle.
