Cal's new EV9
As a travelling consultant offering residential energy efficiency measurement and improvement advisory services, one of my highest operating expenses is petrol. I travel over 30,000 kms per year, travelling from house to house across Victoria.
Discovering a way to reduce operating expenses sparked the idea to explore a high efficiency vehicle. My criteria are pretty narrow, I wanted to be able to do everything I could in my 4.0L V6 car, plus more, to justify the new car expense.
I needed room for a family of 5, towing capacity of over 2t for our yearly Easter trip with a hire caravan, positive brand association for my line of work, long range mileage, and importantly, ultra-low emissions and running costs.
We have a Kluger Hybrid in the family and that’s great. But it just doesn’t have the grunt when we need it. The new powerhouse iForce Max engine sparked some interest, but all the signs were that it exceeded my budget.
To help me decide, I turned to the Australian Electric Vehicle Association’s current EV Fact Sheets (available through at aeva.au/fact-sheets) to compare the specifications of current EV models that are on the market.
One model stood out, the Kia EV9. Long range battery, 7-seater, 2.5t towing capacity and through further research, likelihood of being future proofed for bi-directional charging. A huge bonus in supporting an all-electric home. It made perfect sense to me, it ticked all the boxes and while considering a home battery, developments in V2H sealed the deal.
The transition from ICE to EV was easy. The maiden voyage was a 100 km highway/city commute from Geelong to Northcote. Peak hour, and a 1h, 41 min travel time resulted in an average consumption of 5.5km/kWh in “Normal” mode, as opposed to Sport or Eco etc. Around 18 kWh consumption of the 100 kWh available in the long-range battery.
That would have cost me around $25 in my previous car. Charging the EV overnight, the new cost is $3.60 applying a 20c/kWh rate.
A recent off-piste commute had me travelling from Geelong to Colac, Coburg North, Brunswick East and return. This was going to be the true test as I wasn’t prepared with a full charge after travelling in and around Queenscliff the day before. I set out with 70% in my ‘tank’, I got 250 km into the trip when I reached my last stop.
I had 110 km remaining at peak-hour. I could have made it back with around 10% according to the live mileage, but not knowing the car and the traffic, I needed an extra 10% cushion just in case.
The 60 kW fast chargers were occupied, the 7 kW Type 2 was my only option. I added 2.64 kWh in 22 minutes, grabbed something to eat and ran the gauntlet in “Eco”. With a backup plan to detour to a fast charger on the M1 if things went pear-shaped, I received the 20% low battery warning close to home. Arriving with 17% remaining.
This car is a joy to drive every day of the week. It’s smooth, the tech is out of this world, it pulls when it needs to and it does everything, plus more, than a high-capacity ICE.
Range anxiety existed, but it was short lived. For travelling consultants like myself, long range batteries are the way to go and although I’ve been surviving with a 10 amp outlet in my garage for charging, a wall charger is certainly the way to go for day-to-day long range commutes.
Cal Forsyth is the Director of Ephe and is an accredited Residential Energy Efficiency Consultant specializing in Scorecard assessments, draught proofing and thermal imaging.
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View Comments
Which model of the EV9 did you buy? Considring the Air but the range seems a tad too short
AEVA fact sheets are a fabulous resource - I've just joined and they have heaps of useful advice and information for new EV owners
Sailor Sam
Surprising someone who is familiar with energy would chose a black car given it will be significantly hotter than a lighter colour, thus needing a/c more often and thus reducing range
I was wondering about that, too.
Here here! There are ALOT of morons in black cars here in Qld !
Here here (snigger)
morons (cough)
Qld (guffaw, snort)
$120k, ouch
Thanks for stating the purchase price Jeremy. Why does this 'reviewer' fail to provide one of the single most important pieces of information for a car review?
The price!
I could say 'what a dill' but perhaps he has 'personal' reasons for failing to disclose what he paid for the vehicle ... disappointing that the editor let another tendentious review through to the keeper without asking the most obvious questions.
Probably because its a company car and or can be used for tax deduction reason so price not that important.
Haha. Now that Trump has won the presidential election we’re seeing more of these propagandist stories to “restore the balance”. Depreciation on these things is Mercedes S Class levels
Great car- killed by the price unfortunately fo me.
I'm not sure you'll be as impressed when it comes to the towing aspect. While EVs can tow, the impact on range is such that it's pretty impractical. Be interested to learn otherwise.
My father has a Hyundai Ioniq 5 4wd 72 kWh and it will tow his boat from Dunedin to Queenstown with a 40% charge halfway. Which takes about ten min on a 150 kwh charger
Range does take a hit but it doesn't mean all towing is impractical. We've towed over 4000km with our EVs so far without incident. You just stop a charge a little more often. Anyone contemplating doing this should definitely consider the drag and weight of what they are towing though and not try to move a mountain if it isn't absolutely necessary.
That's great Monty, we just came back from a round trip from Central Qld. Sth. Gippsland, 6000km towing a small van (full height - big drag) with a Volvo EX30. We took the inland way, less traffic but not as many fast chargers so caravan parks and a powered site was the go. Went over the Snowy mountains the hit the Vic coast and heaps of fast chargers no problems at all and we enjoyed stopping at all the small towns along the way.
Search for ElecTrekking Australia on facebook, a family of four took nine moths off work to explore Australia they bought a Kia EV9 and are towing a 2 tonne caravan with it. From Perth they travelled up WA into NT the Qld and are now in SA. Doing it easy.
Sorry mate The driving reviews on this heavy beast say no good for any thing on freeway for more than 200 klms.
What a pain.?
Not true, check out ElecTrekking Australia on Facebook!
Don't hesitate to charge up when you can. Frequent small charges are better than lots of deep charges.
OHh The demand for EVs in Australia has dropped by 25%.
The same as the price of a new Tesla over the last 2 years.
RETAINED VALUE GONE BIG TIME??
It's been pretty well known that evs have cost a bit more than ice cars but that gap will close in the next couple of years (maybe it has already for a limited range of models). There's only two ways this could happen- either ice cars get more expensive or evs get cheaper. Of course the latter is what was forecast and exactly what has been happening. So anybody who bought a new ev in the last few years should not be surprised to see some depreciation in used cars to align with the decrease in price of new ones. I speculate most owners don't really care because they are banking fuel and maintenance cost savings that make up for it. E.g. my driving costs including electricity for 25k of ev driving has been less than $300. Saving over $3000 - 5% of the cost of the car in about a year. I'm happy to see evs decrease in cost so more people can afford them - new and used.
Can you prove that?
nice ride Cal - and perfect for assessments! V2L to keep you charged up too..