I have been driving electrical automobiles since 2018, and in the end, I not must drive previous Tesla Superchargers after I want a cost. Now that I’ve purchased a Supercharger adapter from Kia, I see little motive to purchase a brand new EV any time quickly.
I Drive a First-Gen Kia Niro EV
I purchased my present automobile on the finish of 2021. It is a 2022 Kia Niro EV, the final 12 months of a automobile mannequin initially launched in 2018. The second-gen Niro was already introduced and would arrive the next 12 months, however I did not have the luxurious of ready. We have been transferring to a brand new house that my previous 2013 Nissan Leaf, with its paltry 60 miles of vary, would merely not be capable of deal with.
That is to not say that the 2022 Niro EV is similar because the one launched in 2018. It has a redesigned sprint and a bigger show, making the automobile really feel decidedly extra trendy while you sit inside though the outside seems similar, except for the brand new Kia badge. I additionally do not need to give the impression that I remorse this automobile. I do not. I completely adore it.
A Dream Automobile—Apart from This One Factor
This automobile has been an absolute pleasure to drive, with bodily buttons in all the proper locations and upkeep consisting solely of recent tires, tire rotations, and changed cabin filters. The all-electric Niro, like its hybrid siblings, may be very environment friendly, simply getting over 4 miles per kilowatt-hour after I’m not driving it at 70 miles per hour on the interstate by our house. That quantity creeps nearer to 5 after I drive at sea stage.
With this effectivity, my Niro successfully has the identical vary as my spouse’s Volkswagen D4 regardless of the roughly 20% smaller battery. And contemplating I cost at house nearly at no cost thanks to the solar panels on our roof, there is not a day after I miss having to usually cease at fuel stations.
However on longer highway journeys, we finally must cost away from house utilizing public DC quick chargers.
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Due to a brand new strategic partnership.
Over the previous a number of years, I’ve watched because the variety of CCS charging stations that serve automobiles like mine has slowly grown whereas additionally changing into much less dependable, because of the infrastructure growing older and the pressure of getting to energy a bigger variety of automobiles.
I’ve nonetheless been capable of drive wherever I would like, however it requires extra planning and time. I’ve envied the dimensions of Tesla’s Supercharger community, not sufficient to need a Tesla, however sufficient to want it wasn’t restricted to just one sort of automobile. Fortunately, Tesla is working with automakers to roll out entry to ever extra automobiles and vans.
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Supercharger Entry Doubles The place I Can Cost
The Tesla Supercharger community is the biggest in North America in the interim. I sit up for seeing how large Ionna and Walmart’s networks finally turn out to be, however within the right here and now, getting a Tesla Supercharger adapter from Kia has doubled the variety of locations the place I can cost.
And that is not the total story. It isn’t solely that there are extra Tesla Supercharger areas than areas from competing networks, however that every one tends to have extra stalls, and people stalls reliably work. Irrespective of which course I journey in from my house in Virginia, seeing Superchargers on the map reduces what remaining stress I had of discovering locations to cost on highway journeys.
Charging Pace Is Now Much less of an Problem
My automobile’s weakest hyperlink is DC quick charging. Its charging velocity is what I contemplate the slowest time that is nonetheless viable for highway journeys. The 45 minutes my automobile takes to get to 80% from 10% is slower than the half-hour that the ID4 and newer automobiles can do, however it’s not practically as leisurely because the 1 hour and quarter-hour that the Chevy Bolt requires.
If I set my sights on a 70% state of cost as a substitute, I can get again on the highway in a half hour as effectively. The problem is having sufficient locations to cease to compensate for the 25 fewer miles of vary. That is the place Supercharger entry is available in.
With CCS and Supercharger stations mixed, I can reliably anticipate to see chargers accessible not less than each 50 miles all through the area of the nation I drive via. I can hit the highway with 180 miles of vary at 70%, drive for a few hours, and skip a number of stations realizing that one can be close by when my cost will get low. It is sooner to cost rapidly extra usually than to cost for longer in hopes of maximizing my vary.
There Are Additionally Adapters for Tesla Vacation spot Chargers
Superchargers aren’t the one Tesla chargers which were off limits to me. There are Tesla Vacation spot Chargers that cost on the identical slower velocity as an at-home charger however are commonplace at some resorts. Adapters just like the TeslaTap open these as much as different EVs as effectively. I have never purchased considered one of these but, though they’ve been round for years. As soon as I do, I will be capable of cost at nearly any charging station.
Resides the dongle life superb for a automobile? No. However contemplating how not often I want public charging, it is a genuinely tiny inconvenience—and it is an issue that is already within the strategy of going away now that the trade has settled on a single charging plug, the North American Charging Standard (in any other case generally known as the Tesla plug), going ahead.
I really like my automobile, and I am blissful to see I will be capable of drive it lengthy distance for a few years to return. A Kia Niro EV will not be essentially the most thrilling EV for automobile nerds, however it’s a dependable set of wheels that’s virtually maintenance-free, generally free to gas, and really straightforward to restore. Having a Tesla Supercharger adapter is icing on the cake.
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