Can the Ioniq EV 28kWh Drive 200km+ on the Motorway?

The Ioniq EV 28kWh is such a small range car, isn't it? You wouldn't expect to be able to drive 200km let alone more on the motorway, even in the UK where the speed limit is 70miles/hour. Or would you?
Perfect occasion to give it a go today. We're going to a destination that's at 208km away: we've spotted a nice Gridserve forecourt, which will act as target location for this test. It's a bank holiday weekend, let's see if we get there with a single charge and in how much time. And if we need more than a single charge, whether we can just fall back easily on another charger without planning ahead.
Referral code if you are looking to switch to Octopus energy
share.octopus.energy/jolly-sn...
#EV #ioniq28 #range #Ioniq 28kwh #hyundai ioniq 28kwh #Motorway range

[@TLT84]

I made several times ( in summer ) Maastricht - Eindhoven - Maastrich with one charge. (210km) Ioniq is an amazing EV.

[@evdabbler]

Amazing indeed!

[@JorgeniLund]

Still the Ioniq Electric 28 is one of the markets most efficient EV you can find. We need to wait to see if the Ioniq 6 may beat the 28 in efficiency. I not sure it will.

[@tfnico]

It did not (Autohaus Sangl did a test with mixed driving), but it may be that the smaller battery pack on the 6 is better at high speeds (>130km/h).

[@evdabbler]

As far as I have seen, Ioniq 28 remains unbeatable in its class (let alone comparing with bigger cars). French channel 'La Chaine EV' just ran a simultaneous 50 cars comparison and Ioniq6 rwd long range was not near.

[@tooflesstesla]

Nice video! I drove this route from London to Norwich in an Ioniq 28kWh a few months back (in March 2024) and all was smooth.

[@evdabbler]

In fairness what was I expecting - an empty road on a bank holiday ? :-)

[@Nikoo033]

That Gridserve charging hub looks amazing. 😍 We need more of these.

[@evdabbler]

Yep will cover in separate video... we ended up using both in the same weekend. It's a game changer

[@decimal1815]

We need literally hundreds of these hub sites over the UK, with good facilities on site. You know, like motorway services have (sort of..).

[@Nikoo033]

“Not going to be charging, because I feel like a player today” 😂😂👏🏻👏🏻 I can tell you, this brave adventurous behaviour would not go down very well with my wife 😂

[@evdabbler]

I guess the point is that increasingly this is not brave anymore because you can always bail out and there will be a nearby charger. Also so far, can't recall a case where we were caught off guard.

[@Nikoo033]

@@evdabbler I have so far never used the on-board charging station tool provided by Hyundai, do you think it is working ok? I imagine that it doesn’t provide/display charger availability though, does it? I found the Ioniq can use the internet connection of my phone, so maybe it can get that type of info?

[@Nikoo033]

@@evdabbler regarding being caught off guard, can tell you it’s still pretty “wild” in Wales regarding chargers 😅🙈

[@evdabbler]

@@Nikoo033 Very true. The one recent time I felt we were borderline was in North wales, after going up then down Snowdonia.

[@Nikoo033]

Having now tested a number of charging stations, my calculations show that BP pulse chargers (DC but also AC) have surprisingly the lowest charging losses across the board, by far. 0-3% max generally (DC or AC) while some other brands disgustingly can sometimes reach 20% losses. Pretty impressive. I have so far tested: Gridserve, BP Pulse, Podpoint, Franklin/Raw charging, Blink, VendElectric, Osprey, EV Power.

[@evdabbler]

Interesting. Worth classifying in AC and DC separately as the latter is supposed to be much closer to no loss, when the former will hardly go below 10%

[@Nikoo033]

@@evdabbler sorry yes, the one AC charge with BP Pulse turned out at 2.6% losses (over 14kWh paid for), which I found particularly impressive, while the DC had apparently no loss (15kWh paid for). Edited my message above for correct %.

[@duneplodder]

Thank you. I'm curious to know where you got your 4.39kWh regeneration figure from? It seems a lot?

[@evdabbler]

This is all based on the recorded data. This would not be as high if traffic was lower, as we d be coasting more.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

My brother had this car, loved it, then moved to the 38 and was plagued with 12v issues and after a year and a half swapped it for a Kia Soul (same as Ive had for 3 years problem free). ETA sucha shame that Hyundai didnt carry the efficiency of this car forward to the Ioniq 5. He did find the 38 had great efficiency but was too unreliable.

[@evdabbler]

The 12V issues are well known (although I thought it was equally on 28kWh and 38kWh as well as other EVs) and I have covered my own blunder on video in this department. Ioniq 5 is not quite as efficient but Ioniq 6 RWD gets incredibly close, which is impressive for a (too) big car.

[@decimal1815]

Nice video. The problem, as you say, isn't the small battery. However, if you want to do a 300-mile journey in the UK, there are likely to be queues at the charging stations on your route, so that will add to the journey time. I recently had to wait nearly 30 minutes to get a charging space off the M62 for example when doing what should have been a 3 hour round trip. As things stand, 200 miles of 70mph real-world motorway range is the minimum to make an EV viable. If the charging points get better and there are 20+ chargers at each site, the smaller battery won't be a problem. I'd be happy to stop every 100 miles to charge, go to the toilet, have a snack, and then move off again.

[@evdabbler]

There are good hubs in the UK but it's unclear that the progress is well orchestrated. Experience from across the channel is very good given substantial progress in last 18 months.

[@JorgeniLund]

I bet you could 👍

[@evdabbler]

Good bet!

[@SusieSmart]

Do you think travelling at a constant 60 mph / 97-100 km/h that 140 miles should be easily achievable? I am driving from Dundee in Scotland down to Brentwood at the start of May and was hoping to get 140 miles to a charge.

[@duneplodder]

Possible, in warm weather, but I wouldn't say "easily achievable". My longest journey, 80% motorway, the rest A roads, was 122 miles with 17 miles remaining on the Gom. It was April last year & I think the adaptive cruise control was set at 63 mph.

[@Nikoo033]

WLTP values never take into account the fact that in truth, you never want to end up lower than 10%-15% of battery if you can avoid. This is both to protect the battery and to avoid being stranded, having to drive at 30 mph for 7-10 miles to reach a charger. According to my own recent experience, in winter, on motorway, with heat pump on, the Hyundai Ioniq displays 4.5 miles/kWh and 112 miles available, so 100% down to 15/10% of battery left allows you to actually drive for 95-100 miles at 65mph on average. In Spring, it now displays 130 miles available, so 100% down to 15/10% of battery left allows you to actually drive at similar speed for 110-117 miles. Interestingly, because of traffic or sometimes road works, the average speed on the UK motorway usually ends up being around 60-65 mph instead of 70. Meaning that with the Ioniq 28kWh and these real driving figures, you will have to stop and charge every 1h30min-1h50min or so, which is close to when you’d have to have a break anyway to reduce tiredness and the likelihood of having an accident. I hope this helps.

[@SusieSmart]

@@Nikoo033 I’m a 60 mph on every motorway type person anyway. I was hoping for at least 5 mi/kWh so I can get ~140 miles to a charge. I have a 10% buffer in mind already so would stop probably every 125-130 miles. I can charge at my final destination so that’s not a huge issue :) I did manage to get about 4.8 mi/kWh the other day on a long-ish journey when the temps were around 5-8°C

[@Nikoo033]

@@SusieSmart I suppose it also depends on your load (luggage and passengers). My figures are for a family of 4 with luggage, at least two phones charging, music on, heat/AC on auto all the time. 😁 But if you do manage over 130 miles with a buffer of 10% at 60mph, I’ll be impressed 💪🏻👏🏻

[@evdabbler]

I agree with the answers, 140 is a real stretch. 4.8 miles/kWh very achievable though. Also don't forget after cycle 1, you top up to 94% not 100%. That's about 2.2kWh less you can count on.

[@davidsworld5837]

now its not just how many miles it did to a unit of electricity. but the cost ???? since did over 5 miles which beat most of the newer cars and far far away from rubbish electric cars that can only do 2 miles the cost to use is far smaller. and for a car that can easy carry a good amount of stuff in it.

[@evdabbler]

Having charged overnight at 7.5p/kWh and counting c12% charger overhead that's 25.5kWh and 210km for £1.90. That's about 1.5p per mile. About 9 times less than our diesel before... but that's the best case scenario. The same on Gridserve charge and given the price per kWh, that comes to about same as diesel car for the return leg.

[@fernandinand]

Short answer...@60km/h, yes