Hyundai IONIQ 5 EV Road Trip USA #3: SOUTH DAKOTA Sights, Sculpture, and Scarce DC Charging

[@plugandplayEV]

If you're enjoying this road trip series and would have liked a quicker publishing cadence, take a look at how we might use Oversubscribe to make that happen (and let us know whether or not you'd support so we can decide how to proceed!): plugandplayev.oversubscribe.co/

[@robertbrigham1620]

Thanks for taking us along on your journey. It's been 51 years since I was there, and would you believe it, the rocks haven't changed😉.

[@plugandplayEV]

My pleasure! Happily, no rocks fell down during our visit to South Dakota... shame I can't say the same about Moab, Utah!

[@anthonyc8499]

Hey Steve, i'm really enjoying this road trip series! I knew South Dakota was interesting but I'm seriously blown away by how gorgeous some of those state parks are. Definitely looks like a place with some amazing roads through some incredible scenery. I'm looking forward to the next episode through Idaho, Oregon, and into Washington!

[@plugandplayEV]

Thank you, almost in your region! I expected a unique experience at Badlands but was utterly, unexpectedly smitten with Custer State Park/Black Hills Nat.Forest. We mainly went for Wind Cave NO, but that ended up being the least of the experience. The diverse scenic drives and Crazy Horse memorial were worth the visit all on their own.

[@brianriebedriveselectric]

Love this video, a new angle on good memories! I appreciate how much scenery you kept in, it shows EV road trips aren’t all charging stops, but the places you can visit comfortably. Looking forward to the next one!

[@plugandplayEV]

Cheers! It actually reflects the flow of the trip, too. Illinois/Iowa were mostly driving out of necessity, but SD was several days of just enjoying the area. This is also why cross country trips are a bit daft unless you're doing them in retirement... very little time to stop and smell the roses (or to scour the trail for rattlesnakes, I suppose :-)

[@ScottThomasPhoto]

Really liked the music for the Badlands section. Glad to see someone corrected you about the "goat". :-) I thought those rocks looked familiar at Custer State Park as I have seen that movie numerous times. Nice to see one can do the Great American Road Trip through states you couldn't do just 5 years ago.

[@plugandplayEV]

Thanks! Zoology is on my list of study areas... or maybe we'll just spend more time in the visitor center next time around!

[@COSolar6419]

Thanks for normalizing EV travel. The “mountain goat”, mentioned in the caption about three minutes into the video, is actually a bighorn sheep.

[@plugandplayEV]

Thanks! I got the memo on bison vs. buffalo in time for video 2 but obviously have to spend more time on the bighorns. Appreciate the note!

[@SJVH1]

Good fun. Appreciate the effort in your time/effort in making and editing videos of your view of America's northern landscape. Rock on from Michigan!

[@plugandplayEV]

Thank you for the feedback :)

[@thenetworkarchitectchannel]

Badlands NP is on my bucket list now. What a unique place. Maybe on my way to Glacier NP. When you flash over to forest in the black hills, it is such a stark difference. I have several camping trips on the schedule for the remainder of the year. Most places I go there is no table and I find that to be an essential, so I need bring my own, taking quite a bit of precious storage space. One nice thing about the paid camp sites is there is always a table. I love that you took time to do drive loops and also bridged in state parks. I find those are gems that are often overlooked. Most of my camping is state parks or Forestry Svc land. @18:05, man Red-E really is widening their svc area. Cool charging stop. We have many FW stations all go down during that time too. I am thinking FW didn't pay their cell bill needed to facilitate payments. @27:38 BRISKET ;-0 !!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks like Buc-ees!!!! @31:24 envious of the 120 kW at 82%

[@plugandplayEV]

Highly recommended! Badlands is probably worth a day from the drive, then an extra if you want to camp and soak in deeper sights, like hikes or the frontier history. Custer State Park is an absolute must, to my mind. As you said, huge contrast moving from desolate, almost alien landscapes to the lush forests and lakes of CSP. I appreciated the Bureau of Land Management sites as we head up into Montana and Idaho. Very big, open spaces that are remarkably well-maintained and give you that Great Plains sunrise in many locations. Really opened my eyes to public land camping!

[@newscoulomb3705]

Thanks, Steve! Great footage! 18:00 That broken clip is almost certainly the cause of the failed activation because the clip is required to activate by most CCS1 EVs.

[@plugandplayEV]

Thanks for the validation.. sad that critical infrastructure is hobbled by a crummy bit of plastic 🤦 The site in Murdo, SD is especially important and Plugshare notes CHAdeMO available but CCS handle down. Should have stopped through there to see if it was the same issue.

[@newscoulomb3705]

@@plugandplayEV Yeah. I tend to be a little more understanding of outages when they are due to abuse, but that is one legitimate advantage J3400 has over CCS1. Moving the most delicate components to the car side makes the plugs much more robust to abuse. It still doesn't stop all-out vandalism or damage from driving over the cables, but instances like this wouldn't be nearly as common.

[@W4rH4wkXX]

w00t ... another leg of the journey is in .... "Charging started" *said in a monotone voice* ⚡🔋

[@plugandplayEV]

Good point... that voice should absolutely vary in tone based on arrival SOC and how many fast chargers are in the area. Under 10%? "PHEW! Charging started!" No others nearby? "Charging started... (you lucky sod)". Make it so, nerds at Hyundai!

[@thenetworkarchitectchannel]

…did I mention how much I love these videos?

[@plugandplayEV]

It is sincerely appreciated! ⚡🙏

[@Yanquetino]

Been there, seen that… but years before I got my first EV. I'd love to see it again now -and you even got to see a big horn sheep!

[@plugandplayEV]

Beautiful, diverse party of the country. Really enjoyed our visit. Would have missed the big horn but for some keen-eyed hikers on the return leg... glad they spotted it for us!

[@jerrymildredpetersen3177]

We're hoping to drive our Ioniq 5 to Glacier NP maybe next summer. Thanks for blazing a trail. It's fun to ride along on your road trips, Steve.

[@plugandplayEV]

Between Yellowstone, Glacier, Mt. Rainier, and the Cascades, we (intentionally) missed a whole bunch on this trip... all the more reason to return, I suppose! Thanks for watching and commenting. I'm glad these trips show what's out there and encourage more EV travel.

[@Carl_in_AZ]

Sorry to say, but South Dakota has done a poor job rolling out NEVI. In the last three months, many other states have awarded charging station contracts per their 2022 and 2023 plans. Many of these will be online in 2025 and 2026.

[@laloajuria4678]

they are a right wing hellhole....no sh sherlock.....

[@plugandplayEV]

I'm still digging into the remaining 10 pre-solicitation states for this month's NEVI update, but the list remains everything from EV-friendly states (WA, NJ) administering a different way to states with early progress, to hostile states questioning the need for spending (FL, WY). The rest sit somewhere on that spectrum, though at least SD has identified locations that could be considered. At a minimum, helping the site host update that Freewire in Murdo to something more reliable would be a good start.

[@Longsnowsm]

Looks like a great trip. Always amazing to see how fast that I5 charges. Even at that 50kw charger 50 minutes to 80% is easily on par with what my Bolt would have done and that I5 has a bigger battery. So not bad at all really if you occasionally have to deal with the slow chargers. The V2L thing looks like it could have some practical application and the battery pack could also act as a gas can of sorts in a pinch.

[@plugandplayEV]

Right, it took us at least six months after the Bolt to retrain our brains around planning trips. It's great to have the option to leave quickly, but it definitely removed some of the research around where can we eat/what should we go see during charging stops. Now, we're unprepared for 50+ minute stops, so it comes as a shift in our regular Ioniq 5 stops. In the case of Sheridan, the only mismatch was the site host. It was a good time to eat, so a 50-100kW station a couple of miles south in the town itself would be better for both drivers and the businesses there. Spending a bit at a gas station that's already busy is one thing, but injecting that money - and tourist/sightseeing dollars - into Main St businesses is a frequently overlooked opportunity with EV charging.

[@Longsnowsm]

@@plugandplayEV That is a very interesting observation. It may be in the best interest of these small towns to have DCFC, but not necessarily "fast" charging. The longer people are there the more likely they are to shop, eat, and look around. So there may be an ulterior motive involved! LOL The downside is if the neighboring towns get the same idea and install a faster charger then it might draw people away. This is an interesting dynamic. I hope these off the beaten path places come to this realization. It would take some retraining on how to do your NASCAR pit stops and get everything done when the car is so quick to charge! Great problem to have for sure.

[@tpalmer3206]

Like how you demonstrated charging your power supply with the I5. Great scenery too. I tried clicking on the link for Oversubscribe to check out the model but I got a website expired screen. Using Safari on my iPad.

[@plugandplayEV]

It was an eye-opening power dance for me, depending on the campsite and availability of electrical hookups, so I'm glad it was of interest to you as well. Thanks for the heads up. Working on the link with them now.

[@plugandplayEV]

Oversubscribe page should be back up now. Thanks again for the alert!

[@shlemielo]

Just noticed you're running Conti ExtremeContact. How do you like them on the Ioniq 5, particularly in winter? We're also in the Boston area.

[@plugandplayEV]

They were actually surprisingly good, for non-winter specific tires. I did a few errand runs up in central New Hampshire and Maine when the first snows hit last winter and felt confident on unplowed roads with a couple of inches. Overall, the traction was about as good as I've felt it when we first put them on. The stock Michelins were okay but I do feel the ExtremeContacts gripped a little better initially. The ride is slightly louder, but nothing unbearable. The set we bought it with lasted about 35K miles and these are about due for replacement at 75K, so I think the Contis wear a little better as well.

[@shlemielo]

@@plugandplayEV Thanks for the detailed response! I'm noticing pretty poor wear on the OEM set as well, 4-5/32 left at 25k.

[@DeuceGort]

I feel sick to my stomach just seeing your "miles left" at 21 or less!

[@plugandplayEV]

Whaaaaat? That's not even "reduced power" territory... 🙂

[@TeslaDo_d]

You still have range anxiety. You need to push your limits a little more to get over it. I roll into my home at less than 5 miles on many occasions now. Why buy expensive electrons if you can easily make it home for the cheap stuff. Do like I did, and take your EV for several circles around the local area when the range is under 10 miles. You will begin to feel the sluggishness when the battery is nearly depleted. Take note of how far you can go below zero and how it feels when you have no more juice to play with. It will increase your confidence when on the road and wondering if you can make it to a charger. It also helps if you determine just how much of a drain the life support systems are...so that you can turn them off if you need a few more miles.