EV6 Review
2022 EV6 Wind AWD
In November 2023, after researching for months, we bought a used 2022 Kia EV6. My personal training business was growing, requiring me to drive a lot to see clients. Rising gas prices and my goal to reduce CO2 emissions inspired me to get an electric vehicle. My 2012 Honda CRV was still performing well, but I knew its value was dropping. I could sell it for about $10,000, which would help cover the loan for the EV6. The final reason was learning that Tesla's charging network would be open to other vehicles in 2025. Now that we've had the EV6 for a year, I’ll share my experience and address common myths about electric vehicles.
TL;DR: I love it. EVs are not for everyone yet, but for people who mainly drive local and can charge at home, they are a great way to save money and the environment. And, holy cow they are fun to drive.
CONTENTS
Charging at home and on the road
What is an EV?
EVs are any car that is fully electric. Internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are the vast majority in the world, but EVs are starting to gain traction.
There seems to be a prevailing idea that all EVs are self-driving and Teslas. Tesla indeed dominates the market, but all the major auto companies have EVs now. And the vast majority of EVs (including Teslas) are not self-driving.
Tesla has an optional package that can “self-drive” but it costs nearly as much as the car. And there are self-driving cars out there that are not EVs.
Most new cars these days have advanced cruise control modes that sense traffic and maintain safe distances and stay in lanes. This is not exclusive to EVs. And it is amazing. My EV6 has this and it makes highway driving much easier.
There are also plug-in hybrids that have a small battery with a short range (usually around 100 miles) and also a gas engine that takes over when the battery is drained. For 95% of most peoples driving needs, 100 miles is more than sufficient and the ICE engine can be used for road trips.
Driving an EV
If you’ve never been in an EV, you need to change that ASAP. Rent one for a day. Or get a ride with someone who owns one. They drive like a dream. No gear shifting. Crazy fast acceleration. No engine noise or vibration. Smooth.
Also, the single-pedal driving is wonderful if you enjoy it. What is single-pedal driving? When you ease off the “gas” pedal, the car slows and stops. One pedal works as acceleration and braking.
It is hard to describe, you really need to experience it yourself. Once you do, you will see what all the fuss is about.
It is a shock to me every time I drive an ICE car these days. They seem clunky and inefficient.
The EV6 itself
We rented a Tesla Model 3 on a trip to Arizona in 2023. That was 5 days of driving around 900 miles, so we got a pretty good taste of the Tesla experience. And it is an amazing vehicle and has a wonderful driving feeling.
On another trip to Florida I rented a Kia Niro EV for a weekend so I could have a non-Tesla experience. Just an OK experience, since that is a bare-bones EV.
Then I did a lot of research and settled on an EV6 for its high consumer ratings, cargo space, charging speed, and overall look.
Teslas are well-made (except when they aren’t) and a new approach to driving. Most functions are accessed through the built-in screen, and knobs and buttons are scarce. I prefer having some of the normal car stuff (like wiper control) where I’m used to it. The EV6 has all the regular stuff, plus a nice screen to access other features. So, it drives like an EV, but functions pretty much as every other car in terms of signaling, audio, wipers, etc.
Single-pedal driving is a great feature of some EVs (including the EV6), and for the first few months I always switched that on. Eventually though I discovered the steering wheel paddles and began using those instead. On the EV6, you can control the brakes from the steering wheel. And the amount of coast you want when you let off the accelerator. Makes driving very fun and increases the overall efficiency of the battery.
There are three drive modes in my EV6: normal, eco and sport. Eco turns off the front motor and that increases the driving range. Normal uses both motors and you lose maybe 10 miles of range. Sport makes the car feel like a caged beast ready to pounce. It leaps ahead when you hit the accelerator. And you lose another 10-15 miles of range.
In eco mode I can still accelerate to merge with highway traffic in about 2 seconds (I mean, from say 45 to 65). And can easily overtake any vehicle. Normal mode is a bit faster than that. Sport mode is crazy fast. I think 0-60 in 4 seconds.
I don’t spend much time in sport mode, because I’m either in start-stop traffic, or want better range for longer trips. But it’s fun any time I do it.
The car has the usual safety features: backup camera, sensors all over the place, adaptive cruise control. It actually locked up and wouldn’t let me pull out of a parking spot when a car I didn’t see sped past. A weird but comforting feeling. More expensive models have the “exterior” 3D model for parking, but mine does not.
Another upgrade I don’t have is the ability to walk up and have the doors unlock as long as you have the fob on you. My wife’s 10-year-old Lexus has this, and I wish I did. The tailgate will open as you approach, which is helpful when I’m carrying something. Odd that they crippled that feature on the rest of the car.
The seats are comfy. Heated and cooled. I can turn on climate control remotely through the app and that is a very nice feature.
One note about heat in an EV: since there is no engine to provide heat, a heat pump does the job. It takes a bit to heat up, so I’m learning to always try to pre-heat when its cold.
Ample cargo space in the back. I can fit all my band gear with no trouble.
Also, there is no middle “hump” in an EV because there is no engine taking up space. That adds a remarkable amount of space all over the car.
My biggest frustration is how easy it is to leave the car on when you park. No engine noise means no audio cue that the car is still on. Once you are out and try to lock it with the fob, the car beeps at you to let you know you left it on. I still do this several times a week.
The Kia Access app is adequate, but when you compare it to Tesla’s app it falls woefully short. The Tesla app is always communicating with the car, has no lag and can plot your optimal route with ease along with controlling all aspects of the car. Kia Access takes several seconds to connect every time you use it, doesn’t connect probably 25% of the time, and barely controls the climate. Forget about plotting a usable route or finding a charging station.
It does warn me if the car is unlocked, and I can lock it from the app. Overall, the app is just good enough. But mediocre in this day and age.
Charging an EV6 is fast. On a supercharger I can go from 10% to 90% in about 20 minutes. On my home charger I can do the same in under 6 hours.
Overall, it is the best car I have owned. Extremely fun to drive, comfortable and easy to maintain.
Charging at home
Another misconception people have is that the only way to charge is public chargers. I rarely use public chargers. Only when I do road trips.
EV owners plug in at home. You can charge off your normal 120v (Level 1 charging) or install a faster 240v (Level 2) system. Level 1 takes 30-40 hours to charge a drained battery. Level 2 takes under 15 hours for the same. Public chargers vary in voltage, but I can charge my EV from 10% to 80-90% in about 20 minutes.
Wait a minute! 30-40 hours to charge your car??? That’s from empty. And rarely happens.
Let’s say you have a typical driving day. Go to work, maybe drop kids off, run some errands. For most people, that’s 30-50 miles.
Let’s assume your EV range is 300 miles at 80% charge (ranges vary wildly, this is just for easy math). That means without charging you can do your daily stuff for over a week. Like a typical tank of gas. But then you’d have to charge for 30-40 hours, so that makes no sense.
Instead, you drive, you come home and plug in overnight. The next morning, you are at 80% again with 300 miles. Rinse, repeat. Easy.
Or skip a day or two charging. Now you’re down to 60% and 200 miles. Plug in overnight and you are back to 80% again, even on a Level 1 charger.
Level 2 chargers make this even easier. I realistically only need to plug in once or twice a week.
The cost of a good home Level 2 charger is around $500. Plus the 240v install and an electrician to install it all. We got ours as part of our solar install, so that was “free”.
But what about the cost of electricity to charge the car? This varies from state to state and also depends on when you do it. Off-peak pricing (night time) is cheaper. Having solar lowers it even more. The best guess is around $50 a month without solar. Ours is much lower because of solar, but I’m unsure the exact amount because it varies month to month, and I get very confused trying to do the math.
Much cheaper than paying for gas, which can be over $150 a month.
On average, it costs around 5 cents per mile for an EV, and 13 cents per mile for ICE.
Charging on the road
The Tesla Network is a game-changer. They are everywhere and make driving Teslas over long distances a breeze. The app integrates seamlessly with the network and can tell you how many chargers are available, and how fast they are charging before you get there.
On a road trip, you plug in your destination on the Tesla app, and it calculates how many stops you will need, and where those stops are.
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t calculate based on getting to “empty” and needing to charge fully. It just needs to get you to your destination, where it assumes you will be able to charge.
For example, we rented a Tesla in Phoenix and immediately drove to Flagstaff. It’s only about 150 miles. No sweat for a 70% charged Tesla, which is what we were promised. Except it wasn’t at 70%. Closer to 50%. Barely enough juice to get there.
No worries, we plugged in the destination and it told us to stop for a 3-minute charge about halfway. Which was perfect because we needed a bathroom break and grabbed a sandwich. The car was ready long before we were.
My sister and brother-in-law have a Tesla and he told us to trust the app. And we did on that trip and it never let us down. We drove all over northern Arizona from the Grand Canyon up to Page and all the way back down to Phoenix. There is nothing bur scenery in that part of Arizona. But there were Tesla chargers everywhere we needed them. We never had to wait for a charge, because we could time them for pit stops and meals. It was a great experience.
Ok, but I have a Kia. It can’t use the Tesla network. Yet. So, how does the non-Tesla charging experience work? Poorly in comparison.
First of all, there is no awesome app integration in the non-Tesla world. There are third-party apps that try to do similar road-trip planning things but I’ve found they all are terrible. Much easier for me to use Google Maps and plan it myself.
The issue is that there are several charging companies out there and they all have their own apps and networks. Integrating them is nearly impossible. The one I use the most is Electrify America (EA). Shell has their own chargers. Chargepoint, Duke Power, EVGo, and a few others.
I have driven to Asheville and Cherokee twice, RDU several times and my biggest trip was to Nashville.
For RDU I don’t need to charge on the road, but it is good to know where the chargers are just in case. I’ve used EA chargers three times near Durham just as a precaution since I had to stop anyway.
For Asheville/Cherokee I can make it from home, but stop in Statesville to top off at an EA station just to be safe. I make it a food pit stop.
The casino in Cherokee has free level 2 charging in the parking deck, so that is super convenient. Asheville has a good EA station. These trips are easy.
Blowing Rock is another frequent trip. I could theoretically make it there and back on a single charge. Conveniently, the parking deck in town has a Chargepoint level 2 charger that you can use for a couple of hours or overnight. So, that trip is a breeze, too.
The Nashville trip was the big test. This is where the Tesla network would have been a game-changer. I knew where I would stop for EA charging: Statesville, Asheville, Knoxville and then Nashville. Reverse it for the trip home. Easy peasy.
Well, the Statesville station was down for maintenance. Something I would have seen if I’d opened the EA app and checked. Lesson learned. Fortunately I found another fast charger right around the corner at a Shell station so no big deal.
I got to Asheville and all the bays were occupied. So I went to a nearby deli and got a sandwich and charged when I got back. The same thing happened in Knoxville. And happened once on the way home.
So, the charging added probably an hour to my trip instead of about 20 minutes I was hoping. I consider it “adding” to the trip if all I’m doing is charging. Not leaving the car and eating or using the bathroom.
Not ideal.
One thing I will say about the EA chargers - they are FAST. And one of the reasons I settled on the EV6 is it has one of the fastest re-charge times out there. Once you are “full” on an EA charger, you have 10 minutes to move your car or they start charging an “Idle Fee” of $.40/minute (to keep folks from just parking there indefinitely). Several times I’ve plugged in, been told it would take over 20 minutes to charge and so I’ve gone into a store or restaurant. Only to be alerted a few minutes later that charging is complete and I’m going to get hit with an idle fee if I don’t move my car. Crazy fast.
Here’s the good news: the Tesla network is opening to most EVs in 2025. In fact, most new EVs made in 2024 now come with Tesla ports built-in and access to the network. I will need to wait until early 2025 to get access, then buy an adaptor. This should make road trips much easier and more efficient in the future.
EV as power source
Here’s one of the best features of an EV. You can use it as a power source in a power outage, or if you are out camping or need power in a remote location. An EV6 can power a house for about 6 hours. The Ford F150 Lightning can power a house for a couple days, I believe. It all depends on the size of the battery.
Remember - the highest use of power for an EV is moving the car. Otherwise, the battery is barely touched for things like climate control. So running external items off the battery is not that taxing.
In our case, I figure I need to keep the refrigerator cold and one or two lights on. The fridge can be plugged in for an hour and then unplugged for a bit. It doesn’t need to be plugged in all the time to stay cool. I’m guessing I can keep that up for two or three days on a charge. And can go out and recharge somewhere and come back. We’ve lost power for 7 days once, but usually it’s only a few hours. But I feel like the car will keep us in business for as long as we need.
I’ve also used this feature to run a heater for band practice, and to power a sound system for a neighborhood Chili Cookoff in a nearby park.
The battery can do things like that for days.
Range Anxiety
This is a real thing: the fear you will run out of charge and be stranded somewhere. Most (if not all) new EV owners go through it. It’s new tech, and we aren’t used to it, so the fear is founded in that.
I finally got over it in the spring when I drove to Cary for ultimate practice in the morning and spent the afternoon driving around before I had to referee a game that evening in Durham. Not sure what it was, but I think the ease with which I was able to find a charge station and get topped up made me realize the “fear” is the same as with an ICE car. Keep your tank full and know where your charge/fuel stations are and it’s no longer a big deal.
In fact, I was so over it, not long after that I drove us back from Charlotte airport knowing I had just enough charge to get us home, and still dropped my niece off at her house first. Lorraine was not (and is still not) over range anxiety and did not appreciate how close I cut it. But I knew we’d be fine as we pulled into our driveway with under 10 miles of range left.
Myths and Misconceptions
There are a lot of myths floating around out there in forms of memes and misinformation. I’ll try to address some of them
Price: EVs are so much more expensive. Not anymore. Yes, they are pricey, but so is every other new car these days. True, you can get an ICE car for under $20k new, and there are no EVs in that range. But nobody wants to buy that car anyway. People buy trucks and SUVs that are as or more expensive than EVs. And the yearly savings on gas more than make up any comparable difference.
Weight: EVs are heavy and bad for roads. True, they are heavier than comparable vehicles. But, again, people are buying trucks and SUVs that weigh far more. I think there would be a net decrease in weight if people switched off those huge cars to medium-sized EVs.
The electric infrastructure can’t handle EVs: Today, if everyone got an EV, we’d be screwed. That is not going to happen. At the current adoption rate, the infrastructure is evolving to handle it. By the time everyone has one, the problem will be solved.
There aren’t enough chargers: There are literally millions (billions?) of chargers. Every electrical outlet is a charger. Again, for the vast majority of use, you plug in at home and wake up with a fresh full charge. Only road trips are an issue and Tesla has pretty much solved that, and will continue to add to their network as need rises.
EVs are not more eco-friendly: This one goes around every few months. The argument is that the energy used to mine the materials for batteries negates any benefits. There’s a meme with a huge mining vehicle and scary figures about how much CO2 it spews. There are stats that it takes several years before you make up for the CO2 used to make the car. Also you have to burn CO2 to make the energy to charge the car. Some of that may be true, but it is greatly exaggerated. EVs do not spew CO2 as they drive. That alone makes them better than ICE cars, which also consume CO2 in manufacturing. EVs are also more efficient - 80-90% of the energy goes to powering the car. An ICE vehicle only using 15% of it’s energy to power the car. A huge portion of energy is used just to keep the engine running, then there is evaporated fuel and many inefficiencies along the power train. Overall, EVs are far more eco-friendly, and as we move to more and more renewable energy sources (as we are doing), they become even better.
EVs catch fire and lock people in: That has happened. It’s very rare, and each time something like that happens, a solution is rolled out to keep it from happening again. No car is 100% safe. Driving itself is dangerous. All modern cars have lots of new safety features to make it less risky. Meanwhile, ICE cars threaten lives daily but we are just used to it. Look, an ICE car is a bomb. It is full of highly flammable liquid. Car manufacturers have designed incredible safety measures to make them safe, but at the end of the day ICE drivers still drive around in a car that could explode.
You are screwed in a crisis with an EV: You have to evacuate and the roads are clogged and you sit in traffic for hours. Your EV will run out of charge and you’ll wish you had a gas car! This one is actually almost 100% reversed. EVs use the majority of their power to move the vehicle. An idle EV barely puts a dent in its charge even with climate control running. An ICE car will run out of gas long before an EV runs out of charge while idling. The other side of this is that when the power is out, you can’t charge your EV. Well, you can’t pump gas, either. Everyone has to wait it out.
We are being forced to buy EVs: I’m not sure where this one comes from (I assume it is repeated on “news” stations I don’t consume), but apparently anger is being fueled that the liberals are forcing everyone to buy an EV. There were some great incentives to help people buy EVs, but the incentives keep decreasing. I suppose part of it is the amount of EVs being built, and while more and more of them are coming, there are still plenty of ICE cars out there. No one is forcing anyone to buy an EV.
The Tesla Conundrum
Without Tesla, we’d still be in ICE cars dreaming about getting away from gas. The cars they make are wonderful, when they are made properly. They have quality-control issues that lead to the vast majority of complaints about EVs.
More so than the cars themselves, the Tesla charging network is the real game-changer. It is everywhere, and makes doing road-trips in Teslas super easy.
Unfortunately, there is a problematic figure at the reins there these days. And as much as I enjoyed driving a rented Tesla on a trip, I did not enjoy the stripped-down interior control system. We could not figure out how to turn on the wipers without Googling. Not great in the pouring rain.
I also needed lots of cargo space to fit band gear, and the larger Tesla Model Y is much pricier than the EV6.
Finally, due to demand, it is hard to get a Tesla. (This high demand is what leads to the QC issues as they rush to get cars made and miss things - I assume they are cleaning this up.)
