EVs, Hyundai Ionic, Home Charging & Tesla Test Drive

I thought it might be helpful to tell our story of shopping for EVs, our decision, and how it's worked out so far.  Comments, please!

Our Plug in Prius

We'd long owned a plug in Hybrid Prius, where plugging in to our regular driveway outlet, we'd get 9-12 miles on the 2nd battery, and for those local errands pretend we were driving an EV!  I think this Prius was one of the early vehicles with regenerative breaking, where use of the brakes adds electricity to the small extra plug in battery. 

The biggest challenge to the plug in hardware was a habit to leave the cable outside, which resulted in corroding and no longer working.  So over the 12 years we owned it, we went through 4 different charging cables!  

A cool charging story with our plug in Prius happened when we drove to Ashville, SC.  Approaching on the Rocky Mountain Highway, the road has a very long decline into the valley where Ashville lay.   I mentioned the regenerative breaking.  Well, on the long hill down into Ashville, we noticed to our surprise for the first time ever or since, that the 2nd battery was filling up, not from plugging it in, but just from the long regenerative braking session!

The Prius worked well for us, but advanced in years though not so in miles, it was time to think of our next car, which was going to be an EV.  

Path to an EV

Once on this path, back in 2024, I first consulted ConsumerReports, and learned that CR rated the Hyundai Ionic 6 at the top of EV ratings.  I’d never thought of a Hyundai car before, but now it was in our minds when we noticed a Hyundai Ionic in the driveway of neighbors I bike by regularly.  The neighbor was very helpful sharing their experience.  Wanting to try at least one other maker before pursuing the Ionic more seriously, we decided to test drive a Tesla Model 3 at a local dealer.  This took place in early 2024, long before all the crazy Elan stuff took place resulting in protests at Tesla offices and dealers.  That experience needs a whole chapter but here goes. 

Tesla Model 3 Test Drive

There was a Tesla dealership north of us so we made an appointment for a test drive.  As we pulled in, on the bluff above were parked a line of Tesla Trucks.  Some time later I was able to share with the sales rep who helped us that I didn’t think that was the best look to encourage people to come in!  Much later, when the crazy Elan stuff started, I'm sure these were removed.  

Anyway, we met a nice sales rep who settled us in a new Tesla Model 3.  My only previous Tesla experience was back in 2023 in Austin, TX for the eclipse that year,.  I rented an older Model 3 I from Avis.  Not accustomed to the EV, I put the car in drive and took the longest time to figure out, unlike generations of regular cars, that until I pushed the accerator pedal, the car wouldn't move.  Also bizarre was having a car with no On/Off switch!  When I got undeway, prominent in that car was the screen showing camera views of all the cars around me, which was incredible.  In the new Model 3, instead of an actual camera view, the screen showed an animated visualization of the surrounding traffic.  I preferred the old way.  

We pulled out with the sales rep in the back seat - helping us with many details.  I asked to try the FSD - full self-driving and he showed us how to engage it.  We gave it a destination and off we went.  The driving style of the self-driving was very smooth - it felt as if it was perfectly balanced between too cautious and too aggressive.  We pulled into the mouth of a nearby parking lot, and pressed the “Parking” button. The car looked down the row for an empty space, pulled next to it, and smartly backed into it.  I was amazed at how far the tech had progressed - and the parking function was just marvelous!  

On the way back, on a busy 4 lane road, with self-driving engaged, the car was in the left lane.  At some point, the rep told me to take the car out of self-driving and move to right lane.  When I did so, I noticed a huge Fire Engine with lights and blaring sounds barreled past us.  When I queried our rep about why the car didn’t react sooner, and so requiring our intervention, he didn’t reply.  

I am familiar with the change in Tesla’s training the self-driving software, from trying to code every interaction, to exposing the software to a gazillion of videos of good tesla driving.  Convinced that this certainly included a great number of emergency vehicle situations, why the car didn’t promptly react to this one remains a mystery.  So our demo showed both how far the self-driving software has come, yet how far it still has to go! 

Back at the dealership, getting out of the Model 3, we had another reaction.  The car is quite low slung which makes for terrific handling.  But for older people like my wife and I, it was not at all easy to get in and out of, reminding me of my brother’s old BMW that was notoriously like that. We left with a quote from the sales rep that was a little higher than I expected.  Thus, back in 2024, we crossed the Tesla Model 3 off the list, primarily because it wouldn’t be the best car for my spouse, who’d be the main driver. 

Trying the Hyundai Ionic

Next, we used the info from our neighbor to establish contact with a couple of Hyundai dealerships.  

The NACS Port Idea

I had seen a social post from Jim Farley, the Ford CEO, about Ford EVs moving to the Tesla NACS charging port in their new EVs.  https://youtu.be/7vE0KXHZXCY?si=wqpnJtZIoXkZrWV6&t=245

In late 2024, it was clear to me from following then Transportation Secretary Pete Budigudge that President Biden’s Infrastructure Law had helped repair bridges and roads all across the country.  The one part of the infrastructure law that had moved slowly, if at all, was the plan to build EV chargers all around the country.  I knew that the Tesla Supercharger sites are already built around the country.  First, from my Austin, TX experience with the rental Tesla, and second, from a tech user group presentation about a couple’s Tesla journey across the country, using a southern route going and a northern route coming back.

So I paid attention to Jim Farley -We don't need no stinkin adaptor, https://youtu.be/VqomZQMZQCQ?si=4SGFhCbxwR_Yst14.  I was delighted to find that certain new 2025 Hyundai Ionics were coming out that had these NACS charging ports.  Because of the Consumer Reports review, I was assuming we’d want an Ionic 6.  But as we were looking, getting an EV with the NACS port became a requirement.  For reasons unclear to me, more of the 2025 Ionic 5s were coming out with the NACS port, and fewer of the Ionic 6s were.  

Test Drive of a Hyundai Ionic.

Getting to know a Hyundai dealer, we visited a Showroom, and test drove an Ionic 6.  The contrast with the Tesla Model 3 was dramatic.  The Ionic was much easier to get into and out of than the Tesla.  Instead of the step down into the Tesla, it was a step UP to the SUV style Ionic (more on that later).  And the Ionic actually had an On/Off button.  This car allows the driver to set it to behave as a regular car.  So in drive, the car moves forward slowly and the brakes are used to keep it still, like at a traffic light.  One can set it to behave more like an EV, so it only goes forward with the press of the accelerator, but don't have to.  This car rode smoothly, quietly, and was easy to drive.  While there was a screen on the dash, it was not as large as the Tesla screen, and the Ionic, already bowing to consumer demand to bring back some physical buttons/dials, has a bunch of these that are easy to see and use.  This test drive was successful at convincing us that an Ionic was for us!

It took several weeks for the dealer to find an Ionic in the right color for us - We jumped when they had a 2025 Ionic 5 with NACS port in a blue/gray color.  

Home Charger Install

While we'd been looking, we approached our electrician to install a level 2 charger in our driveway.  I'd always assumed I'd have a ChargePoint model because I'd long had a Chargepoint account and card to to plug in our Prius away from home.  But wanting a model that could use our NACS port, I read good things about the Tesla Home Charger.  https://shop.tesla.com/product/wall-connector 

While fitting our car's charging port well, this unit also came with an adapter easily allowing an EV with the Universal J1772 cable to easily plug in also.  That way, we could easily charge another non Tesla vehicle for a visitor also.  We had our electrician install it - ours was a more pricy install because of the distance the wire had to travel underground - but we were very happy with the work.  

Life with our Ionic 5

Overall, we're very happy with our new EV.  With our local driving, the car's large range (exceeding 360 miles) means that we charge the car about every 3-4 weeks!  Early in the life of the car, we drove to Annapolis, MD for an anniversary B&B stay.  The house adverted EV charging so I had planned to use it.  But arriving there, our range will still above 60% so there was no reason to charge it!  

Finally, in the summer, we drove to the Delaware beach to visit friends.  That trip finally used enough of the range that we wanted to charge on the way back.  We did so at a Tesla SuperCharger on the way to the Bay Bridge.  Once plugged in, the fast charge got us to 80% in little more than 15 minutes.  The only trick with using older Tesla Supercharger installations is the shortness of the charging cable, enough for Teslas with charging port at the back, but requiring a special back in, to reach our charging port at the side of the Ionic. 

One setting when we first started using the Ionic is how the car responds to the break and accelerator pedals.  So ordinary gas cars when you shift to drive slowly move forward, with the brake pedal stopping it.  The default Tesla setting moves the car only using the accelerator pedal, meaning the car doesn't move in Drive until you press the accelerator.  Anyway, the slow acceleration in Drive without push of the accelerator pedal thus most resembles prior cars so we opted for that setting for our Ionic.

Looking for anything to complain about, the Ionic is an SUV type vehicle.  While not one of the larger SUV types, still larger than our Prius in width and length.  So the wider turning radius of the car is sometimes a pain.  Twice in the first 6 months of the car, I had conversations with other SUV drivers in two older nearby parking lots.  Both times, we agreed the parking spaces weren't too small; instead our newer cars were too large!

So that is our EV story.  Comments, please!