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I acquired this Kia in Feb 2022 with only a few thousand miles on it. In just a few years I’ve enjoyed many hours and driven many more miles. Meanwhile I’ve also enjoyed learning about the new technology. This car, and many other EVs, use a 64kW high voltage battery. That battery produces about 350 Volts DC. This is it’s ‘energy tank’ that gets it down the road. Some new cars like the Kia EV6 and EV9 have a larger capacity battery (80 to 100 kW) and an 800 Volt DC battery. With this they can charge much faster and drive further.

Favorites

I love that in this entire time I’ve only needed to rotate the tires and take it in for a factory recall. I also had to replace the low-voltage 12v battery this year (this is NOT the high voltage Lithium battery). Electric cars do not require the majority of services gas cars require, and frankly I think it’s why auto dealerships don’t want to sell them. Also the mechanics at the auto dealership and staff at auto parts stores can’t stand them because it makes their skills and labor less needed. No work to be done! Like the poor horse trainers and care takers that worked in stables and worked on buggies at a time cars were replacing horses for mobility.

My brakes are still like new. Why? Because Electric Cars use the electric motor as a generator when you let off the accelerator pedal and they slow down fairly well on their own without using the brakes.

When I park the car in the garage the garage does not heat up to 130 degrees because there isn’t a combustion engine. I can turn on the car with the garage door shut, running the car air conditioner (or heater) without carbon monoxide poisoning because there is not a combustion engine.

A few other favorite features in this car is the Brake Hold and the Radar controlled Cruise Control. The brake hold allows the car to hold the brake for me at long traffic lights. This is really nice and quickly became one of my favorites. The radar controlled cruise control is also great as I can adjust the safety gap using a button on the wheel with my thumb. If I see people stopping ahead I change it to level 4 so it starts increasing the gap and slowing down without touching the brake. If it’s all clear ahead I set it to level 2. If its the morning rush (everyone driving 70 mph without slowing down) I sometimes set it to level 1. I also LOVE how when I start the car the A/C is immediately cold and in the winter the heat is immediately hot! No waiting around! Like an electric space heater, it’s hot the second you turn it on.

Service a Gas car needs that an EV does NOT HAVE

• Engine oil & engine oil filter change
• Engine Air filter
• Belts and radiator hoses
• Power steering fluid and pump
• Radiator fluid flush and thermostat
• Spark plug replacement
• Fuel filter
• Air intake manifold butterfly, Mass Air Flow sensors, and EGR cleaning/clog/residue removal
• Transmission fluid check/flush
• Oil leaks around valve cover, head gaskets or the dreaded main crankshaft seal
• Overhead cam valve lash
• Exhaust gas Oxygen sensor
• Exhaust gas recirculation valve, hoses, intake manifold, etc
• Exhaust gas headers, pipe, heat shelds, flex-pipe, muffler and pipe tips
• Catalytic converter replacement (especially if stolen)
• Engine Starter motor
• Alternator replacement
• Engine coolant pump replacement
• Turbocharger service for cars equipped with TC
• Radiator transmission cooler line leaks

Service an EV car needs or may need

• Windshield wiper fluid
• Windshield wiper blades
• Tire rotation and eventually tires
• Cabin air filter
• A regular 12v battery
  • Not to be confused with the high voltage battery, this is the battery that runs the hazard lights, windows, radio, etc when the car is ‘On’ but not fully ‘Running’. Like a regular car this may need replacing every 4 or 5 years. I recently replaced mine with an AGM battery. AGM (absorbed glass mat) battery is a type of lead-acid battery that uses a glass mat to absorb and store the battery’s electrolyte in a dry state is much more durable.
• Brakes and brake fluid (at 30k my fluid looks brand new and so do my brake pads)
• Battery pack coolant check.
  • Yes, they have a small radiator and coolant but it doesn’t get anywhere near the boiling temperatures of a combustion engine. It get’s warm when charging and that’s about it. I can’t over emphasize this.. it’s not hot and it damn sure isn’t boiling hot.
• Transfer case fluid.
  • Like many vehicles, my Kia Niro EV electric motor actually drives a transfer case which has about 1 quart of oil. Once every 100,000 or so this needs to be changed but I changed mine myself at 20k and I will do it again at maybe 50k. A transfer case is not the same as a transmission nor a ‘Continuously Variable Transmission’ or CVT. It really just transfers torque from the motor to the wheel. Some EVs directly drive the wheel, some drive a transfer case that drives one or two wheels.
• Struts. Eventually like any other car the struts (shock absorbers) will need to be replaced.

I have first hand experience working on cars, trucks, farm equipment, etc. Electric Cars are an amazing advancement and they drastically reduce the amount of time you have to schedule around required maintenance. They may cost a bit more up front but you get that back by not having to do so many costly and time consuming vehicle service checks.

Misinformation/Confusion

People keep asking me “when do you need to replace the battery pack and what’s it going to cost”. This is just pure misinformation. This isn’t the NiCad batteries of the 90’s. Lithium batteries are very different – they do not have a charge ‘memory’ like NiCad’s did. The battery pack right now at 32,400 shows 0% degradation. Why? For starters, Lithium batteries like this have a Battery Management System. It prevents over charging. It prevents completely draining the battery (unless you store it for a few years). You really don’t need to be too concerned about this. Also the high voltage battery is warrantied by Kia for 100,000 miles.

Another common question, “where can you charge“. For this I always refer to the app “PlugShare” and I show that I have it filtering for my plug (CCS1) and for locations with at least 2 chargers and with a minimum of 60 kW rating.

I’m often asked “how much does it cost to charge“. Most of the time I plug-in at home and charge at 6 cents per kilowatt hour. It charges in 4 or 5 hours while I’m sleeping and lasts almost a full week of driving to/from work + other errands. The cost is about $ 5.00 per week for about 150 miles. When I’m using the commercial DC Fast Charger at Walmart it’s more like $15 for 150 miles. If you live in an apartment without a garage and access to 220v 50 Amp plug (120v Split Phase) then right now an EV is not likely a convenient choice. You need the same plug an electric clothes drier or stove top would have, seen here:

Another common question is “Do you have to charge it every night“. I believe this question comes from the many years of Nissan Leaf owners who’s cars have a very, very small battery and they did have to charge each night. Those Hybrid cars usually only have enough battery to get to/from work once. Fully Electric EV’s have a much larger battery and thus much longer range.

Finally, the “How far can you drive before you need a charge“. It depends. Obviously if I’m driving downhill (OKC is at 1,500 feet above sea level to Tulsa at 800 ft) I can get further. If I’m driving into a 30 MPH Oklahoma Wind, I get less. If I’m driving at 80 MPH I get less than if driving at 65 MPH. If I have all the antennas on top of the car I get a lot less range. Worst case with everything on the roof, driving 75~80 MPH I’ve seen 2.4 miles/kWh. With a 64kW battery that becomes 124 safe miles or range if starting at 100% charge and having 30 miles reserve capacity (because stuff happens – like highway closure due to an accident). I’ve also seen 3.4 miles/kWh when I have nothing on the roof rack which in the same scenario becomes 188 miles with a 30 mile reserve.

And of course the “Aren’t you afraid of it catching fire“. Um, no. These battery packs are very tough, they include a fire retardant. If it was going to burst into flames it would have done it by now. What about after an accident? I would be a little more worried about a gas car having a ruptured gas tank. Some of the batteries are Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo4) and you can drill holes through those battery packs and they just don’t do anything. A fuse shorts out and that’s the end of it. The battery packs are made in modules and each module has a fuse. Each module is also monitored by the battery management system in the battery pack. Sometimes I’m asked where is the battery pack. On this car it’s a large metal box bolted to the bottom of the car, and runs from just behind the front wheels all the way back to just before the back wheels.

About Car’s Plugs (charge port)

There are different kings of chargers in North America. One is specifically for the older Nissan Leaf. I’m not covering those. They are being phased out and most new stations do not have a plug for them (they have to use an adapter). The other two are the Tesla plug and the CCS1 plug. Tesla has been adopted as the “North American Standard” but it’s going to be several years in transition. The Tesla chargers cannot support the new fleets of 800V cars… so Tesla chargers will need to be updated. Only Tesla, mostly, have the Tesla plug. Some manufacturers have worked out an agreement with Tesla to support their vehicles and to use an adapter (Ford, Rivian and others). Kia has not to my knowledge. The rest of us non-Tesla owners use DC Fast chargers built for CCS1 when we are on the road. At home we use the top-half of the CCS1, called the J-1772. Motorcycles and other smaller systems only use the J-1772.

DC Fast Charging on the road

There are different levels of charging. Level 1 and Level 2 are slow and use an AC plug, typically at your home. Level 1 is ridiculously slow, like a trickle. Level 1 is simply 120VAC at 15, 20 or 30 amps. At this level it could take days to charge a car. Level 2 is where we use the AC split phase and thus provide 240VAC with the current limited to whatever the car can convert to DC (batteries are DC voltage). Generally this is around 50 Amps, although for continuous duty (for several hours) you would want a circuit breaker that is rated for 20% more, or you want the car to limit it’s current flow to 40 Amps on a 50 Amp circuit. Generally with Level 2, the limiting factor is the car. Most cars cannot convert 240VAC to 400 VDC at more than 30 or 40 amps.

Level 3 is the DC Fast Charger. These are the large systems you see at some grocery stores or travel centers. The Tesla SuperCharger locations you’ve likely seen are “Level 3”. Level 3 chargers connect directly to the battery pack and do not require your car to transform the AC to DC. The Level 3 charger does this which is why it’s so large. The Level 3 charger however takes commands from your car. Your car constantly communicates with the charger instructing it how to proceed, what voltage, amperage, etc.

I’ve learned to avoid the Francis Energy chargers when possible. Many of them are broken or operate degraded. Also they used to charge per minute which would really grind my gears when they charged so slowly.

My favorite charge providers to use on the road are ChargePoint and Electrify America. EA has an agreement with Walmart so some of the Walmart SuperCenters have EA chargers. I’ve found ChargePoint systems at several “travel plaza” locations. Those are basically the three choices here in Oklahoma, outside of Tesla which I cannot use.

The best thing to do is use the smartphone app “Plugshare”. This free app shows you all of them, and you can filter to only see CCS1 with good reliability ratings. It’s an amazing, and terrific use of crowd sourcing. We users report each time we used a charger if it was working or not.

The next thing I recommend is the smartphone app “ABRP” or A Better Route Planner. With it and a bluetooth connected module plugged into my car’s OBD-II diagnostic plug, I can collect real-time data from the car and see what my real range may be and plan a route based on current weather, my car’s current diagnostic data, etc (e.g. the car is using more energy because it’s carrying a lot of extra weight today).

My Regrets

Being a First Generation EV I have to schedule long road trips around chargers. If I’m just driving around town and charging at home once a week then this car is PERFECT. But when I need to drive 300, 500 or 700 miles this first generation car is slightly annoying.. especially in a radio contest where lost time is precious. I look forward to a 2025 or 2026 Kia with much greater range – if it only needed to charge after 400 miles at 80 mph I would be real happy with that because I would need a lunch or dinner break.

To make it less annoying I plan ahead. If I’m charging at Walmart, I go in and buy some cut-up fruit or a banana and sandwich. I use the restroom, and then return to the car and it’s about ready. I also have a laptop and usually have some sort of paperwork that I’ve been putting off.

My other complaint is that some chargers I have to use do not have any amenities nearby. No bathroom, no trashcan, no coffee.. It’s damn convenient when there is some sort of convenience store or a Braums or Walmart to the charger.

The CCS1 plug and cord is big and heavy. I cannot envision an elderly person handling it. The Tesla plug looks a lot easier to use – it’s smaller and lighter. This is one reason I like that eventually we will have a new revised Tesla plug as the North American standard.. one day.. I really wonder if the people that designed the CCS1 plug ever considered how an elderly person could possibly manage it.

Closing remarks

So there you go, other than range of this car I find it to be really, really nice. It’s quiet. It’s peaceful. It’s low maintenance. I personally will never buy another gas car but I don’t live in an apartment or condo. The EV life is so much better for me.

I am still the mechanic for the gas powered Subaru Outback.. just changed it’s spark plugs, engine oil, replaced the battery for the 3rd time in a few years… next will be the brakes and belts and hoses.. not looking forward to it..

Bonus Question

Could you charge your car with solar power in a day? Well, since I’m a Amateur Radio hobbyist I think I can answer this.

• Let’s assume each panel produces 300 watts in full sun.
• Assuming we want to charge a 64 kW battery in 8 hours

The math then is 64 kW / 8 hours = 8 kW per hour.
8 kW / 0.300 kW per panel = about 27 panels
So, round up to 30 panels and on a sunny day it could be done.. but I don’t have room for 30 panels.