Відео

Sorry to disappoint. Feel free to record, edit and post your own road trip videos. Send me a link when you do, would love to see your take on it!

I like the Soul a lot great EV!

I like how Hyundai added preconditioning to the new Kona. Makes winter charging so much easier plus with the 2024 you’re getting faster speeds too, tops out at around 100kW I believe.

My total installation cost was $1000 (the pice might be lower or higher for you depending on complexity). I live in Leduc and used a local electrician to do the job but he also does jobs in Edmonton. You can contact him at 780-387-8049 and his name is Dylan Mayer.

@@LeftCoastEVThank you

Indeed I was channeling my inner hardcore Canadian that day haha! New battery chemistries will be very interesting in 2025 so we shall see how charging changes as we go forth. I’ll be travelling more this year trying to test out cars that we don’t have in Canada during as many seasons as possible.

@@LeftCoastEV I enjoy your China trips and I know your wife likes the scooters . lol

Indeed she likes the scooters lol. Yes we are planning to spend about 2 months in China this summer as well as a trip to Taiwan and also South Korea towards the end of the year for some cold weather testing. That’s all I have booked so far but still working on one or two more locations so we shall see.

Haha what an amazing idea! Love it!

This is peak Canadian right there haha!

Very true. The 200A limit will be a dealbreaker for many. But if your car can charge at max rates here this is not a bad location. It’s just not for everyone.

@@LeftCoastEV That is a good point. However, given that most new cars (I think) can take advantage of 200+ amps, it would be smart to have a station that works well for everyone and not just a few. Especially in such a good location. During my trips to Alberta from BC I would definitely use this one if it had 400 amp chargers. Many EV drivers don't understand the ins and outs of different fast chargers. There could be vehicles plugging in, expecting a 15 minute charging stop but turns out to be one that lasts over 30 min.

@@LeftCoastEV And - BTW - thanks for another great video! Hopefully you will be making lots of road trips and videos this year.

I agree. I should make a video explaining how EV charging works and make sure folks understand the ins and outs a bit better. Many show up thinking all chargers are the same and are disappointed when they get slow speeds. Will need to work on this more in 2025!

I have lots of ambitious plans for 2025. Planning a few trips back in Asia as well as more road trips in the US and other parts of Canada. Glad that you like the videos and will have more content coming your way in 2025!

I’m hoping for the best since the location is great.

Easy. You just drive about 2km further past the charging location going south and then take the overpass across the highway to the other side. You will then merge back onto the highway going north to Red Deer/Edmonton. You can also drive through Crossfield if you want. Google Maps shows the Crossfield route and Apple Maps the overpass option. Then navigate back onto the highway if you are continuing south to Calgary.

Thanks glad you liked the video! I am planning a dedicated video on how to drive an EV in extreme winter with more details.

What can I say I am a true Canadian lol. Location here is perfect. Right off the highway.

They have hot chocolate too!😉

Haha will get that next time plus it will help me to warm my hands!

I like how they are taking this seriously and adding NACS support.

Another app? No thanks.

When will charging providers finally give us payment terminals at all chargers? We need some legislation to happen like in Europe.

Many sites in California have NACS? That seems unlikely, only because there are very few sites period. Only 2 in the entire Los Angeles area. One in central California, and a handful in the north. What’s really frustrating is I had to sign up on the app to even find out where the stations are 🤯. At least it didn’t require a y credit card, but I did have to give up my phone and email. Now that I’m signed up I hope they open more locations, at the moment I’d have to go miles out of my way to use one of these. But I’m ready, I’ve got the app. 🤣

Check their website as they do mention NACS on many of their chargers. Am not in Cali so cannot confirm 100%.

Everyone says the GT is even better, so will need to drive one soon!

Exactly. If your car can charge fast and the charger works as expected then yes time is cheaper.

Based on testing I did a few years ago between Tesla Model 3 one with heat pump and the other without (just the standard PTC heater) the difference was there in cold weather. But the difference wasn’t huge. That being said having a bit more efficiency especially during our Canadian winters is a good thing. I want to make it out to Manitoba for a road trip sometime and see your infrastructure. I’ve heard on the news that Manitoba Hydro is wanting to get into the EV charging space so should get better soon if they do. Glad you liked the video!

Glad you enjoyed the video! Oh that is great consumption! Happy New Year!

Shot this video over a year ago and to be honest I don’t remember! But what I did learn via all the comments is that I should have removed the 12v prior to charging. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

Thanks for the info. My electrician installed the good ones.

+1 for the HUD but it needs to be a proper projection one and not the cheaper plexiglass pop up ones that I have in my Kia.

Kempower makes some of the best and most reliable charging equipment out there. Plus it’s super modular and easily upgradable in the future if the site requires more stalls.

Correct. This was more about the infrastructure than charging curve since I did the trip last year in a Model Y and wanted to see how quickly my Kia can do the same. But I agree charge curve matters and EV owners need to know how to optimize their charging if they don’t want to spend too much time at the charger.

Good info thank you! I really liked the design of the terminal and now that you mention it I do see the letter J. I’m guessing this is similar technology to that Freewire used to offer before they went bankrupt. I would have to check that the battery capacity is on these chargers as the Freewire ones were around 160 kWh and would run out quick in busy locations.

I wish but sadly I am not as iconic as Bjorn!

Oh for sure the faster charging EVs like the EV6 you mentioned are the perfect road trip vehicles. You will never have to wait for them to be ready…they will be waiting for you to finish up what you were doing while they charged at over 200kW. But for me it’s always interesting to see if one can do a trip like this in an older slower charging EV. Glad you liked the video!

@@LeftCoastEV Both the KIA Soul and Gen1 Hyundia Kona's have 64KWhr battery pack options (mine like yours is the 64) and share much of the same running gear as the Kona which back in 2019 when they launched gave class leading range for a small SUV format. DC fast charging was back then great in comparison to everything else and more than OK. Time moves on - but this car unlike Nissan Leafs etc. of the time is still very useable today - just needs a little planning on a very long trip and these cars seam to be lasting well.

This is the reason I bought mine in 2021. It has good range, charged fast for the time and it was available on the dealer lot. I was also looking at the Model 3 Standard Range Plus but there was a long wait time and I needed a car right away. Plus like you said it’s still very much usable today.

Thanks! Glad you liked the video. This has always been the biggest issue with chargers: reliability. This is why people who can charge on the Tesla network prefer it over everything else. It’s the most reliable.

@@LeftCoastEV I cannot charger at Tesla charger with my small ev but my car can charge a tesla or any other electric car. This is the stupidest feature on my car because it only have a 16kw/h battery

What car do you drive?

@@LeftCoastEV Mitsubishi i miev 2016

Classic EV. Love it. I’m guessing you also have the CHAdeMO port as well. I always wanted to drive one!

Thanks for the tips!

Good guess! You are very close.

If you did one click and looked at my channel (and not a singular video) then you would quickly see that the Kia Soul EV is my private vehicle that I purchased back in 2021. I bought it new but as years went by the battery and charging tech improved quite a bit. So now at the end of 2024 it is an older EV that chargers a bit slower. The comparison to the Tesla is simply because I did the same run, along the same route last year in a Tesla Model Y. So this video is a companion piece that that first run. Thanks for watching!

@@LeftCoastEV thanks for answering. The algorithm revealed this single video to me. The channels who mention the Kia Soul (sole?) always go into the value for money in a summary at the intro, So I sorta expected you to do that. It sounds like your love affair for it has soured long ago and you sorta can't find the energy to applaud its fortes and maybe should get a few more vids out of it then sell it. But of course I shouldn't tell you what to do, it's just that it sounds like you are tired of it. But even that is good, it definitely is a car that can get someone into the ev market as a local run about, especially if they have long distance covered in another car. I imagine that's how I'll get into the ev market, but in the mean time I'll watch more vids about used EVs and consider when our two diesels will best be put to pasture.

@@gmosc actually the opposite. I still really like the car and will be keeping it until it dies. My son will be getting his license soon and this will be his first car (I want him to drive electric from day one). I want to document the whole life cycle of an EV to debunk as many myths as I can along the way. What does make me a little tired is that where I live the rollout of EV charging infrastructure is really slow compared to other parts of Canada. This is the biggest issue. The video is more about not being able to charge my Soul EV at its fullest capable charging speed instead of me hating on the car. Sure, if you are shopping for a new EV, then choose one that has faster charging, but if you are looking for a used older vehicle, you can't really go wrong with the Soul EV, Niro or older Kona. Also, thanks for clicking on the video, glad you are here and check out the many other videos I did with the Soul EV over the years!

Ok, now I am at the end of the video and I understand it depends of the car, older ones have issues at superchargers. I was not aware of that, or maybe it is not the case in Europe since most superchargers and cars are CCS2.

Not in North America. There are some superchargers that have a “magic dock” installed which is essentially an adapter that allows you to charge a CCS car. Other superchargers (the version 3 ones) are so far opened to a few brands of other cars like Polestar, Chevy, Ford and a few more. My Kia does not have supercharger access right now.

Exactly. Europe standardized the charging port to CCS2 across all brands even for Tesla. In North America Tesla uses NACS which only recently became our standard. So in a few years all cars will be with a NACS port and CCS will be phased out. Europe was much quicker at standardizing charging for all EVs than we were.

@@LeftCoastEVYou still have V2 Superchargers in Europe with CCS2 and older Type 2 for Legacy Tesla! Otherwise there is a CCS2 to Type 2 adapter. Yes even Europe isn’t immune from adapters

Interesting. Didn’t know that. I’ve not driven an EV in Europe yet so this is good info.

I’m using the app Car Scanner along with the OBDLink CX dongle. Link to dongle in the description of the video. Car Scanner is available for both iPhone and Android. Yup agree with you on the carbon tax and reinvesting it into EV infrastructure. Nissan is starting to roll out Supercharger access for Ariya and Kia said it’s up next in early 2025 but no mention of the Soul EV being supported. They only indicated the EV6 and EV9 being up first. Hope they will allow us with the older cars to join in on the party too. Glad you liked the video!

@@LeftCoastEV the NEW Ioniq 5 comes with the NACS plug factory but so far I have heard NOTHING about the Ioniq electric getting access to Tesla and the "national" carbon tax is returned to consumers so NO money to re invest into anything the BC and Quebec ones can and I believe are plowed into green expansion but BC Hydro said NOTHING about it on an interview on the everything electric Vancouver show interviews this September

With shorter days during December I wanted to drive as much as I could during daytime hours. Plus no traffic and empty chargers!

I’m a huge fan of the Rally edition. As a kid when I watched the WRC and saw the Ford Escort RS Cosworth in races I was in love. The Mach E Rally comes close in spirit to this in the EV era.

Agree. Slower DC fast charging is still DC fast charging. It would be good to see what your real world result would be over 1000km. If you do this, please come back and share your results!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

Ford builds very intuitive EVs that even people who have never driven an electric car before can get to grips with. That was a nice drive you did, through some of the nicest parts of the Pacific Northwest. Really miss going on road trips there!

One of the best things about the Rally edition is no glass roof. (At least for me)

@LeftCoastEV As my son will Wholeheartedly admit that I should stay as Far away from technology as possible, I still rock a Non-smart flipphone and have a gunsafe with a dial versus a number pad. I'm Lost in a Tesla, I had to be shown how to make it move, this was one that had a 'Creditcard' one, you can keep it!!

Totally agree with you as much as I like the Tesla tech it’s not something people can learn to use in a matter of minutes.

@LeftCoastEV That is an Understatement!!!!!

Totally agree. Battery temperature is the most important factor to achieve good charging speeds especially in winter. With the Soul EV I need the battery to be at 26 degrees C for optimal charging (your Kona would be similar). After that one just needs to charge to around 50%, got to next charger and then you will still arrive with a warm battery. I am also waiting for news from Kia if and when the Soul EV will get access. This will make my road trips in Northern Alberta much easier. We go to Jasper to ski quite a lot and apart from the V3 Superchargers all we have is 50kW Flo units.

Does the Soal pre-heat the battery when heading to a fast charger ?

No it does not. It has a “winter mode” that keeps the battery slightly warmer but it’s not the same as battery preconditioning.

Tesla software and route planning is second to none. I never fully trust other vehicles but when a Tesla says you arrive with 5% you will arrive at 5% which is just amazing. Plus like you said the Supercharger network is relaible. Once V4 rolls out you will be able to take full advantage of the Cybertruck 800v architecture. Great choice IMO. Let me know how you like it once you buy it!

@@marcin_pisz great choice on the Cybertruck. I would have chosen it over the EV9 any day of the week. Tesla software and charging is just above the rest. Enjoy it!

You literally bought the worst vehicle made on the planet.

I agree that SK is doing better with EV charging than AB. Thanks for the heads up about the animals!

out "east" in Manitoba we have lots of shell recharge 100/150 units

I have no issue with the current Shell infrastructure. They are turning a new leaf and really investing in EV charging. The units in Calgary and much of BC are quite reliable.

I would take off the window deflectors and see if it improves your efficiency. It could very well be this. I am running my winter tires right now, Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 and I inflate mine to 36 cold. My R5's are not the EV ones so efficiency does take a bit of a hit, maybe around 1 to 1.5 kWh more per 100 km. My final efficiency after this run was 21 kWh/100km with an average outside temp of 3 degrees C.

Thanks for this! Didn't see if when I was planning this route at the beginning of December, but it looks like it should have already been operational then. I see it now on PlugShare. Definitely would have made the trip a little faster!

@@LeftCoastEVLloyd has been a terrible first and last stop on an eastbound road trip. If Saskatoon upgrades to something decent too, the drive to Regina will be less of a chore.

Let’s see what happens in Saskatoon. I’m always happy to see many EVs on the road there so I am guessing there would be sufficient demand for faster charging.

I would say that 150kW should be standard in the coming years along major roads like this.

That’s what it is! Forgot to put the caption in the video.