Source
r/KiaNiroEV•
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Vacation trip questions: Is the built in nav good for long trips? What about ABRP? What is the best ABRP reference consumption setting for the Niro? What are the best strategies for long distance traveling in a Niro EV? What do you wish you had known before you went on a trip in your Niro?

I've been invited to go on a family reunion/vacation this fall, and I will have to drive over 700mi. in my Niro EV from Southwest Ohio to Edisto Island in South Carolina.

I could take the West Virginia route (has tolls), but I'm favoring the Kentucky/Tennessee route. Whichever way I go, there doesn't seem to be many DCFC points along either route, and I will have to deal with the hillier terrain of the Smokies. Will I make it OK?

Have you ever done any long distance traveling in your Niro? What's it like traveling longer distances in the Niro? Any surprises? I've got all summer to prepare for my trip, so is there anything I should know before I go?

Posted Apr 16, 2022, 3:52 AM UTC

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thepookster17•

The built in nav does no route planning or finding chargers. Your best bet is to plan with ABRP before hand just so you know what you're doing. If this is your first trip, using an OBD reader with ABRP and android Auto/apple carplay will let ABRP do real time charge planning for you. Try to keep speed to 75 or under or you really chew through the battery. Mountains won't really impact efficiency much and if it's a twisty road, slower driving will actually help efficiency, so I would go with whichever is the shorter distance route.

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paniconOP•

This sounds like a reasonable plan. I have the OBD2 reader but haven't connected it to ABRP to see how it works since that requires a premium membership. I mean, why pay monthly for something you don't need but for a single trip that's months away?

I'm not sure I agree with the notion that mountains won't have an impact. Going up a mild grade along a stretch of I-75 here in Ohio absolutely consumes more energy, and that hill is nothing compared to the hills in Kentucky and Tennessee.

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tr6tevens•

Just so you know, connecting to OBD2 does NOT require premium. You can connect directly with BLE (low power) or have Torque Pro or another app send it (but that requires live internet connection).

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Figuringitoutmaybe•

I live in Phoenix and purchased a NIRO EV from Wisconsin. I drove it to Phoenix from Wisconsin as my very first EV experience. This is a 2,000 mile trip, and some stretches across texas, New Mexico ae pretty sparse on DC fast chargers. I used ABRP premium with the default calues for the NIRO other than adding in extra weight since I was traveling with my wife and 23 year old daughter. We did the trip in the beginning of March over 3 days with two hotel stays. It was relatively easy, and I worried about it way more than I needed to. Even with the colder temperatures, no prior EV experience, and the lack of DC fast chargers, it was no big deal. Just follow what ABRP says for charging and it works out pretty smoothly.

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paniconOP•

That sounds like an amazing trip. Not to pry, but... one of the reasons I went with the Niro is because it's available in my area... Like, the BEV Hyundais are simply not for sale in Ohio, and I don't want to drive to Maryland to go get one.

So what possessed you to travel from Arizona (Awesome state BTW) to Wisconsin for your Kia? Wouldn't it have been a lot closer to just get one from California?

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Figuringitoutmaybe•

at the time i was looking, no one nearby was selling at msrp. mostly 3-5k markup. the dealer in wisconsin was selling at 500 below msrp, so even with shipping added in it was significantly cheaper than anything locally. Then my grandmother passed away after i bought the car but before it shipped. she lived with most of my family in wisconsin, so i flew up there for the funeral and picked up the car and drove back.

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paniconOP•

Ah, that makes sense. I offer my condolences and congrats. I ended up paying nearly $2k over MSRP for mine, but I felt more comfortable keeping it local. It's my first actual new car and heard horror stories from friends about their experiences buying new vehicles. To avoid a panic attack, I wanted to stick to familiar surroundings. Other than the markup, my experience was actually quite positive.

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Suspicious_Teach_481•

The built in GPS took me on scary backroads I've never seen before. And that was 5 miles from my house...

I would highly recommend using Apple or Google maps instead.

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paniconOP•

I'm not sure which would be worse... Knowing that my GPS wasn't reliable, or knowing that there are scary back roads only 5 miles from my house.

If Google ever properly integrates DCFC stations with their maps, ABRP would be history. Their interface and map colors are weak by comparison.

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tr6tevens•

I find ABRP's default 3.56mi/kWh for the Niro is overly conservative. I use 3.8 for road trips, and that still gives me plenty of leeway. But as they say, YMMV.

Built in nav is pretty mediocre, but better than nothing when in areas without cell reception for Google maps. Use ABRP for planning, but check recommended stations with PlugShare for issues.

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paniconOP•

Oh I definitely agree with checking against PlugShare. ABRP doesn't seem to notice when it recommends a station that's nestled inside a restricted area.

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Fayjaimike•

I am doing a 1000ish mile round trip from NY to Maine in the summer. Planned out my trip using basic ABRP along with plugshare to find free charging for most of the trip! I hope it all works out! I used 290wH/mi as a base, which I think is a little generous. Wondering what the default was and what others are using.

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Frubanoid•

No way, I'll be doing the same from the same states this Summer!

I usually just Google Maps "ev charger" while adding a stop and see the options along the way, and pick one within 200 miles with a few backup options in mind after in case it's out of service. Haven't gone on a trip as far as Maine yet with the car though.

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Fayjaimike•

Hahaha nice! When are you leaving and what stops do you have planned??

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Frubanoid•

It's going to be in August at a lake house belonging to fiancee's father's cousin or some such for a week with her folks. That's as far as we got so far haha. I haven't looked up chargers yet but I'm not worried about finding them on the highway, moreso in Maine itself but as long as I can get to the house from the last charger on the highway I'm sure I can charge there.

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Fayjaimike•

Sweet! I'm headed first to NH for some shopping for a day before heading to Old Orchard Beach. If you need some help with chargers that I've found, PM me!

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paniconOP•

That's what I'm trying to do now. In my day to day driving I hardly need the "premium" version of ABRP and would hate to have to go through the hassle of putting in all my personal and payment information for just one trip.

I think my original WH/mi on the app was between 240 and 260, which was just not realistic. Then again, my original car was a Leaf when I first installed ABRP, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Because I typically get abut 3.2 mi/KWh going down I-75, I've been using a number between 300 and 350 WH/mi when planning this trip and with every little tweak I get wildly different results and arrival times. That's why I was wondering what the best reference consumption setting is.

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Fayjaimike•

If you've calculated it before, maybe you should err on the side of caution and just put in 350. It will just make more stops and add a little time to the trip, which shouldn't be the end of the world lol

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paniconOP•

Perhaps that would be best. In one planning iteration it actually took less time using a higher consumption number. because of the way the charging stations were spaced apart. Weird.

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neguas•

Not a fan of the turn by turn through ABRP. We would usually figure out our next charge and just send it to Apple Maps or Google Maps. Super helpful for when there's traffic ahead. We would sometimes make plans to charge early and wait our the accident or route around it.

On our trips we'd use the default settings, drove like 85 mph with 2 adults, 1 kid, and 1 large dog in the car plus all our gear. We would usually arrive at our charge stop bout 10-15% over the predicted arrival SoC.

One note we learned about ABRP is that it does do a GREAT job of finding the best charging spots. Things that we didn't even think of like temp at the charger and stuff like that to minimize your stop time. We decided to push one stop a big further than ABRP suggested. Well, it's was further up the hills and the temp was lower and so the stop took longer.

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MartinoDelFibonacci•

I've been quite happy with using Plushare to plan my charging stops. I felt that ABRP was trying too hard to make all the decisions for me. I can figure out for myself the preferred tradeoff between making multiple stops and shortening the charging time at reach stop. But it goes without saying that the onboard tool is pretty useless - it claims locations that don't exist, and overlooks very obvious ones that do.

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Huge_Childhood6643•

I just did an SF-LA round trip. ABRP was ok for a rough plan but the nav is not great at all. I used it to sketch a plan but used PlugShare primarily to find stations and had it open up Google or Apple Maps to actually get there.

I tried going 80 but it's not worth it. You lose so much range you end up not getting there any faster. On my next trip I'll stick with 75.

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