Jeju EV Rally

[JejuSoul]

Last Saturday went to the latest Jeju EV Rally.

Most interesting was a round the island efficiency contest. 178km course on a single charge. Fine weather 29C

Setting off

Chademo rescue truck (just in case). It wasn't needed.

Inside the rescue truck

In third place the Soul EV went round the island in 3 hours 50 minutes using 70% of the battery. Fuel Economy 9km/kWh (Max Hypermiling Range would be about 240km)
In second place the BMW 13 with a Fuel Economy of 10.5km/kWh
The winner was the Ioniq EV with a Fuel Economy of 12.1km/kWh (Max Hypermiling Range would be about 339km - official range 191km)

A very impressive victory for this Ioniq EV

I didn't do the rally but did get a long test drive in one of these brand new Ioniq EVs. I liked the car much more now than when I first test drove it in March.
There are a lot of software changes since then which I will write about on other threads later.

 

[tiburonh]

Thanks for sharing this report. Really interesting. The i3's slight efficiency advantage over the Soul EV pretty much matches what I have experienced. Over 2 years of driving my former i3 I averaged 4.2 miles per kWh, and so far after one month in my new Soul EV I am averaging 3.9 miles per kWh. But wow, the Ioniq EV really is more efficient by a lot -- about ⅓ more efficient than the Soul EV! What do you think are the things that make it so much more efficient?

Last Saturday went to the latest Jeju EV Rally.

Most interesting was a round the island efficiency contest. 178km course on a single charge. Fine weather 29C

Setting off

Chademo rescue truck (just in case). It wasn't needed.

Inside the rescue truck

In third place the Soul EV went round the island in 3 hours 50 minutes using 70% of the battery. Fuel Economy 9km/kWh (Max Hypermiling Range would be about 240km)
In second place the BMW 13 with a Fuel Economy of 10.5km/kWh
The winner was the Ioniq EV with a Fuel Economy of 12.1km/kWh (Max Hypermiling Range would be about 339km - official range 191km)

A very impressive victory for this Ioniq EV

I didn't do the rally but did get a long test drive in one of these brand new Ioniq EVs. I liked the car much more now than when I first test drove it in March.
There are a lot of software changes since then which I will write about on other threads later.

 

[JejuSoul]

tiburonh: it helps the readability of the thread if you edit out the superfluous pictures and videos from the quote you are replying to. For example

... What do you think are the things that make it (Ioniq EV) so much more efficient? ...

1/ Better drag coefficient.
2/ More options for regenerative braking. (Especially option 0 in this case. Equivalent to putting the Soul EV into Neutral while slowing down at traffic lights, but much safer).
3/ A local driver who was better at hypermiling.

I have commented before about the Ioniq EV in this thread - Hyundai AE (All Electric) to be available before Chevy BOLT

 

[tiburonh]

Apologies for my newbie mistakes.

And I am a newbie: to this forum, to the Kia Soul EV, and to the Kia brand.

If you had asked me even two months ago if I would ever consider owning a Kia I would have laughed at the very idea. Now, one month in to my ownership of a 2016 Kia Soul EV, I am not ashamed to admit that I was totally and stupidly prejudiced against the Kia brand until now.

I am a retired ad agency executive. I was once Vice Chairman of an agency that handled the Hyundai brand in the US. Even then, I would not drive a Hyundai or a Kia. I was concerned about their safety, their reliability, their design, and their performance, and -- admittedly -- their image. Things have changed so much since then; both brands have become so, so much better on all the key dimensions of safety. reliability, design, and performance. I think the only dimension they still fall down on now is that of brand image --- and that is so totally unjustified!

 

[tractioninc]

Funny you mention that. After five BMWs and many years as a card-carrying BMW club member, I never thought I'd end up behind the wheel of a Kia... but in the last three years I've purchased/leased three of them: a Sorento, my Soul EV and a new Sedona. Ever since Peter Schreyer came over from Audi, these cars have made an enormous leap in desirability.

These are not my first Korean cars, though. Back almost 20 years ago I picked a Leganza when I worked a short stint with Daewoo.

 

[JejuSoul]

Latest EV rally here was in Seoul

EVs on Mount Namsan in Seoul. Normally closed to traffic.
(SM3, Ioniq, Leaf, i3, Soul EV)

Most of the auto-makers sponsored this event, but not Kia. It seems there is no marketing budget at all for the Kia Soul EV this quarter.
I was disappointed that I didn't get to see a MY2017 Soul EV.

The lead car in the rally was a Soul EV with an interesting camera on top.

 

[SoulEV2016]

oh, nice ... a 360° camera with 6 SJCAM (clones).
You can use this camera in timing mode, too (take 1 photo every 10 secondes).

Like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0EgzcKl3xc
(use the arrows to travel around the image)

 

[JejuSoul]

The next Korean EV user forum will be in Jeju. This time it's being billed as a ‘Global Electric Vehicle User Forum & Festival (EVuff@global).
There are some details here - IEVE Committee and The Electronic Times Decide to Work Together for IEVE 2017

It will be part of the 4th Jeju EV expo to be held from March 17th to March 23rd 2017. see http://www.ievexpo.org/us
It's going to be in the local botanical gardens.

The organisers are looking for speakers who want to talk about their local EV user groups. Anyone interested? If so send me a message.

 

[JejuSoul]

-
The EV User Forum in Jeju was a great success. (The Expo itself less so)
The three international speakers were Byorn Nyland from Norway. He drives a T esla. Nickname T eslaByorn.
Richard Trudeau and Pierre-Etienne Messier from Quebec. They are both Soul EV drivers.

The Forum opened with me driving up in a B olt EV.
I drove from Seoul 470km on one charge with 31km remaining.
There's more details here - Hyundai AE (All Electric) to be available before Chevy BOLT



Here's a video of Byorn speaking. The stage is inside the botanical garden's main glasshouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9UOQ-KzOR0

This is Richard Trudeau talking about the Kia Soul EV-Québec User Group.



This is Pierre-Etienne Messier talking about AVEQ. The Electric Vehicle User Group in Quebec.



The least satisfying part of the user forum was the EV Rally. GM sponsored the forum, so they got to put two cars into the drive.
A Volt and a B olt. I was in the B olt following the Volt up the mountain. Very disappointing on an EV rally to be behind a car belching smoke out of its exhaust. They had used the Volt earlier for test drives and no one had bothered to recharge its battery.

 

[Elmil]

.
.
The Forum opened with me driving up in a B olt EV.
I drove from Seoul 470km on one charge with 31km remaining.

That is amazing!

Do you have any details from the trip to share?

 

[JejuSoul]

-
Went to the latest EV Rally in Jeju today.
First time I have seen the 2018 M odel Soul EV. Apart from the modest improvement to the battery the car is identical.
Here's 3 different colours of the 2018. All still showing the factory plates. Seats still plastic wrapped.







The car below is not a 2018. I just liked the paint and the sticker.





There's more photos here - http://www.jejutwn.com/mobile/article.html?no=5685

 

[SoulEV2016]

any result of this trip/rally ?

 

[JejuSoul]

-
Unlike previous events this 'rally' was very dominated by the car companies. Rather than owner drivers competing against each other on the same course, this event was fleets of new cars being driven by 'professional' drivers. They did not follow the same course.

There was strong criticism that this event just became a 'selfish competition' between companies rather than any collaboration to promote EVs.
see http://v.auto.daum.net/v/20170529073004386

I did not stay for the end, so I did not see all the cars finish. I don't think any journalists did either because nowhere can I find any results for this event. Apart from one report which I have been unable to confirm - see below.

The supposed routes


Cars lined up at the start


GM used rental cars with driver couples carefully selected on social media


The one and only report of a result - 기아차 쏘울EV, 1회 충전으로 292㎞ 주행 가능?
Presumably this journalist was specifically paid for this coverage. The end point isn't the stadium where all the other cars finished.
Given the distance this car would have finished hours after every else.
There is nothing at the eco rally site itself about this - Jeju EV Eco Rally
In previous years the winners photos are in the gallery section.
Note - I don't doubt the result, but I am not sure it was actually part of the eco rally.





I didn't see the 292km car so I can't really say more.
I did see the first 2018 Soul EV to finish. Seems like the rally course was 130 km.