It's been over 20 months since we had to buy gasoline, because in Sept 2024, we traded in our 12 year old Subaru Outback for a Kia EV9.
The Backstory
We bought the Outback in October 2012. We needed something a big bigger than either our Prius or Civic, especially as I was getting into Astronomy and lugging a telescope around. It was also forward looking towards starting a family. It was one of the first with the vision based pre-collision braking and adaptive cruise control.
Early on we drove it on an epic road trip through the maritime provinces of Canada. It served us well.
Once we got the Chevy Bolt in 2017, our driving habits changed a lot. We tried to maximize electric miles, so whoever had the longest drive got the Bolt. Sometimes that meant hearty debate over distances to figure out who got the electric drive.
This worked well, until Covid, when we were driving very little. Because it turns out, gas cars really need to get hot very regularly to burn off all the moisture from lots of it's mechanical parts. We ended up with replacement exhaust multiple times, and other parts that were rusting through.
After nearly $2000 worth of repairs in March of 2024, I was hoping the car would last us long enough to get to my Volvo EX90 reservation. But in Sept of 2024, Susan came home one day and said "the subaru is making noises again". sigh
The Replacement
The Outback was always going to be our last gas car. The real question was what replaces it. It needed at least as much cargo space as the Outback because when we camp we fill it solid. That exact size class did not exist in EV land, so you had to nudge up to 3 row SUV. I thought that would be the Volvo EX90, but that had been delayed twice, and was at least 4 months away.
I was not going to get a Tesla. Rivian could have been a thing. But I did recently watch a video review on the Kia EV9 that looked intriguing. Looking at inventory there was a Blue one (the best color) in the trim we wanted, 20 miles away.
So I said to Susan, we need to go test drive this car before we put more money into the Subaru. If we like it, we get it. If we don't like it, we fix the Subaru and wait. And off we went.
When we walked through the door, the car we wanted was literally the show floor model. I pointed that out to her.
We chatted some with the dealer. We were pretty specific on that we wanted that car, but we needed to test drive it. They gave us one in the same trim that was on the lot. Most dealers still don't really understand their electric fleet, so there wasn't a lot of explaining, and away we went on our drive around the area.
I started, and quite liked it. We pulled over at some point, switched so Susan could drive. As a woman who's six feet tall, the space inside this was new to her, and actually not feeling crunched was exciting. She liked it a lot. We swapped drivers again, and I made sure to see how it handled on the highway.
I knew we were getting this car when she said "Well, this wouldn't be the worst birthday present you ever got me." (her birthday was 4 days out). And so we dropped one more piece of fossil fuel infrastructure in our life and switched to all electric.
The Verdict
Now nearly 2 years in, this has been a great car overall, with a couple of quirks. Let's get those out of the way first.
Number 1, the dealer didn't have the battery coolant fully topped off (it was close, but not quite). This caused us to have a few scary moments where a warning sensor would come on after DC Fast charging for a couple of days. A visit to closer Kia dealer didn't help (they didn't believe the problem). The original dealer did fix it, and after they did, it's never been a problem since.
Number 2, it's a big car that rides like a big car. Especially with so much sprung weight, the back likes to wobble a bit after hitting a bump at highway speeds. More recently (another story) I got the EV6 as my car, and I prefer it's ride. That being said, we needed a bigger car for some of our activities, so it was a known tradeoff.
On the upsides, there are a ton of them. First, the Vehicle to Load feature (V2L), which means you can pull 110V 15A back out of the car. This completely changed out camping experience last year. We are no longer bringing a propane stove, we cook off an induction hotplate. It's glorious.
High on the list of upsides is all that room and space. With a pod on top, and a hitch mounted bike rack, we can go about anywhere, and take all our stuff.
The 99kWh battery and 800V architecture means it's got 300+ miles of range in the summer (low 200s in the winter). My parents live 199 miles away in Vermont, so in all but the coldest of weather we can get there without stopping. They've gone EV now as well, so have an L2 charger. Prior to the EV9 we were still taking the Subaru for that trip.
The 800V architecture also means that at CCS DC Fast chargers it can get 210 kW charging speeds. This makes this a good road trip car. We've driven out to Rochester, NY with it, down the Jersey Shore, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania. We still mostly charge at home, but it's typically only a 20 minute charging stop to get from the 20% range to the 80% range. It does have Tesla super charger compatibility, but that's slow (90kW), because of the voltage mismatch. It's good for a pinch.
When we first got this car I'd say we were just on the edge of EV charger ubiquitousness. It was ok in 2024, but not great. That has radically shifted since then, to the point where we don't need to think that much about it. A quick plugshare search and the plan comes together. So more road trips in our future, maybe even adventures in Canada.
The last thing is, how good it felt to stop worrying about a gas car that always felt like it was on the verge of falling apart. No more oil changes, no more exhaust systems, no more gas. It felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders, and I'm never going back.