Reader Rides: Our EV Editor Buys a Kia EV9

41 minutes ago, G. David Felt said:

SS was traded in with 249,000 miles over 15 years or 16,600 miles a year. Seems with Grand Kids my wife is driving way more as right now she is on track to put on 28,800 miles a year or for this year, 19,200 miles. Yup she drives allot.

Dang, that's a lot of miles. It looked so good when you traded it in, too.

What're your lease mileage agreement? 

3 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Dang, that's a lot of miles. It looked so good when you traded it in, too.

What're your lease mileage agreement? 

That is the funny part, I was originally thinking of leasing at 20,000 a year as I figured she would have room to spare, but she said with no kids in the house she thinks she would be driving less, so we went with 15,000 miles a year lease. Did not know our son would want her there daily helping out with the grandkids and then on top her side and my side still asking for help, so it is what it is, but hopefully things will slow down now that the kids are out for the summer and the wider range of family seems to be cooling down.

If not, Oh well, will have to deal with it when the lease is up. Course if she likes it, I always have the buy out option over paying the mileage, but will see when the time comes.

EV Love, The Seattle area is in a Heat Advisory with temps for the next 10 days forecasted to be in the high 80's to low 90's. We have a house facing south and no shade so to keep the auto cool you would put it in the garage. The bad part of ICE is the V8 is a huge heat sink that heats up the house when you come home.

EV9, you come home go into the garage and no heat, cooler house. Loving this about the EV.

On 7/5/2024 at 4:44 PM, G. David Felt said:

EV Love, The Seattle area is in a Heat Advisory with temps for the next 10 days forecasted to be in the high 80's to low 90's. We have a house facing south and no shade so to keep the auto cool you would put it in the garage. The bad part of ICE is the V8 is a huge heat sink that heats up the house when you come home.

EV9, you come home go into the garage and no heat, cooler house. Loving this about the EV.

I've literally never heard this, and I live in the Midwest where it's 90's from June-August. Do you guys not insulate the interior facing walls of your garages? 

5 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I've literally never heard this, and I live in the Midwest where it's 90's from June-August. Do you guys not insulate the interior facing walls of your garages? 

Houses are well insulated but take a hot V8 into your garage and the house will still heat up due to all the heat put off by the engine, it is literally a heat sink that heats up a house when you want to keep it cool. As an owner of a Split-Level home where the heater is in the garage also, even though when I bought this place in 1999 and gutted it to the studes and updated the insulation, sheetrock, etc. remodel to current building standards in 1999, the ducting for the heater is still in the garage and goes to all the bedrooms upstairs as well as throughout the rest of the house. 

Hot V8 still radiates till it cools off cold and so that heat will transfer via the ducting throughout the houe.

EV's never do this, so a benefit to an EV.

17 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Houses are well insulated but take a hot V8 into your garage and the house will still heat up due to all the heat put off by the engine, it is literally a heat sink that heats up a house when you want to keep it cool. As an owner of a Split-Level home where the heater is in the garage also, even though when I bought this place in 1999 and gutted it to the studes and updated the insulation, sheetrock, etc. remodel to current building standards in 1999, the ducting for the heater is still in the garage and goes to all the bedrooms upstairs as well as throughout the rest of the house. 

Hot V8 still radiates till it cools off cold and so that heat will transfer via the ducting throughout the houe.

EV's never do this, so a benefit to an EV.

Ohhh so this is more of a "your house" issue because you have ductwork in the garage. That makes more sense then, because we have never had that issue of a hot car in the garage heating up the house in the summer. 

Never had that issue before...my last house was a split level w/ an attached garage, w/ two bedrooms over the garage.   But my furnace was in the basement.   I'd be more concerned about fires in the garage, given Kia's record of fires w/ various vehicles. 

On 7/1/2024 at 11:08 AM, G. David Felt said:

SS was traded in with 249,000 miles over 15 years or 16,600 miles a year. Seems with Grand Kids my wife is driving way more as right now she is on track to put on 28,800 miles a year or for this year, 19,200 miles. Yup she drives allot.

The only way the math works out on $600/mo to fuel the TrailblazerSS is if you were averaging worse than the city rating the vehicle was rated at AND you were paying $5/gal. I can't imagine you averaged 11mpg AND paid $5 gallon. I'm sure there were periods over the last few years where premium was over $5/gal, but that's not what you were paying the last 15 years. 

4 hours ago, ccap41 said:

The only way the math works out on $600/mo to fuel the Trailblazer SS is if you were averaging worse than the city rating the vehicle was rated at AND you were paying $5/gal. I can't imagine you averaged 11mpg AND paid $5 gallon. I'm sure there were periods over the last few years where premium was over $5/gal, but that's not what you were paying the last 15 years. 

SS average only 12mpg, with the bulk of driving local except for the drive down to Tacoma or up to Smokey Point, the SS was about performance not fuel efficiency. Premium fuel in WA has been around $5 mark for the last decade here. So yea, went from $400 to $500 and then the last 5 to 6 years was $600 a month.

@ccap41 @Robert Hall It dawned on me that for most places in the US, AC is common in homes, condo's even apartments. Washington state has 25% of homes as of 2022 built with central AC / HeatPump Cooling, and that is mostly only in the last decade. Another 32% use some form of portable AC unit in a segment of their living space.

As such during the summer we do not have any means to cool the house when we have a heatwave such as the one we are in now where todays temp is 97, inside my house with a portable AC unit the upstairs is 82. 

As such, adding a V8 powered auto into the garage would radiate heat into the home with or without my heater and ducting being in the garage. Opening up the garage door to go inside would also allow some heat into the interior space.

2 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

SS average only 12mpg

Lead foot. Same engine in my bigger, heavier Avalanche gets 13-14 around town and 18-20 highway. 

On 7/8/2024 at 5:07 PM, G. David Felt said:

Houses are well insulated but take a hot V8 into your garage and the house will still heat up due to all the heat put off by the engine, it is literally a heat sink

This does happen to me too, but my garage is in my basement and the heat has nowhere to go but up. That said, I have a well insulated stone house and excellent HVAC, so it’s only an issue if the A/C isn’t on. 

Fascinating. I couldn’t imagine not having central AC in the US.    Though I didn’t have it at my family farm growing up.  It’s been hot and humid lately, both ACs running and keeping the house comfortable around 70-72.  

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

Fascinating. I couldn’t imagine not having central AC in the US.    Though I didn’t have it at my family farm growing up.  It’s been hot and humid lately, both ACs running and keeping the house comfortable around 70-72.  

You and me both. With this humidity being so oppressive I’m glad I upgraded to central air back in 2016. It use to take 3 large window units to do my house and they were so inefficient. 
 

On the V8 in the garage thing, it’s only the big, iron block V8 in the Toronado that I notice the heat creep from. It was never an issue with the CTS or the 300. The Avalanche is too big to fit.

12 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

Fascinating. I couldn’t imagine not having central AC in the US.    Though I didn’t have it at my family farm growing up.  It’s been hot and humid lately, both ACs running and keeping the house comfortable around 70-72.  

Go north, hahaha. My family is from upstate NY and I don't believe any of my relatives have AC. Some have a window unit, but most isn't necessary. Most summer days its mid 80's, not humid, and cools down plenty at night to keep windows open. 

Their winters though, are brutal. 

13 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Lead foot. Same engine in my bigger, heavier Avalanche gets 13-14 around town and 18-20 highway.

Lead foot and/or a little exaggeration... 

$600/mo in fuel only adds up if he's getting 11mpg and $5/gal. 12mpg would need to be $5.25/gal. I know there have absolutely been times where premium in WA was probably around $6/gal. But a few months of that are going to be outliers across the 16 years of ownership. 

I'd safely assume premium is $1/gal more than regular so any point over $4 would net $5 for premium.

9 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Go north, hahaha. My family is from upstate NY and I don't believe any of my relatives have AC. Some have a window unit, but most isn't necessary. Most summer days its mid 80's, not humid, and cools down plenty at night to keep windows open. 

Their winters though, are brutal. 

Yeah, I made a number to trips to visit my sister in the Boston area in the early to mid 90s, I remember most anything that wasn't recent construction didn't have A/C.   

11 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

You and me both. With this humidity being so oppressive I’m glad I upgraded to central air back in 2016. It use to take 3 large window units to do my house and they were so inefficient. 

In the Midwest, I couldn't imagine it either. We added a dehumidifier last year and it made a huuuuge difference in what temp we can comfortably keep our place. Prior to the dehumidifier, we had to our place an easy 3-4 degrees cooler to get the same comfort level. 

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

In the Midwest, I couldn't imagine it either. We added a dehumidifier last year and it made a huuuuge difference in what temp we can comfortably keep our place. Prior to the dehumidifier, we had to our place an easy 3-4 degrees cooler to get the same comfort level. 

I had the full works done when I replaced the HVAC back in 2016.  New breaker panel with upgraded service. Replaced the 1950 furnace. Added central air. Have full humidity control with dehumidify in the summer and humidify in the winter.  The humidifier works well enough in the winter, but I constantly have to fiddle with the settings for dehumidify. It won't run if the house is already at the set temp, but the indoor humidity keeps creeping up until we go and set the thermostat lower. Then it sucks all the humidity out of the house and I'm cold at 72 degrees.  Because the house is stone and well-insulated, the air conditioner is quite capable of bringing the house to 74 and then just leaving it there.... but like I said, the humidity climbs back up after sitting a while.  I do have to turn off the dehumidifier when outside gets too far over 90 because the blower won't run fast enough to keep up.  

It's a whole thing... and I'm looking into thermostat alternatives. (not nest)

For our remodel, I am planning on adding a heat pump to the house as that will give me the cooling during the summer and it naturally takes out the bone chill of the rain in the fall / winter.

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

I had the full works done when I replaced the HVAC back in 2016.  New breaker panel with upgraded service. Replaced the 1950 furnace. Added central air. Have full humidity control with dehumidify in the summer and humidify in the winter.  The humidifier works well enough in the winter, but I constantly have to fiddle with the settings for dehumidify. It won't run if the house is already at the set temp, but the indoor humidity keeps creeping up until we go and set the thermostat lower. Then it sucks all the humidity out of the house and I'm cold at 72 degrees.  Because the house is stone and well-insulated, the air conditioner is quite capable of bringing the house to 74 and then just leaving it there.... but like I said, the humidity climbs back up after sitting a while.  I do have to turn off the dehumidifier when outside gets too far over 90 because the blower won't run fast enough to keep up.  

It's a whole thing... and I'm looking into thermostat alternatives. (not nest)

We don't have a built-in dehumidifier, just a large-ish "portable" one. I set the humidity to 45% and let it do its thing. It has a pump, but I don't have a drain, so I have it pump to a 5gal bucket and empty it daily.

If I had to consistently tweak it, it would drive me nuts, as well. 

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

We don't have a built-in dehumidifier, just a large-ish "portable" one. I set the humidity to 45% and let it do its thing. It has a pump, but I don't have a drain, so I have it pump to a 5gal bucket and empty it daily.

If I had to consistently tweak it, it would drive me nuts, as well. 

Yeah, I used to do that for the basement and it had and automatic drain, but I'd basically need one for each floor and the electric costs to run it were insane.  Mine isn't a built-in per se; it's more that my A/C can run at 80% with the blower at 80%, and that acts as a dehumidifier.

Our discussion this morning made me look up some things about the thermostat setting (Lennox iComfort), and I found a possible setting that only the HVAC guy should know about. So, I'm trying that out now.

But it's 90 here right now, and the unit is struggling. The goal is to run it at 72-74 and be comfortable rather than 70-72 and have it run constantly. 

1 hour ago, G. David Felt said:

For our remodel, I am planning on adding a heat pump to the house as that will give me the cooling during the summer and it naturally takes out the bone chill of the rain in the fall / winter.

Are you a gas furnace now?

On 7/10/2024 at 12:13 PM, Drew Dowdell said:

Are you a gas furnace now?

Yes, I have a 150,000 btu gas furnace, so adding a heat pump is doable for achieving what I want for the whole house. 

Having grown up with my father in the commercial refrigeration business, I have great respect for what the Heat pump can do for a house.

One thing I am considering is in this full remodel, I am wanting to go to a smart panel, if I do that, I will also retire my gas stove replaced with Induction stove / convention oven and the dryer / furnace as that would give me individual heat pump units per room for better zone control.

Hot water I would keep natural gas as electric water tanks suck for giving really hot water the way we like it.

16 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Yes, I have a 150,000 btu gas furnace, so adding a heat pump is doable for achieving what I want for the whole house. 

Having grown up with my gather in the commercial refrigeration business, I have great respect for what the Heat pump can do for a house.

One thing I am considering is in this full remodel, I am wanting to go to a smart panel, if I do that, I will also retire my gas stove replaced with Induction stove / convention oven and the dryer / furnace as that would give me individual heat pump units per room for better zone control.

Hot water I would keep natural gas as electric water tanks suck for giving really hot water the way we like it.

Zoning a forced air system per room is pricey.  Zoning with individual units is really pricey.  Get an HVAC expert in there to listen to your concerns. Don't tell him you want every room zoned, just tell him what problem you are trying to solve.  If you've got anything less than 2,500 sq feet, you're probably better off with a system balance or two zones from one system at most.

You can get a combo heatpump/gas furnace unit and the gas only runs on days below around 23 degrees. That means except for the coldest days of the year, only the heat pump would run. Since you're in a cheap electricity state, that would probably benefit you a lot.

Smart panels are expensive toys. I don't really see a purpose for them in a residential building. If you're really curious about which 110v appliances are costing you money, buy yourself a couple Kill-O-Watts off Amazon and save yourself $1,000. Hint: It's going to be your fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine.  The smart panel isn't going to give you useful data beyond what you already know.  What will your biggest energy consumers be? Fridge, laundry, EV charger, HVAC. Is there going to be anything you can do with the Smart Panel data to change that? Not really.  Tada! I just saved you a bunch of money.

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Zoning a forced air system per room is pricey.  Zoning with individual units is really pricey.  Get an HVAC expert in there to listen to your concerns. Don't tell him you want every room zoned, just tell him what problem you are trying to solve.  If you've got anything less than 2,500 sq feet, you're probably better off with a system balance or two zones from one system at most.

You can get a combo heatpump/gas furnace unit and the gas only runs on days below around 23 degrees. That means except for the coldest days of the year, only the heat pump would run. Since you're in a cheap electricity state, that would probably benefit you a lot.

Smart panels are expensive toys. I don't really see a purpose for them in a residential building. If you're really curious about which 110v appliances are costing you money, buy yourself a couple Kill-O-Watts off Amazon and save yourself $1,000. Hint: It's going to be your fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine.  The smart panel isn't going to give you useful data beyond what you already know.  What will your biggest energy consumers be? Fridge, laundry, EV charger, HVAC. Is there going to be anything you can do with the Smart Panel data to change that? Not really.  Tada! I just saved you a bunch of money.

Thank you, appreciate the valuable feedback. Right now working with the architect as we are adding onto the house including a mother-inlaw space that will be on it's own service.

Coming up on our 8,000-mile service checkup that is covered by Kia. Having bought this on April 27th, 2024, 8,000 miles in 4 months. All is good, loving the auto, the cheap charging at home overnight and I took advantage of Kia's Labor Day sale to add one thing to the EV9, Boost mode. As such, this feature which turns the Land edition into a GT edition for the power train.

Wanted to point out one thing that some folks here have stated that EVs have no power when at speed and you need to step on it like to pass another auto or to go from 60 to 80 mph. EVs, are Torque monsters compared to ICE and yet they still have the HP at high end RPMs to give you that passing mode at ease.

Example as stated above is the Land had HP from 7,000 to 7,800 rpm for the front motor and from 4,000 to 7,800 on the rear motor. with boost added, I now get all my HP from 4,000 to 7,800 rpm on both front and rear motors. I also gained more torque on the front motor with more RPM range. 

As such, my land is now a GT with HP and TORQUE across a more than sufficient range of RPM from 0 to 7,800 rpm.

Be interesting when Kia releases their N edition of the EV9 what the HP and Torque numbers will be and if it becomes an upgrade option on my EV9.

That was a very long-winded way of saying you got ~70tq

So, how's it feel with the additional torque?!? 

5 hours ago, ccap41 said:

That was a very long-winded way of saying you got ~70tq

So, how's it feel with the additional torque?!? 

I do want to point out that it is just not the torque but the RPM range of how Torque and HP are applied.

I have tested this in two ways, wanted to verify the faster 0 to 60 mph time and sure enough it is bloody fast, faster than they post as I clocked it at 3.9 seconds.

Second test was at 60 and stepping on it and I am very happy to say getting up to 100mph was far faster than my SS ever could do.

Considering that Tesla Charges $2K for the boost option of Torque (58lb-ft) and longer RPM range (increases by 1K rpm) giving a reduction of 0 to 60 mph by half a second. I consider what Tesla Charges to be overpriced in comparison to what I paid for.

Total cost of electricity since I installed my Level 2 charger at home, charging from May to December, total fuel cost was $423 dollars for the year in 2024.

Here is the end of 2025, start of 2026 and while I am 5 month away from 2yrs of ownership, no maintenance, no repairs, no costs, just electric juice to the battery pack.

Miles driven in 19 months, 29,787 or averaging 1,568 miles a month.

Cost of Electricity for 2025 $753

Total cost of electricity since we bought our EV9 is $1,176