Ev6 rental

I'm in Chicago for a couple of days with a Kia EV6 rental car. If anyone has any questions I'll be happy to answer. Pictures to come.

What trim? Curious how it compares to the GT we had recently.

Also, how much, and did you get any special briefing by the rental agency when you rented an EV?

Interested in comparisons to your Leaf -- how is the roominess, NVH, handling, driving enjoyment, etc.

I'm curious about the charging situation.  Local rental agency offered my wife a Tesla at the "suppliers choice" rate of about $40/day.  Problem was, she was headed near the coast and the person she was going to visit was in a rural area.  I.E. no real charging options near where she was.
If it didn't come back fully charged, it was a huge extra fee because they didn't have a charger at the rental place and would have to take it to WalMart and wait 4 hours to charge up (per the employee we talked to).  She wasn't due back until late Sunday for a Monday morning drop off, so figuring out how to charge it while she was down south and when she got back seemed to be too much of a hassle.

If it had been a local rental, I might have been more likely to try it.  Assuming, of course, it had the appropriate converter plug in the car to charge at my house on 110 with an extension cord.

-Rob

rob_lewis said:

I'm curious about the charging situation.  Local rental agency offered my wife a Tesla at the "suppliers choice" rate of about $40/day.  Problem was, she was headed near the coast and the person she was going to visit was in a rural area.  I.E. no real charging options near where she was.
If it didn't come back fully charged, it was a huge extra fee because they didn't have a charger at the rental place and would have to take it to WalMart and wait 4 hours to charge up (per the employee we talked to).  She wasn't due back until late Sunday for a Monday morning drop off, so figuring out how to charge it while she was down south and when she got back seemed to be too much of a hassle.

If it had been a local rental, I might have been more likely to try it.  Assuming, of course, it had the appropriate converter plug in the car to charge at my house on 110 with an extension cord.

-Rob

Hey Rob, I'm not sure I can help you exactly because I'm sure it depends on each rental agency. Sadly, I rented through budget this time, we have a complicated formula that I'll share later when I can have time to dig it up. A few dozen miles so I'm going to return it mostly full. I did not do this for the economy, because all of this is business travel anyway, but it's probably safe to say that it's similar in cost and struggle to renting a gas card and filling it up near the airport.

JG Pasterjak said:

What trim? Curious how it compares to the GT we had recently.

Also, how much, and did you get any special briefing by the rental agency when you rented an EV?

I... Don't know what trim level it is, nor do I know how to tell! I feel silly saying that, but it's true. The woman at the budget rental was rushed, very overworked, and didn't have much to say other than to remark that it was interesting. She did tell me to raise a fuss if it was not charged. It was over 80% charged, and that is fine.

nderwater said:

Interested in comparisons to your Leaf -- how is the roominess, NVH, handling, driving enjoyment, etc.

While I did lease a leaf between 2013 and 2015, I currently own a bolt. This car is a bit nicer than the bolt, and honestly a bit nicer than the model y I rented last time I was in Chicago. It's a very nice place to sit. It's a really, really nice car, I will be happy to own it. The driving mode selector is remarkable. In sport mode. This is a genuinely fast car.

The EV6 has three driving modes. Happily, you can have one pedal driving (max regen, setting 4) in any mode. It's actually not the best in sport mode because the accelerator is so responsive. It's annoying to drive like that in stop and go Chicago traffic. It feels a thousand pounds lighter than the model Y (which is weird, because it's heavier). Driving it around feels like the Bolt, but with way more power and "throttle" response. The Bolt doesn't give you that, it rather ramps the torque no matter how fast you slam the accelerator.

The interior of this thing is really nice. The dash has some interesting textures, and it's not all vinyl and plastic in there. There are buttons on the dash for everything. The seat heater and steering wheel heaters are physical buttons. I let Android Auto take over the big screen and rarely look at it other than directions. The elbow height is higher than ideal, but otherwise it's pretty much ideal in terms of ergonomics.

I'd take it over the Y, and it's a lot cheaper too. This is aside from my general suspicions of Tesla. I don't know if I would pay 10K more than this than I did for the Bolt, but for even money it's a better car.

Where in Chicago are you driving this? 

What are the sightlines and blindspots like? 

What is the closest comparison you can think of in an ICE vehicle - let's call this 2 questions, one for the driving experience and one for the utility?

mtn said:

Where in Chicago are you driving this? 

What are the sightlines and blindspots like? 

What is the closest comparison you can think of in an ICE vehicle - let's call this 2 questions, one for the driving experience and one for the utility?

In between the airport and Northbrook. 

The three quarter rear blind spot isn't great when looking over your shoulder, but that's mostly just because it's a hatchback and there are seats there. The driver's aids make up for this, there's approximity detector that vibrates the steering wheel when you have someone there with a turn signal on, and you can turn on the rear view camera independently if you'd like. I haven't noticed a problem going in and out of heavy traffic in Chicago, so that's a good sign. The view forward is great, you don't see the hood, and you can see pretty well out the sides. I suppose. If anything, I would like the window to go a bit lower but that's common in most cars.

I guess the closest comparison I could make is something like a CRV. It has all of the room of a small crossover SUV type vehicle. The trunk space or hatch space is really quite nice. It's deeper than I have in the bolt or the minivan, and the hatch is pretty tall so it's very usable. The back seat is really impressive because it has a vent on the b pillar for the HVAC that the user can direct at themselves, and it has a usb charging port for the rear seat passengers back there as well. Very roomy and very well thought out.

It drives perfectly for daily use. I would say better than a typical SUV crossover because it's much lower. So as far as driving i would say it's more typical to a modern wagon. Though I have not been in, say, a very new Volvo. I expect it to be like that.

It's pretty hard to tell but as far as trim level it appears to be a very high one, it is all-wheel drive and is quite fast. I'm not sure if this is normal with this price level of car, but when you open the door to get out it moves the seat back so you can get out easier. It makes me feel like a movie star. Heading back to drop it off tomorrow, but I am quite impressed. Overall. Sorry, no pictures, it was rainy and cloudy here anyway, today. The only negative I found is the door handles, I don't think I found a great way to open them with one hand, which seems like a mess.