All All-Electric Vehicles US 2022

We had the opportunity to see all the new battery-powered vehicles at the 2022 Chicago Auto Show. This was my first auto show and I was absolutely overwhelmed by the program. I especially enjoyed the test drives offered by Ford and Jeep, and I have to admit that I developed a great interest in off-roading as a result. Good thing we are converting a Jeep to electric and kept the 2WD/4WD functionality for off-roading. 🙌

Chicago Autoshow Highlights

• The Kia EV6 is a great electric car itself and has a state of charge (SOC) indication at the charge point of the car.
• None of the EV startups where there – no Rivian, no Lucid, no Tesla – would love to see them there.
• Platform technology demonstrations by Toyota and Kia were really cool – you can see the powertrain configurations and cooling system.
• I would have expected more people gathering around the GMC Hummer EV and the all-electric Silverado.
• Well educated and super friendly staff everywhere – maybe 15% of the show was EV related but still everybody that we asked about battery technology knew what they were talking about! 🔋🙌
• Amazing test ride options by Ford and Stellantis. I developed a new love for off-roading.
• Chicago skyline is beautiful at sunset (added by Don Wright).

All Electric Battery Powered EVs at the Show

1. Subaru Solterra AWD 2023: 190 Wh/mile efficiency, notes: camping, road-trip, nature, huge interest, beautiful booth scenery, platform co-development between Subaru and Toyota 
2. Kia EV6 Long Range AWD: 183Wh/mile, beautiful “every-day” car, great charging models with Electrify America, SOC indication at charge point, huge interest, comparable to Ford Mustang Mach-E
3. GMC Hummer EV:  357Wh/mile, monstrous beast, not a lot of interest at the show, 200kWh Ultium battery, not very efficient because very heavy
4. Ford E-Transit: 337Wh/mile, big surprise for lots of people to see an all electric mini-van, great move by Ford
5. Ford Mustang Mach-E AWD: 211Wh/mile, my absolute favorite electric car – beautiful, sporty, perfect every-day car, coolest ride with crazy acceleration, love the orange color
6. BMW iX: 221Wh/mile, did not really stick out, not much interest 
7. Jeep Wrangler 4xe: Hybrid, super nice and pink, lots of interest by the ladies, great off-roading test ride, super cool Jeep community, great off-roading!
8. Chevrolet Silverado E: 312.5Wh/mile, not much interest, really cool interactive app, compared to the GMC Hummer same battery size but more efficient with higher range 
9. Volkswagen ID.4: 180Wh/mile, smallest, cutest car, but not my type, still good range and efficiency
10. Nissan Ariya: 181Wh/mile, surprisingly nice and efficient, great staff at the show 
11. Hyundai Ioniq 5: 189Wh/mile
12. Toyota bZ4X: 160Wh/mile, looks like a nice car – they demonstrated their platform, very efficient car! 

EV Efficiency Comparison

Ranking of 💡Efficiency💡 (Wh/mi) – LOWER Watt-hour per mile is better. In this graph you can see how vehicle weight, battery size, electric range and overall vehicle efficiency compare for different EV models from Kia, Hyundai, Ford, GM, Tesla, Chevrolet, Subaru, Toyota, VW and BMW.

LEARNINGS:

➡️ Tesla does a pretty good job in keeping the overall vehicle weight low, which massively affects the efficiency.
➡️ GMC Hummer EV is a monstrous and really heavy car with a 200kWh pack. It looks spectacular but the efficiency is not good. The Chevy Silverado uses the same sized Ultium battery pack but has a higher mileage and less weight.
➡️ The Nissan Ariya was quite a positive surprise with a long range and good efficiency. So was the EV6 which was my favorite of the show.
➡️ I fell in love with the Mustang Mach-E – again – I really like that car and especially this orange color that they introduced at the show.
➡️ Almost all of these EVs use pouch cells from LG or SKI, except for Tesla (cylindrical) and BMW and Nissan Ariya (prismatic CATL).

Data obtained from the Autoshow and from ev-database.org.

Have a very efficient day, haha! 😊