I mentioned back in July that Christian would eventually be getting an electric car. Before we get into the new car let's do a little (long) recap. TLDR below if you don't want to read it all.

Christian has been wanting an electric car for many years and has been tirelessly researching for the past few. In late 2020 we decided to let go of his old car (a Dodge Avenger he had for almost 10 years) by handing it down to his niece on a visit to Missouri in May 2021. The original plan was to be a one-car family for a few weeks until he got a used Chevrolet Bolt. Spoiler alert: that didn't happen. Due to chip shortages, prices on used and new cars skyrocketed. Instead of being impulsive/impatient and paying $4K+ more than it was worth we decided to wait and see if prices went down. They didn't. 

We ended up getting my new car before his, which was an unexpected treat for me! I was assuming I'd be driving my Chevrolet Cobalt until it died. It started having a few old age issues in June and we didn't want to be left car-less if something else happened. We were lucky enough to find my perfect car - a bright blue 2018 Mini Cooper! The Cobalt would still be around for Christian to occasionally drive to the office (he's still working mostly remote,) but the Mini became our main car.

Christian's reasoning for wanting a Bolt was because they were relatively inexpensive and then he could trade up to a newer electric car in a few years when the technology advanced. Because of the Bolt price hikes, it pushed us to decide on a more expensive car that we plan on keeping for many years. Christian originally pre-ordered a Volkswagen ID4 that was supposed to be delivered in November 2021. We got an email in mid-December that it wouldn't be ready until JUNE 2022...WHAT?! 

I think the universe was telling us to wait. At the beginning of December, Hyundai finally released the pricing for their new electric car - the IONIQ 5. Christian had been watching the news on this car for quite a while but never thought it would be in our price range. When the pricing was released he decided it was the better option when taking into account all the features.  There were MANY pro/con lists and spreadsheets involved in the decision.  The IONIQ 5 started arriving at dealerships in the USA the week before New Years and we happened to find the exact version and color he wanted at a local dealership.

They were marking up the price quite a bit but, after calling around to other dealerships and finding that they weren't marking up, we decided to test drive the car and see if we could talk down the markup. We were able to get them to remove most of it (by trading in my Cobalt) and Christian decided it was worth the slightly higher cost so....we bought the car and picked it up on New Year's Eve!  That means we'll be able to claim it on our 2021 taxes. It qualifies for a $7500 federal tax credit which makes the price tag a liiiittle easier to digest.

TLDR: Christian has wanted an electric car for a while. He originally wanted a Chevrolet Bolt but prices skyrocketed right as he was ready to buy. He then ordered a Volkswagen ID4 in July 2021 but delivery was delayed until mid-2022 instead of December 2021. We ended up buying a better car, a 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5, on New Years Eve!

This is probably the coolest car I've ever ridden in (including my cousin's Tesla.) I love the exterior design and the interior feels so big, especially compared to Merlin, my Mini Cooper.  We're planning on doing lots of road tripping in it and I can't wait for all the adventures. I'll definitely be sharing them on the blog (with better pictures, I mostly did videos this trip because I wasn't planning on doing a post.)

Another cool thing about buying the car is we get 2 years of free charging at Electrify America charging stations. We'll basically be paying nothing to drive it for the first 2 years (you know, apart from the car payment, haha!) We can charge for an unlimited number of 30 minute sessions, but those sessions need to be an hour apart. Super easy to do, especially when road tripping. You also don't want to constantly charge to 100%, the max we'll be charging to is 80. The IONIQ 5 charges from 5%-80% in 18 minutes - although when it's cold out it takes longer.

We went on a mini adventure this past weekend. Originally we were going to drive up to Vermont but the weather was looking REALLY cold so we settled on driving up to Mystic and maybe heading to Newport and staying there for the night. We ended up just going to Mystic and watching the sunset in Watch Hill, Rhode Island.  We charged once on the way up and again right before we got home. We could've gone straight home but there's a fast charger near our house so we topped up before heading home. Then we wouldn't need to charge at home.

Have any electric car questions? Leave a comment and I'll have Christian answer them in a future post!

Charging the Hyundai IONIQ 5

Tried The Shipwright's Daughter for a late brunch

Brioche French Toast, Little Sis' Burger and Chicken Fat Home Fries

Our masks keeping us warm outside!

Always need to pick up a treat from Sift Bake Shop - Macaron Framboise & Lemon Bergamot Tart

Still a bit of the holidays on a boat | Hello, pretty car!

Enjoying the (cloudy) sunset & testing out the "entertainment system"

Since we plan to use the car for road trips/car camping Christian bought a small portable monitor so we can play his Nintendo Switch, watch movies, etc. Obviously these will not be in use while driving.

Seeing how much power we're drawing. The car is in Utility Mode which is what we would use when sleeping in the car overnight. To put it simply - it let's us use the climate system as well as power/charge electronics through the various plug in ports without the car being on.

Cloudy, but pretty!