Used soul 65 mile round trip

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Mopar

New member
Joined
Oct 26, 2020
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3
Been looking at 2017 soul EVs. I have a 60-65 mile round trip to work. Difficult to charge at work but I could if I had too. Sometimes have to detour do to traffic or picking up kids etc, which makes max commute more like 70-75 miles a couple times a month. Is that realistic with the soul (in New England so some cold weather). A bit more about the commute about 70% highway pre Covid about 15 minutes stuck in bumper to bumper traffic would be normal, now I cruise thru those parts at 50 mph.
 
Hello,

The car can make it even in winter. When my 2015 car had a good battery it could travel like 90 miles in the very cold days in winter with climate control on. But that is not the point.

With this driving range, you will use most of your battery capacity in many days, this way your battery will not last for long. Its capacity will degrade fast. With such a long trip, I think you should get a car with more range.

You will need a car with like 40 KWh of battery capacity (more or less). That depends also on your budget.
 
Otoh, with a 240V 16A portable charger at work, you could do both legs from 80% down to (say) 45%, which would be excellent for prolonging the battery life, and give a comfortable reserve.
 
Mopar said:
... I have a 60-65 mile round trip to work. Difficult to charge at work but I could if I had too...
If charging at work was easy then this would be a maybe. But it isn't so you'd be better getting a car with a bigger battery.
Here's a thread from 2016. It was the first car on this forum to suffer degradation and be unable to make a commute.
That experience has been fairly common in the 4 years since.

27,000 miles 86-mile range; my Soul EV commute is over.
 
Thanks guys,

I have been looking for a new commuter car, while I like the idea of electric, with the amount of miles I put on I like buying well into the depreciation curve. Plus I still do some long drives for work that would require a rental with a lower range electric so I guess I will stick to gas for a little longer (looking at kia forte5's as well), unless 2018's become a lot cheaper by the time I'm ready to buy.
 
On charging I work for a small company no 240V chargers but there are a couple 20 amp 120 oulets but I have to park in a far corner and get the cord past an equipment cage to reach them (the guys with diesel trucks do that now on really cold days) so not really ideal for every day.
 
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