How much SLOWER is it? (EV vs Petrol Long Distance Race 2022)

We race an electric SUV against its petrol SUV counterpart to see how long electric road trips take.

Can you do a 900km road trip in an electric car as fast as a petrol car? Are EVs inconvenient for long distance driving? We often receive comments from viewers saying that EVs are good in the city but are not practical here in Australia, a country with very long distances - so we ran our own experiment to find out.

The Ioniq 5 can charge at 350kW chargers while the Tucson runs on petrol.

In today’s episode of Chasing Cars, editor Tom Baker and journalist John Law race a 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV and a 2022 Hyundai Tucson petrol SUV from Sydney to Melbourne over 900km.

Our mission: get from Sydney to Melbourne as fast as possible! How long does this 900km drive take us in an electric car versus a petrol car in 2022?

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[chasingcars]

Hopefully you enjoyed this video that we had a bit of fun creating - racing an electric car and a petrol car from Sydney to Melbourne as quick as we could!

[youoxymoron]

I drive this route 4 times a week for work. Great to see more charging stations being built along the Hume, but it's weird that the petrol driver takes breaks so frequently, and weird that he decides to go into a large town off the highway to fill up and not the petrol stations right on the highway instead. Electric vehicles will be important in the future, but it isn't as close to parity as this video suggests.

[cypmaan]

Hey, curious to find out what the price difference was? Full tank Vs the 4x quick charges on the EV! Great review.

[Dwil]

I liked how you explained the charging curve. Would be interesting to show a race between two of the same EV's, where one uses ABRP, and the other fills to 100%. Even some EV owners don't understand

[aeonturnip]

That charging time of 34 minutes is way less than I'd want to stop during a 9 hour road trip. Good work guys!

[RobertLangawesome]

I think if both cars had to stop every 2 hours for "comfort" but also safety, the time difference would had been negligible.

[VVRUte]

One of the big things for me, is not just the charging times and trip time (although, it is something that I consider, as I often do long drives like this with only 1 or 2 comfort stops) But one thing about this trip, they didn't just jump in the car and go, they had to sit and plan, where the chargers were, how much charge they'd need at each charging station, etc. I'd love to see the same test done by someone without any EV experience, and then see how they go.

[reiniernn]

A lot of people do forget that petrol cars need to be fueled at a petrol station all the year. An EV is mostly charged at home and only on trips like this charged at a rapid charger.
All over the year I spent less time for charging my EV (driving one since 2013) than I did driving an ICE car.
I still wonder why a lot of YT films are only comparing that one long trip...not all actions during a year of driving.
And also I wonder why most YT films are only comparing price of buying. Not the TCO from both cars.
since 2013 I've saved (In europe driving around) at least 55000 euro's ...SAVED means less payments during those years than when I should have driven an ICE including the buying price (and selling) and all other costs for energy roadtaxes, other taxes around cars ...In other words ...I've saved the full buying price of my new ioniq 5 AWD project 45 by driving electric for 8 years for mosst distances.
Comparing is between new ICE cars and new ICE cars same size and comfort.

Oh...and do not expect the ionic 5 to reach ever 350KW...It needs a 800volt charger for getting the max....and that's somewhere near 230KW charging.

[bilgyno]

Excellent test, and mirrors my experience with the Ioniq 5 on road trips. Plus I arrive much more relaxed.
Just one thing: the max charge rate is 225 kW, not 350 kW. It is stated a bit confusing: "10-80% in 18 minutes on a 350 kW charger", but that just means that the charger has to be an 800V charger. The car will never reach 350 kW.

[briansmith]

Great video and a good comparison. Just one pint to note, although Hyundai mention using a 350Kw charger, the max speed available in the Ioniq5 is 225Kw. The same as Audi E-tron GT and Porsche Taycan, so for the price it is excellent. The 350Kw is basically identifying it as 800V charging and future proofing for the faster charging cars coming in the future.

[KevinLyda]

I owned an EV for two years before I drove it 1, 000+ km in a day. And when I did I went all in and did several of them in a row. In doing that I learned a benefit I didn't realize: lack of fatigue.

EVs are quieter and that affects your tiredness. Apparently there's research on this: extended loud noise makes you tired.

And you can tell in this video that the petrol car is louder. That wears on you on a 1, 000+ km drive.

[Bessunger]

Having an BEV for 6 months now, I can confirm that travelling with the BEV is relaxing, taking breaks every 2-3 hours is perfectly fine. In summer I did 1050 km with 4 charging stops of together 1:30 hrs and enjoyed it.

[lloydjenkins]

Another fantastic video from chasing cars! Well done with the production of this one.

[hakunamatata]

An important info some might be after: Price spent with petrol/charge
OP said:
Tucson: $112 (91 octane)
Ioniq 5: $67 (exclusively using Chargefox ultra-rapid)

I am think I am sold with the EV and ready for a Sydney-Adelaide adventure.

[davidpereira]

Nice work, although the most useful bit of information was the total charge time, since comfort breaks are driver dependent. I can then adjust for local charging circumstances.
The total time didn't mean much since it wasn't very clear what's included for each pair.

[s]

I love it when your channel produces innovative and informative content like this.

[isaalghazi]

These guys drive SLOW 900 km is 540 miles, which is a 7.5 hour trip in the US. The EV would have had a LOT worse duration at higher speeds. This test was optimized for the EV's speed/power usage range. If they'd put on 20% more speed the EV would have failed even worse.

[davidarter]

A really excellent review, chaps. It addresses perfectly the range anxiety that has afflicted EV’s since their inception. Full marks also to Hyundai who, yet again, have produced an excellent, practical, comfortable product.

[nickcelmic]

Now imagine having to wait in line with 2 other evs in front of you. One of them wants to charge his ev to 100%.

[smurftums]

Given the range of the Ioniq 5, it would be interesting to do the trip with half hour breaks to recharge, at Wodonga and Yass, roughly at one third distance intervals.