Dealership encounter converts insurance assessor to electric

This story first appeared in the January issue of EVtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Insurance assessor Andy Downer is saving thousands of dollars each year after switching to a Hyundai Ioniq.

His job assessing damage to properties takes him as far north as Silverdale and out to Waikato and the Coromandel – a fair distance for the Kawakawa Bay resident.

“Before the Ioniq, I was in a Santa Fe turbo,” he says.

“I was doing between $800 and $900 worth of diesel a month, including road user charges.

“When I was in a petrol vehicle, it was between $900 and $1000 per month.
Going into a diesel dropped it a bit.

“Now I’ve gone electric, I calculated if it was empty, it might take $5 to charge and it’s never empty.
It’s almost paying for itself, that car.”
Downer admits he’s a Hyundai fan, estimating the Ioniq is his “sixth or seventh” vehicle from the marque.

So, it’s not a surprise he came across the Ioniq on a visit to his local dealership.

“I was taking my car in for a service, saw the Ioniq and thought ‘that’s cool.’”
The next thing Downer knew, he traded in his Santa Fe for the electric vehicle.

“It was a bit of an impulse buy.
I didn’t really research them.
I had heard about Nissan Leafs, but they are hideous.

“We talked about the range and they said it was about 200km, but I have had 300km out of it.
They’re quite conservative with what they set.

“It just depends where I’m going and how fast I’m going.”
Downer says if he charges the Ioniq up to 90%, it will have 240km of range.

“It’s basing that on the previous driver.
When I first bought it, I would say I got 200km at 100%.
That was before I had any history.

“If you chuck on the air-conditioning it takes off 20km straight away.”
So far, Downer has put about 40,000km on the car.

“Living out in Kawakawa Bay, it’s 60km to the motorway.
I’ve only run out of juice once.”
Luckily, he managed to sneak home with some downhill regeneration and a limited amount of power in “turtle mode”.

“I cover right the way up to Silverdale, and down through the Waikato and Coromandel.

“Every morning I get a fully charged car – that’s with a 32-amp plug.”
If he does have to use public charging stations, his favourites are Takanini, Auckland Airport and Greenlane.

“They’re convenient spots.If I do have to use them, I just check some emails.

“There’s stacks of space and I haven’t really noticed a drop in performance if I have four people in the car.”
However, despite loving what the Ioniq can do, Downer says he still has a soft spot for internal combustion engines.

“Because petrol is an addiction, I’ve got a motorbike.There’s my petrol headedness.”