My second month with the Genesis GV60 couldn’t be much more different than my first.
In my first month with the GV60 I racked up 800 miles in just ten days thanks to work and family commitments, but the second month has been virtually the opposite. Not only have I done far less mileage than usual (less than half that of my first month) due to a lot of simple commuting and being busy with work, but that mileage has been a lot of frequent, low speed trips in preparation for a house move.
Normally however, in any car with a traditional internal combustion engine, that would be a nightmare. ICE vehicles like a regular, constant speed usually the slower the better. What they certainly don’t like is stop-start traffic or short journeys, especially those where the engine doesn’t get a chance to warm up.
With an EV of course, virtually the opposite is true. With little energy wasted while stationary, shorter and slower journeys are an almost perfect environment for an EV. The result is that while my overall mileage hasn’t been going up dramatically, my overall economy has been. Not by much admittedly, only from 3.5mls/kWh to 3.7, but a notable rise nonetheless and one that matches the car’s official claim too.
All the small, slow journeys I’ve been doing have all been adding up and, as the average for that trip flashes up on the screen at the end of the journey, I’ve been frequently seeing 4.1mls/kWh and above, pulling my overall average up. And that’s the thing about EVs, it’s very easy to focus on the longer journeys that you do occasionally where your average efficiency might drop, but those are outweighed by the sum of all the smaller, shorter journeys – something that’s very easy to forget.
The reality is that all of those smaller journeys, the everyday school run drops or commuting trips to the train station overall probably make up just as much mileage, if not more, than those occasional longer runs. Which in turn plays to an EV’s strengths in terms of that efficiency.
In fact, I’m of the opinion that the GV60’s efficiency would be even more improved if it weren’t for the extreme weather we’ve been enduring. I normally avoid the air conditioning button like a vampire does the garlic bread at a wedding buffet, but I’ve had to use it of late. The same goes for the ventilated seats, which I’m a total convert for. While air con doesn’t quite put the same dent in efficiency that it does with an ICE car, it’s still obvious when it’s been in use on a journey, especially alongside those cooled seats. Every volt not used for moving the car forwards is a volt wasted in efficiency terms.
Somewhat more traditional is that I’ve also been taking advantage of the GV60’s hatchback body too during the aforementioned house removals. It’s so much more practical to lift the tailgate, lower the rear seats and fill it up – particularly with longer or boxier items – in a way that you simply couldn’t do with a saloon. It’s a reminder how I could never live with a saloon car on an everyday basis, for those occasions when you need that space. And apologies to Genesis for using and abusing the GV60 in a manner for which it probably shouldn’t be used!
One more month to go with the GV60 and I’m already starting to mourn its impending departure and think of plausible excuses to make to Genesis to not take it away – the dog ate the keys, aliens have landed in Marlow, the usual type of thing. Clearly I’ll need to get creative – and fast.