It Is Possible To Take An Electric Car On A Road Trip

Our two contributors learned that it was possible to take an electric car on a road trip as they drove the Hyundai Ioniq Electric and Renault Zoe from Singapore to Malacca.

There are two pure electric cars being sold in Singapore. One hails from South Korea and the other one comes from France.

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is the first all-electric car to be launched by an authorised dealer in Singapore.

It is the sibling of the Ioniq Hybrid, which arrived here in 2016.

The Renault Zoe from has been available overseas since 2013, but it only arrived in Singapore last year.

The biggest issue for those who drive electric cars is range anxiety – the persistent worry of whether there is enough battery power to reach the next destination or charging point.

Hyundai says that the Ioniq Electric can manage up to 280km when fully charged.

Renault claims the Zoe has a maximum range of 367km. But paper figures are seldom achievable in real-life driving. The real-world range is about 220km for the Ioniq Electric and 320km for the Zoe.

To test the range of both cars, we decided to drive both the Ioniq Electric and Zoe from Singapore to Malacca, which is about 250km away.

I took the wheels of the Ioniq Electric while Nigel Yong, the deputy editor of SPH-subsidiary sgCarMart.com, drove the Zoe.

Before we departed, Torque’s contributor and resident mechanical engineer, Shreejit Changaroth, inspected both cars. Shreejit, who was once a motorsport scrutineer, measured the cars’ tyre pressures and checked their engine compartments.

RANGE GAUGE

The Ioniq Electric faced an uphill battle from the start.

Before I set off, its computer indicated a range of 231km, whereas the Zoe’s showed 290km. Since we had to cover 250km, it had to regain range along the way.

We started driving at 6.44am. Our first stop was the Shell petrol station at Alexandra Road where Komoco Motors’ sales manager Vincent Ng pumped up the tyres of the Ioniq Electric to the recommended 36psi.