Why This EV Owner is Switching to a Hybrid for Their Next Car

I am an electric vehicle owner. I traded my trusty Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen in for a cheap lease deal on a Hyundai Ioniq 5 a couple of years back. About a year and a half ago, my wife got a three-row Kia EV9. So, we became an all-EV (and all Hyundai E-GMP platform) family.

I have long been an electric-vehicle advocate. I have enjoyed my time with our EVs. I expected to leave fossil fuel power in the rearview mirror, permanently. But with my lease about to run out and a decision to make, I’m here to confess: my next car will be a hybrid.

Electric vehicles are great. I still believe that, in the intermediate to long term, EV technology will prevail. But I live in Michigan in 2026. It’s nearly impossible to make being an all-EV household work conveniently – at least without tailoring your lives to your car situation and mooching off other relatives’ cars.

Electric Cars Are Excellent For Everyday Driving

Ty Duffy/CarBuzz/Valnet

My decision had nothing to do with my EV itself. I love the Hyundai Ioniq 5. I tested it multiple times for work before leasing one. It’s a car I chose to bring home because it is an outstanding all-around car, electric or not. The prudent play would have been to get the rear-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 with more range. I opted for the all-wheel-drive model, which packs 320 horsepower and 446 pound-feet of instant torque. It can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 4.5 seconds. That doesn’t feel as visceral in an EV as it would in, say, a Ford Mustang GT. But it is a fun little trick when BMW and Audi drivers get annoying.

But what makes the Ioniq 5 brilliant is not its quickness or sportiness; it is the car’s balance and restraint. The handling feels direct and responsive. But instead of dialing it in to 11, Hyundai pulls everything back to an 8. The result is a car that is comfortable and competent for everyday driving on normal roads. And unlike a lot of its EV brethren, it’s accommodating to drivers coming over from combustion. There’s very little learning curve. The cabin is spacious and easy to access. The trunk space is enough to hold a small family’s luggage for a long weekend.

The Ioniq 5 did present some minor annoyances. My 2024 model predated the 2025 mid-cycle refresh, so it came without a rear wiper. I’ve been painfully reliant on the rear defrost to get through winter. The front wipers, which I swiftly swapped out, were some of the worst I’ve experienced on a production car. The pre-refresh model only comes with wired Apple CarPlay, conveniently with no natural place to put a cellphone. My iPhone flew from the front seat or the cupholder during heavy braking quite frequently. But nothing rose to the level of making me regret my decision.

But EV Infrastructure Is Not There Yet, At Least Not In Michigan

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Most days, public charging infrastructure has had zero impact on my EV ownership. I own a single-family home. I installed a home Level 2 charger. I had around 200 miles of range on an 80% charge most times I left the house. And that was more range than I would ever need on 98% of my drives, even early morning treks from my home north of Detroit to media drive events west of Ann Arbor. My first EV road trip, however, proved an epiphany.

Road trips in an EV remain a challenge. Michigan is improving its EV infrastructure, but still lags behind leaders. The situation makes maintaining an all-EV household challenging. EV fast-charging infrastructure tends to cluster around “big box” retailers. Broadly, that makes sense. Stores like Meijer and Walmart are located near major highway interchanges. Of course, “near” is a relative term. A charger a mile away from the highway exit can still mean adding 5–10 minutes on to a charging stop. Those big box retailers often reside off the main drag, where land is cheaper and away from restaurants, which adds time. A 20-25 minute full charge stop on the road can easily take 40-45 minutes to complete with hungry kids.

Ty Duffy/CarBuzz/Valnet

Michigan’s fast charging infrastructure is also not sufficiently dispersed. Charging companies have essentially piggybacked on Tesla Supercharger locations. So, there are more available stalls and charger types at specific locations, but the number and distribution of locations remain poor. Adding an NACS adapter only added backup options at the same locations.

Charging experiences can be very inconsistent. Things can go well. On my way up to Northern Michigan, I pulled into an empty 350 kW Electrify America charger and completed a full charge in around 20 minutes. During the trip, I randomly found that the town of Cheboygan had added 150 kW fast chargers at City Hall that took credit cards.

Things can also go very poorly. On my way home on a 95-degree day, the one bank of Electrify America chargers within range was closed. Tesla Supercharger stalls were full, and none could accommodate my vehicle in the appropriate spot due to the cord length. We were saved by a Ford dealer with a Blink charger, thankfully located a few miles away.

EVs Dropping Range In The Winter Is Rough In A Wintery Locale

Ty Duffy/CarBuzz/Valnet

My aforementioned experience involved a lot of stress and some white-knuckle testing of the car’s range. And that was in relatively ideal summer conditions. EVs are far less efficient in cold weather. In my Ioniq 5, I’ve seen about a 20% range drop compared to typical performance when the temperature drops between 10ºF and 20ºF. This winter, we’ve dealt with temperatures dropping 20 degrees below that. EVs are less efficient on the highway without stop-and-go regenerative braking than they are in city driving.

That range decline is not a problem when picking up my kids from school or running errands. But it does make the difference between visiting friends at their vacation homes or going on ski trips in Northern Michigan being doable (stressfully) and not. That drive can be stressful enough in a combustion car. My family has got by this winter, but only because we have relatives that live five minutes away with vehicles we can borrow for the weekend. A hybrid that can fill up with gas is far more convenient.

Getting Electric Vehicles Repaired Can Be Problematic

Kia

Mercifully, nothing has gone wrong with my Ioniq 5. I’ve only taken it for scheduled maintenance and to address recalls. I had one incident where the 12V battery went flat, turning the car into a cork in my brother-in-law’s driveway on New Year’s Eve. But that was swiftly resolved with a portable jump starter. Our Kia EV9 has been a vastly different experience, one that had me questioning whether an EV household was the optimal decision.

We’ve had two different battery-related problems with the EV9. In the first instance, the 12V battery had gone flat on the lot, which froze the GT Line’s fancy power-adjustable second-row captains’ chairs in place. In the second instance, the car stopped charging, began flashing glaring red warnings, and required its battery control module to be replaced.

Both repairs, performed at separate dealerships, took an inordinate length of time. Fixing the software on the seats required a week at the dealer. Replacing the battery control module took an entire month, without a loaner and no offer from Kia to reimburse the monthly payment. Both dealers appeared to be calling Kia’s central tech support for guidance whenever something EV-related went wrong with the car, with multiple back-and-forths causing substantial delays.

The Vehicle We Need Really Isn’t Affordable As An EV Yet

Rivian/Broad Arrow Auctions

My family has two kids. Michigan isn’t northern Canada, but there is a fair amount of snowfall during the winter. We were looking for a spacious, practical but not necessarily three-row car with maybe a little more four-wheel-drive capability and clearance than the EV9 offers. The closest thing that currently exists in the EV realm is the Rivian R1S. But the R1S is pricey.

We would need at least the 329-mile Dual battery but ideally the 410-mile Max range to alleviate range anxiety. Starting MSRP for the Dual Rivian R1S is $83,990. The Max pack pushes the price above $90,000. And with the Trump administration eliminating the $7,500 federal tax credit, there aren’t reasonable lease rates to help make that price more manageable.

I didn’t want to go back to gas. But with the current infrastructure and EV market, something like a Toyota 4Runner as a second car adds far more versatility and feels far more reasonable.

Source: Fueleconomy.gov