A woman says she rented a Kia electric vehicle that died on her while she was driving it. As a result, she says she’ll never rent or buy an EV unless it’s by “force.”
@mentallyfit1, a Navy veteran and mother of three, says she rented a Kia EV6 while her current car gets new tires and an oil change. But her experience with the EV left her never wanting to drive one again.
“Kia EV6, count your [expletive] days,” @mentallyfit1 warns the manufacturer. Her storytime sharing what happened to her after her rental had amassed more than 221,000 views.
Driver gets stuck on the road
@mentallyfit1 says a dealership worker instructed her how to charge the car, which had 87% battery when it was assigned to her.
When she realized she was 80 miles away from her next charge, she says she decided to take it to the nearest station.
“I decided to go charge it at Walmart,” she shares.
All was well until @mentallyfit1 says she needed a second charge. At this point, she says her rental alerted her she had 50 miles left before it would die.
The only problem was that the nearest charging station was 30 miles away.
As @mentallyfit1 drove to the nearest station, she says the miles on her car “were just dwindling.” Eventually, she says it got to a point where she was 17 miles from the nearest charging station—but her car was miles away from dying. To preserve the battery, @mentallyfit1 says she cut off the Kia’s air and radio.
Then, miles before getting to her destination, @mentallyfit1 says her car suddenly stopped.
“I’m sitting in the middle of the street, and cars are blowing,” she says.
@mentallyfit1 says she turned the car off and started it again. At this point, luckily, she was only .2 miles away from the nearest charging station—which was at a second Walmart.
While she did make it to her destination safely, @mentallyfit1 says the stress of the entire situation made her wary of EVs.
“I will never in my life rent an electric vehicle,” she says. “They will have to force me to buy one.”
What’s worse, @mentallyfit1 says she had to get a ride back from Walmart because the Kia took “five hours to get to 50%.”
Do Kia EVs normally take this long to charge?
According to Lectrium, which shares data on EVs with dealerships and customers alike, the charge time of a Kia might depend on what charger you use.
It says in a report from November 2022 that there are three types of EV chargers: level 1, level 2, and level 3. Level 1 chargers, it says, take the longest time to charge. In fact, it says these chargers can take upwards of 40 hours “to fully charge.”
Level 2 and level 3 chargers, meanwhile, only take a couple of hours and minutes, respectively.
“Level 3 chargers are mainly built for public use—they require an enormous amount of available electricity in the grid, considerable investment in grid infrastructure, and are impractical for home use,” Lectrium reports.
Other Kia EV6 drivers have similarly complained about long charge times. In the r/KiaEV6 subreddit, one user said their car won’t even charge to 70% after 12 hours.
“Any idea what can be happening?” they asked.
There wasn’t an easy or simple fix offered, though. Some Redditors agreed that the issue lay with Kia’s software and the EV6’s charging port. One Redditor went a step further, alleging that the onus lies on Kia to replace the car’s port “with a more robustly designed one,” but added that they didn’t see that happening anytime soon.
“My own EV6 had this issue start happening after about 1 or 2 months of ownership,” they shared. “I wasn’t even 5,000 miles into the thing.”
@krisswith I’ll never understand how people can act this way #fyp #server #servers #serversoftiktok #serverstories #serverstorytime #serverstory #serverlife #serverprobs #bartender #bartenders #bartendersoftiktok #bartenderstories #bartenderstory #bartenderstorytime #bartenderprobs #bartenderproblems #bartenderlife ♬ original sound – Kristina Withers
Some viewers refuse to buy electric
In the comments section of @mentallyfit1’s video, several users said her story made them thankful to rely on gas to charge their cars.
“I’ll stick wit $20 on pump 2,” one commenter quipped.
“Electric cars are a waste of time,” another added.
“Our power grid is not ready for electric cars,” a third viewer wrote.
“This is my fear of electric cars right here,” a fourth user said. “Yet they’re pushing them so hard. I DON’T WANT ONE and this is why. Gas stations are everywhere.”
Others, however, assured @mentallyfit1 that not all EVs experience the same issue.
“I have a Kia EV6 and luv it,” one user proclaimed.
“I’ve had a Tesla Model X for a year now and would not have any other EV. It’s fantastic,” another wrote.
“I love my EV. Not Tesla. Renting without research is scary. It takes planning when traveling but rental companies don’t tell you that,” a third commenter said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @mentallyfit1 via TikTok comment and to Kia through email.
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