Why I Appreciate Plug-In Hybrids As The Perfect Camping Vehicles

Here’s why I say that: while I know fully electric vehicles (EVs) can typically do all the cool things a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) can do on a camping trip like power your pumps, fridges, cameras and other entertainment or other tools and devices, depending on where you are camping and how far you are from an outlet, they may also have limits (at least in relation to your camping spot). If you only camp at places that have RV electrical hookups, that likely won’t be an issue, but if you are like me and you like going to remote, “primitive” campgrounds that don’t have any electrical connections anywhere nearby, it can be a little more work, or cause just a little anxiety, to get to these remote areas in an EV. This is all the more true if you tow a trailer, strap things to a roof rack, go camping in cold weather, or just have a lot of stuff to haul or charge while camping because many people want to be comfortable when they camp. Can you blame them?

I also know this is changing, over time, and eventually charging stations will be so ubiquitous there will no longer be a need to intricately plan stops and energy usage and one can just hop back in their EV for a short drive down the mountain to top off the battery should it be running low in the middle of the woods. But for now, PHEVs greatly reduce the variables, and lower anxiety potentially, because they can run many electrical devices for days on end if they have a full charge. PEVs of both flavors can run things like microwaves, hot plates, lighting (who doesn’t like a well lit campground?), power tools and recharge just about any device you can think of. If your battery runs out, you’ve still got gas (hopefully!) in your tank to drive you back out.

Speaking of running electrical appliances off your PHEV, last weekend I went camping in my Kia Sorento PHEV and figured out a couple new things while testing and confirming some of its versatility too. First, I ran our car fridge, which plugs into the 180W 12V outlets in the Sorento, for approximately 5 hours with the vehicle in Accessory mode (after turning off the auto-shut off feature in Sorento’s settings menu and activating the emergency brake to turn off the Sorento’s sleek daytime running lights). Interestingly, I only lost about 2 miles of range after all that, even though the temperatures were much warmer on this trip, than my last. It may be that the fridge just had to work harder previously due to what was in it, I am not sure. Regardless, I might extend my previous 30 hour estimate for running a car fridge to something closer to 40, depending. 

Second, while the Sorento continues to be a pretty comfortable place to sleep on a camping trip, one minor issue we experienced was condensation on the inside of the windows in the morning. This is obviously due to how much me and my family were breathing through the night. I crack the windows about an inch or two and close the door with towels draped over the door frames (which keeps bugs out and also blocks a good amount of light). But I am thinking I may either need to crack them more (I’ll try 4 or 5 inches next time) or get some actual screens (something like these, though I am not endorsing this particular product). It wasn’t a big deal to wipe the interior windows down when we got up, but still probably isn’t a good thing for the interior to get that damp. 

Third, if you end up driving your Sorento PHEV for many miles in EV mode, after filling your tank and before the gas engine comes on the first time (in my case it was almost 500 miles of EV driving, most recently), the “since refueling” and “accumulated” mileage displays won’t necessarily start going down immediately (from “999” MPG). I assume this is because of the algorithm “factoring” in all those EV miles, first, before registering the impact of running on gas. In my case, it took almost 10 miles of driving in hybrid (HEV) mode before it started dropping (ultimately ending up at 121 MPG after the roughly 225 mile trip).

Finally I’ll share that though many electrified vehicles, the Kia Sorento PHEV included, have 12V outlets to power things like a mini fridge, most of those outlets are not strong enough to power things like hot plates or a microwave. For those, you need an inverter that clamps on to the vehicle's 12V battery to supply up to 1,000 Watts of power. When attached appropriately, the inverter can be run for very long periods of time when the vehicle is in Accessory mode and the hybrid battery is keeping the 12V fully charged up. Oh, and for those that may want to know, on our way home from camping, we got about 49 MPG combined for the 100+ mile drive. We had a mostly full battery charge still and of course we were coming down out of the mountains so those things helped us get better MPG on our return than on our way out. I suppose being a little lighter could have helped too. 

Would you be inclined to use your Sorento or SUV the way I have for camping? Do you agree that, for now at least, PHEVs may be a better camping vehicle than pure EVs? If there’s anything you’d like to know about camping in the Kia Sorento PHEV, please leave your comments or questions below.

Image courtesy of Justin Hart.

Justin Hart has owned and driven electric vehicles for over 15 years, including a first generation Nissan LEAF, second generation Chevy Volt, Tesla Model 3, an electric bicycle and most recently a Kia Sorento PHEV. He is also an avid SUP rider, poet, photographer and wine lover. He enjoys taking long EV and PHEV road trips to beautiful and serene places with the people he loves. Follow Justin on https://www.torquenews.com/kia for regular electric and hybrid news coverage.