Our colleagues at Motorgraph made an experiment on the All-New IONIQ 5. It is possible and profitable to mine coin in an electric car using Vehice 2 Load technology?. The idea seems worth it, you buy an electric car, charge it at a low price or even free sometimes, and mine using the charged electricity.
So let’s take a look to the experiment. Motorgraph colleague rated it a crazy but awesome experiment. Before they begin the experiment, they try to keep in mind that this is not a coin or mining promotion, but rather an extreme test of V2L technology.
Starting with the IONIQ 5, all-new electric vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis are applying a technology called V2L. V2L is an abbreviation of Vehicle to Load, and refers to a technology that can share electricity charged in the vehicle’s battery out of the vehicle.
For sure you were still able to connect electronic devices to an electric car through a 12V or 220V inverter, but usually the maximum was around 220W. This low power can be use for just charging a smartphone or something like that. However, since the All-New IONIQ 5 provides 3.6 kW of power, which is 18 times higher than that, it is possible to use home appliances, from camping to mining coin.
Detail image of IONIQ’s V2L
The premise of the experiment is as follows. Don’t be fooled by using the long range IONIQ 5, which costs 60 million won (around US $53,000), as a 100% mining machine. Cars must perform basic tasks such as commuting to work. Nevertheless, they tried to calculate the maximum profit by making a copper wire optimized for mining.
The experimental conditions were set up like this. The number of graphics cards and miners takes into account the output and space of the IONIQ 5. Six latest graphics cards are loaded into one set, and a total of three sets are loaded in the trunk. By doing this, 3 sets of mining machines fit into the trunk. If you fix the rest of the wiring well, it seems that there will be no problem in using the 2nd row.
Then, they divided the charging and mining time by ‘7 TO 7’. They charge the IONIQ 5 for 12 hours from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM of the next day to bring the vehicle to near 100%. Mining is carried out for 12 hours from 7 am when the journalist go to work until 7 pm when he leaves work. The commuting distance is 80 km round trip, and a 20% of the total battery was used for driving.
With this plan, the mining machine ran for 12 hours from 7 PM to 7 AM the next day at the Motorgraph Tower parking lot. He said “It would have been nice to run the mining coin machine and go home, but I watched the V2L system and battery problems due to overheating, thinking that there could be a fire in the worst case.”
Mining was done with Ethereum, and after running for 12 hours, the IONIQ 5 earned 0.000976 Ether per hour for a total of 0.0117 Ether. If you do this non-stop mining for a year, it is calculated that you can earn 4.275 Ether. As of June 2, when the test was conducted, it was found that he earned 2,865 won (US $2,37) per hour for a total of 34,380 won (US $30,39). Based on this standard, if you continue for one year, you can earn 12,548,700 won (US $11,092). It’s pretty cool!!
Wait. Is there anyone out there who thinks it’s really cool? US $11,092 per year. After all, this is gross benefits, it’s not net profit. You need to buy a graphic cards for mining coin so taking a look to the most popular graphic cards, NVIDIA 3060ti is priced at 2.5 million won each (US $2,209). If you put 18 of these, you will need 45 million won (US $39,776). In the case of the 3070, the price is cheaper than the 3060ti, although it is the latest model. Still, it costs 1.3 million won for one piece (US $1,149), or 23.4 million won (US $20,683) for 18 pieces.
Charging fees are also outrageous. If it is calculated at 70 won (US $0,06) per 1 kWh based on non-public slow charging, it would cost about 1.9 million won (US $1,679) to charge the 73kWh IONIQ 5 during 365 days. If 80% of this is used for mining, it is 1.5 million won (US $1,325).
Let’s think in terms of the present. If you subtract the charging fee from the mining revenue, you earn 11 million won (US $9,723) a year. It takes 2.1 years for the 3070 and 4 years for the 3060ti to recover the investment with this. And repeating this for 365 days. If the coin price drops further, that could be really crazy.
The journalist asked itself if he was too negative, but also try to give some hope. The current price of 1 Ethereum has dropped significantly to $2,632 (about 3 million won) now compared to $4,182 (about 4.75 million won) on May 12, when it was at its highest.
Based on that standard, the annual revenue will increase to to near 20 million won (US$ 17,678). Even if you pay the charging fee, your net profit rises to 18.5 million won (US $16,352). Graphics card investment is drastically reduced from 2.1 years to 1.3 years and from 4 years to 2.5 years. If the price of Ethereum rises higher than this time, the profit will increase that much. The same goes for mining coins that are more likely to rise than Ethereum.
Nevertheless, Motorgraph’s journalist thoughts it is a stupid idea to mine coins using the V2L technology of the IONIQ 5. First of all, due to internal thermal management and battery health check, we had to keep an eye on it throughout mining. It’s hard to turn mining and do other things. In terms of profits, I was reluctant to think that it was a gamble that relied on luck. In this era of rapid coin price fluctuations, he came to the conclusion that mining with only 18 graphic cards for 12 hours would never make money. Above all, after trying it once, I was like, ‘What is the meaning of mining while under such stress?’.
Inside temperature during mining
At 7pm, the mining test started at 96% battery and ended at 7am with 23% left. The V2L function is automatically terminated when the battery drops below 20%, so initially the tester was worried as the experiment was coming to an end, but fortunately, it was finished without any major problems.
Mining is accompanied by tremendous heat, which is fatal to the battery. So, during the 12 hours of mining, the air conditioner was turned on at 17 degrees. The room temperature rose to 40 degrees thanks to the heat emitted by the mining machine, but the battery built into the IONIQ 5 continued to use the V2L technology without any problems. Thanks to this, they still have up to 79-97 km after the experiment was over to return home. The battery was managed very well even after it was brutally drained of electricity for over 12 hours.
Let’s finish. It is better not to mine coins with V2L, not only with the IONIQ 5, but also with other electric vehicles. “It’s hard to make money and it’s just stressful but now I’m more concerned about thermal management than I thought” said Jeon Seung-yong. Above all, there are many restrictions on the intrinsic function of the car. There is no reason to mine with Ioniq 5. Inconvenient and inefficient.
Instead, you can use the V2L of the IONIQ 5 without worrying about it. It is spacious and comfortable. You can use it for electronic products such as refrigerators and induction cookers when you are in a hurry, or you can charge an electric vehicle next to you if there is any leftover. However, when using a multi-tap, it is necessary to divide it into several devices with high allowable power. Otherwise, there is a high possibility that the multi-tap cannot withstand and turn off.
