Does anyone want to talk EVs?

[janegold]

Jul 20, 2023 12:20:08 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Jul 20, 2023 11:50:11 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Can I tell you I am so conflicted about this!  I bought $5k in TSLA for DH's Roth waaaaay before Musk was a household name.  At its height it was worth about $120k.  I sold half at its peak but still have the other half.  Still very conflicted wishing good things for the company and wishing ill on Musk personally...

I know a handful of people who work or have worked there, and they’ve had good things to say. I also know people who worked at Twitter and they hate him a lot more (but they also lost their jobs because of him so, you know.)

My brother worked for Tesla, and left 3 years ago primarily because of Musk. Most everyone he worked with left too. He made working there very stressful, and was prone to insane power trips and unreasonable demands. People were totally on edge there.

My brother sold all his stock options when he left the company, and I thought that was a good move.  But my H just bought a bunch of Tesla stock last week and I don't love that...I feel like Musk is way too unpredictable for me to want to invest in a company he's running.  

Back to the actual cars, I have my eye on a Rivian or a Volvo XC-90 plug-in hybrid.

[sicilygirl]

Jul 20, 2023 20:13:58 GMT -5 erbear said:

Jul 19, 2023 16:06:13 GMT -5 jewel said:

Another option, if he’s not fully committed, is a plug in hybrid vehicle.

My H has a plug in Prius, and I LOVE it so much. It has an electric range of around 30 miles and we very rarely use gas beyond that. Depending on your driving habits and charging capabilities in the community, this might be a good option too. We are able to use a regular wall outlet to charge at home, my H charges for free at work, and we have lots of charging stations around town so we can often plug in when we go somewhere. A lot of places that I take the kids that have paid parking (zoo, museums, etc) give free parking to electric vehicles if you pay for the charge, which always ends up cheaper for me because the charge max is so minimal. I also love that we can take it on road trips and it’ll switch to hybrid driving and we can gas up as usual.

I’d love to get a plug in hybrid SUV. I drove the plug in Jeep Wrangler, which was fun. I’d really love a 3rd row SUV option and am hoping that prices and availability improve in the next year or so.

This is what I want. What model do you have?

We have a 2021 RAV4 Prime SE. it was crazy hard to get when we were in the market for one so settled for the SE instead of the XSE but we still love it. The plug-in hybrid is perfect for us because it’s so versatile. My husband is able to do his daily commute (plus any errands or whatever) using electric only because the range is about 50-55 miles. We really only use gas when we go on road trips but it’s so nice to have that option. And we get about a 600 mile range on a full tank/charge which is amazing. I’d highly recommend.

[Poppy]

My Prius had some more issues so we've gotten serious about looking now.

First, we're definitely taking into account which ones qualify for the federal tax credit: www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/ev-tax-credit-electric-vehicle-tax-credit

In terms of small cars, the Bolt is really standing out to us. It's about $30k MSRP and qualifies for the full $7,500. The Leaf does not currently qualify and costs more for an equivalent range-capable battery. The range of the Bolt is pretty darn good (~250mi).

If money was no object, we'd probably go with the Mach-E. Range is even better and they have some more premium options including AWD which would be nice here in the winter.

But I think we're leaning Bolt because we can't justify the extra $20k+ for the Mach-E and we'd rather replace our Prius (our efficient, lower frills car) than our Subaru (snow car and "nicer" car).

To me, the plug in hybrids are good from the perspective of enabling road trips, but then you lose a lot of the EV benefits such as not needing oil changes and much lower part count (less maintenance, theoretically). So since we will still have an ICE (gas) car, we are thinking that we can use that for longer range trips and prioritize a good daily driver - cost over range.