I need a new car, and I really want to go full electric. I’m wondering if anyone regrets buying one? What are the downsides?
EV driver working in automotive industry here. Based in N Europe, so take my words with a pinch of salt for other geos.
If you can charge at home, don’t regularly drive very long distances and are OK with a smaller boot space EVs are a complete no-brainer.
If not all of these are true, the convenience depends a lot on where you live. In Northern Europe, UK and northern parts of Central Europe public charging networks are pretty good although Norway is starting to see queuing to be a thing.
In the US the only good charging network is Tesla’s, which means only NACS cars can charge there - EU regulator has done a good job here standardising to CCS2.
Living with an EV does require some changes in behavior. You need to think about tomorrow’s needs today to have the right SOC for the next long trip or choose your shopping and dining options to facilitate charging. For me, this is perfectly OK and the pleasure of driving an EV more than compensates for the mild inconvenience. That said, the amount of inconvenience is dependent on the first three factors and the country you live in.
When choosing your car, remember that you can’t normally use the top and bottom 20% of your battery (depending a bit on the chemistry), which is reflected in day-to-day range.
Feel free to ask anything related to EVs, batteries, chargers or charging networks.
I went from an 08’ VW Rabbit to a '21 VW id.4 a few months ago. Got the $4k tax rebate passed onto the dealer to bring my price down to $19k [~$21k after taxes/fees], it’s the AWD Pro S, and doesn’t have the Gradient Package [some silvery exterior bits and slightly larger wheels]. I love the car, my family loves the car. The only nitpick I reaaaaaally have and that most people have for the VW evs is the damn driver side window switches lol. You get 2 and have to tap a touch sensitive bit to switch it to the back. Makes no sense. The steering wheel touch inputs for cruise control and media are another controversial choice, but I’ve gotten used to it.
As far as an EV in general goes. Like most have said, check out the charging network you have where you are and where you plan to be. I’ve only done one road trip in my id.4 [from buying it in Chicagoland and bringing it home] and while the range was “OK” [about 150 highway miles per charge], since I was along a string of L3s along the turnpike, I wasn’t worried about making it to a charger. My immediate area had a couple of L3s, but now there’s probably about double/triple around me now that’s opened in the few months I’ve had my car.
That being said, my circumstance have the car as mostly a commuter, so I tend to last on a charge all week, and then L1 charge it Sun-Tues morning to start all over. Any around town stuff during charging time doesn’t really make a dent since it’s all within a few miles of my home. I also am able to charge at work for free, though sometimes spots get filled. Initially I was thinking about getting a L2 EVSE, but between home and work, I don’t really feel the need for one. I’d also need one with a good 50’ cord since I park in front of my house, otherwise wife and I would have to re-arrange the cars whenever I wanted to charge.
That being said, if stuff happens and we do go up to my sisters about 40 miles away or something happens to where I do need to charge at a L3, the price per “tank” has been about $15 and taken 20-ish minutes. Most of the time I’m watching a few youtube videos, or going in for a restroom break and by the time i get back the car’s about ready.
My car, and I think most EVs nowadays will have a setting limiting the charge to 80% to help with keeping the battery healthy. If I’m not using air conditioning at 80% my estimated range is about 190-200 miles, if it’s hot and I’m using AC, it’ll go down to 185ish. First upcoming winter, so I’ll get to see how much my car is impacted. I don’t usually worry about range. I did at first because I had a couple of close calls about charging stations not being available while doing some longish trips back and forth, but I think in general my immediate and surrounding areas that I might frequent have gotten more stations recently.
OH. Insurance for me wasn’t much more than what I was already paying, but registration in my state tacks on another $200 dollars a year, presumably since having an EV you’re not paying into the gas tax. Some states don’t have EV fees, some do. So might want to check that. My co-worker just found out about that and wasn’t happy lol.
Not yet, but are there any electric cars that aren’t spyware with touchscreens on wheels?
lol. As opposed to the 6 inch rectangle in your pocket
God damn this thread is depressing. We need a carbon tax yesterday.
The big question is if you can charge at home. Depending on the car, it’s feasible to do so on a normal outlet if you drive ~30 miles or less per day. A 240 volt outlet can be a game changer on top of that though. My setup charges my car 0-100 in about 6 hours (you know, overnight, when I’m not doing anything and electricity is cheapest). But if I were in an apartment and had no access to overnight charging I’d consider other options.
(Chevy Bolt EUV)
Other than the fact that I overspent a bit, I don’t regret it. Especially since I live in Florida and didn’t have to deal with the gas shortages due to the hurricanes. As long as you have a reliable means of charging at home (or at work), you are good 95% of the time.
If you do any regular long-range driving, be sure you get one that can support that distance. Public EV chargers can still be hit-or-miss, and that’s the biggest downside in my opinion. They aren’t too frequent, and a lot of times they just don’t work. You also generally need to get an account for each charging network, or else it can be hard to pay or you just pay more. But I can live with that, because it is very much an exceptional part of my driving habits.
Privacy and security concerns, most of them are like big tech on wheels. See Telsa and others spying on users during intimate moments. Also most have major security vulnerabilities.
This is the case with all newer cars. If you’re avoiding EVs for privacy then the same reason applies to any car with OnStar, OTA updates, apps for your phone (remote start, locate, etc.) Or pretty much any car made in the last 10 years or more.
I definitely appreciate wanting to protect your privacy and will readily acknowledge that any EV will make that a problem. But almost every car made since the Tesla Roadster has the same problems. Now, if we could get our respective governments to pass laws stopping this BS, that would be really nice.
Yes, I ended up selling and buying a hybrid. Super happy with the hybrid.
-
Basically instant “recharge” speed.
-
Longer range.
-
More vehicle options.
-
Don’t have to worry about heat or cold draining my fuel.
-
Can leave the car stationary for long periods of time without the fuel draining.
-
More fueling stations.
-
More reliable fueling stations (chargers may be broken.)
-
Less software bullshit. (Tesla)
-
Less possibly breaking updates. (Tesla) No joke. My car’s software literally crashed on the freeway once and I was essentially driving blind because all the screens went blank.
I drive a lot and for long distances. Switching to hybrid made trips shorter by an hour.
And I still got to keep fancy drive assist features. It’s like 80% of autopilot, if not more.
Oh! And big one! Even though an electric car may say something like 500km range! That’s NOT the usable range! You’re not going to be driving the car to 0km. You’re not even supposed to charge to 100% most of the time! So most of the time you’ll charge to 80%, that’s 400km in the battery. But, you probably wanna play it safe, so you’ll want to recharge with 50km to 100km left in the battery. Leaving you with about 300km of usable range.
Then the heat, cold, and time will slowly drain your 300km…
Meanwhile, my hybrid has about 700km of usable range, regardless of time and weather.
-
I got within an extremely close distance to getting a Model Y this year during the price cuts; I secured the loan and was looking into the insurance costs which is what ultimately killed my decision.
My car is paid off and I only pay for gas (I have the Prius Aqua 2016, ~53mpg, 4.44L/100km)
When I looked into the Y, first of all they don’t allow you to get an insurance quote without first putting a down payment. If I had gone through with the purchase, I’d be looking at almost 570$/month on the car loan alone with the trade-in, plus another 140/month (I currently pay 80$/month, roughly) for insurance through my current company (this is only a ballpark figure based on me pulling a VIN number online and feeding it into a quote; that number could possibly be significantly higher). That puts my excess car expenses conservatively at 650$/month just for a new car. The literal only problems I have with my current car is that it can’t tow my horse trailer and that it’s a “dumb” petrol car with no infotainment and a physical key. I’m probably going to put a 12" iPad in the center console for infotainment and call it a day and keep that around for another 4 years until Apple CarPlay 2 trickles down to affordable EVs.
In summation, I really don’t think EVs are worth it unless you absolutely must buy a new car. There are new infotainment options on the horizon like Apple CarPlay 2 and Android Automotive with Android Auto as standard… right now is the literal worst time to buy a car. Not to mention that NACS is going to replace CCS in the USA in the 2026 model cars. Your resale value in the mid 2030s will be absolute dogshit if you don’t wait for the NACS port in next year’s cars.
I’ve been wanting a plug-in hybrid, where you’re fully electric under ~40mi of daily travel, and if you exceed it switches to gas for backup. RAV4 prime has been my dream car lately…
I have a 10 year old Chevy Volt. 95% of our households driving is on the 38 miles of battery range. Oil changes every 2 years.
Yeah, I bought a Tesla and now regret it because Elon is a dipshit.
That said, I’ve gone over 38,000 miles for less than $900 in electricity. I haven’t had to deal with oil changes or any other maintenance items other than tire rotations and tire replacement (the latter was of my own accord they actually said I didn’t need to yet, at the time).
I recently did a nearly 4hr trip with no need to charge on the way, and at my destination basically filled back up in something like 25 minutes while checking in to my hotel. So, no range anxiety for me.
The ride is nice, the features are helpful to me, and I have had no other issues with the vehicle.
So if it weren’t for Elon I’d love it. I still like it, but I just hate being seen in it now. It’s paid off so the financial cost of getting some other EV doesn’t make a ton of sense right now, so I guess I’ll just drive it until it dies…which at this rate might be a long-ass time.
Same boat here. I bought mine back when Elon was just “juvenile weirdo who makes dick jokes and smoked weed with Joe Rogan”. Best car I’ve ever owned hands down, no intention to buy anything Elon is selling ever again.
I read somewhere that people have bumpersticks and stuff that say things like “I got the car before he went crazy” or “if I knew him then, I wouldn’t have bought it”
I’m not a huge fan of bumper stickers, but I might make an exception for this 🤔
My biggest non-Elon complaint is the lack of Vehicle to Load. That is such an amazingly useful feature that’s ONLY AVAILABLE on the garbage cybertruck.
Isn’t the Cybertruck pretty bad in that regard as well for its size?
I don’t know, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised.
I’ve gone from the Chevy Volt, to the Bolt, to a Polestar 2, to a Ford Mach E. 7 years in EVs, around 100k miles, with no regrets and no intention of going back to ICE.
I’m not even sure what the downsides are. Maybe longer trips require a tiny bit more planning? The infotainment systems do all the work though, telling me where to stop and how long to charge.
Dang 4 cars in 7 years?
Yeah that’s insanely wasteful
People get so weird and judgey
I mean, presumably he isn’t just taking them to the junkyard… Someone out there is probably still driving those cars
And leasing is a thing
Yep and someone got to buy a lightly used EV
I recently bought a used Nissan Leaf. No regrets so far, hoping the battery needs to be replaced before my warranty expires. There’s a good chance…
Downsides: Have to go to a gas station to find a squeegee to clean the windows.
Upsides: You have no other reason to go to a gas station.
I bought my very own gas station squeegee at a car parts store . Life-changing events.
I better get mine, soon.
Sometimes you need to check your tire pressure, too.
The general reduction in scheduled maintenance requirements is really wonderful.
My EV has onboard pressure monitoring. And came with a little electric tire pump.
What about for gas station sushi?
Good name for a band.
Probably Angela Chao.
Sorry shit answer, I just hate Mitch.
I like the electric part.
What I don’t like is that it’s a steaming heap of spy-ware on wheels with no opt-out ability.
Which may lead to more expensive insurance depending on your driving style, or could be abused for even more nefarious reasons.
The spyware you are mentioning is in gas cars too. It isn’t exclusive to EVs it is a problem with all new cars.
That’s not limited to EVs, though. Most modern cars have the same antifeatures.
True, but I have an old ICE that I can keep running for a while. The question is should I spend more than it is worth on maintenance?
I was able to get my Toyota’s DCM disabled and did a data collection opt-out with the company. It was a total pain in the ass and they tried very hard to dissuade me, but it is possible (depending on manufacturer).
You’d be hard pressed to find any modern car that isn’t doing that.
I disabled the OnStar unit on mine and don’t use any of it’s associated apps.
