Rivian recalling nearly all of its vehicles
wsj.com
wsj.com
The Fiats generally are above 90% battery health at 80k miles since they only support level 2 charging or slower, so you don't need battery replacement.
Nissan Leafs have many options for battery replacement, but the 2011 era ones had a bad battery chemistry so you should probably avoid buying one with the original battery.
There are also some electric Smart cars out there that are fun to drive!
The current runup in used prices for the 500e is crazy though, there is no way a 500e should be as valuable as a Ford Fusion Energi Titanium. The longer range of the 500e and lower maintenance needed might partially justify this.
I think battery replacements will only get more affordable. On top of that, you can weigh that cost against the alternative of purchasing gasoline and burning it away.
With gasoline being controlled by cartels and becoming more difficult every year to extract, my bet is on electricity being the better option, especially considering all the residential solar generation options becoming available.
Every year you drive 15,000 miles in a gas car burns $2,000 of fuel assuming 30MPG at $4/gallon. Maybe you avoid needing to replace a battery in every 10-15 years but that gas you burned is gone forever.
And, sure, electric cars aren’t cheaper right now overall. Someone like you who buys used/fully depreciated vehicles will not see the value of an electric vehicle. However, they offer a number of advantages that people are willing to pay for: they drive incredibly well (the F-150 lighting is the best driving F-150 money can buy), they save cargo and passenger space, they’re quiet and smooth, and they eliminate trips to the gas station for people who have their own garage or driveway.
For many people willing to spend more money on cars than you’re willing to spend, they’re worth paying extra for.
It was a Model Y, and driving it completely dissuaded me from ever wanting a Tesla. At least in the copy I was driving, everything felt cheap. Rattles everywhere, piece of plastic had to be snapped back into place, it was lacking features I’d expect in an $60k vehicle, etc. I realize that it’s a rental car and might be seeing more use or misuse than normal, but doesn’t bode well for long term ownership.
Past that, though, Tesla made a horrendous design decision to hide everything in the menus of the screen. The most basic tasks that every car built in the last 80 years would have at your fingertips required me to hunt around. It’s a big distraction to hit two or three buttons on screen just to fiddle with an annoying digital slider to adjust the airflow. It might fit their definition of “futuristic” but it’s a case study in very bad UX.
Driving the damn thing was obviously fun, but I don’t think it’s fair to not include Tesla as still in beta mode. Based on my anecdotal experience they still have a long way to go to perfecting the car part of their car. Time will tell how well all of the 3s and Ys rolling off the assembly line will actually hold up.
More recent examples added dual pane windows and have had a number of changes to the suspension. The earliest ones off the line did not ride well.
It’s unfortunate that Tesla is willing to ship cars that don’t meet a decent build standard, but if you do wait a few years into their production you will get a better vehicle.
Also keep in mind: with all that touch screen stuff, when you actually own the car all those settings are part of your driver profile. You don’t have to hunt down the whole menu of every setting you want to change because you’ve already changed them and saved them to your profile.
The voice controls cover a large part of the car’s functionality as well.
Finally, it’s important to realize that any electric car will feel $10-15k “cheaper” than an equivalent ICE car. That’s how much the giant battery costs extra over the cost of an engine and gas tank. This phenomenon isn’t unique to Tesla.
The Bolt EUV doesn’t feel like a $40k vehicle, an equivalent gas version would probably go for $25k. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks like an Elantra inside.
IMO, people see Tesla as a “luxury car” and start comparing it to e-trons and Taycans that cost tens of thousands of dollars more and get worse driving range. People used to extremely well-built luxury cars don’t realize that GM, Ford, and Hyundai are no strangers to squeaks, rattles, and assembly issues (e.g., the new Ford Bronco roof). New model releases from other brands also have early assembly issues, they just don’t get the press and attention that Tesla does due to its novelty.
I guess that's why the 2023 MSRP is $27k?
You can still modify my sentence to say that the Bolt EUV is a $30k car that feels like a $20k car.
I’d say the Bolt EUV is most similar to the Chevy Trax in general size class (starts at $21k MSRP).
The Bolt EUV averages $1-2k over MSRP on the street (TrueCar).
The Trax sells for $500 under MSRP.
So you’re looking at close to a $10k price premium to go electric in this case.
Base trim MSRP is often a price anchor, anyway. OEMs don’t produce a lot of base trim levels, they want to sell options packages. “As shown” on the Bolt EUV marketing page is $35k.
I don’t think a lot of Bolt EUV owners are going to be paying $27,200, I think they’re going to be paying $35-40k considering the street markups.
Nowhere near Tesla numbers, but quite good for the age of the company. Doing significantly better than Lucid, Lordstown, etc from what I can tell.
Yet to see one in Portland though, but there is a lot less money sloshing around here in the Willamette Valley compared to what gets spent around Lake Washington...
Well, I learned something today.