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Comment by CalRobert | Hacker News Reader

What's wrong with minivans? I always loved having the ability to haul tons of stuff or people depending on the need.

Agreed. I would love a good electric minivan (e.g. an electric Honda Odyssey). There are supposed to be a few coming down the pike but I had to buy a cheap used internal combustion one for now.

The Pacifica seems interesting as the only PHEV around. 32 miles on electric will take you a lot of places while still having a motor means you can haul heavy stuff or even tow without range dropping to nothing.

I have one and it has been great. We had to buy the most expensive trim to get one - not sure that is true anymore. We mostly use the battery as we live in a small city. Most of our commute and errands are within range or it swaps to gas. I fill up every other month if that. If we go on the road of course it’s basically an ICEbox but still gets better mileage than my older toyotas did. It charges the battery from our home charger in a couple of hours so on weekends we end up using the battery twice a day.

My next-door neighbor (single dad with three kids) has one and it's a goddamn delight. He just got a Tesla to replace it because he took a new job that's outside of the battery-only range of the minivan and his eldest is big enough to sit in front now. Not nearly as nice of a car, but he wants to be all-electric, and was stuck on his commute. Alas.

If the middle seats on the hybrid were stow and go like the rear ones I’d already own one of these. Sadly that’s where the batteries are.

I like the simplicity of an all electric drivetrain but I’m a single car household so range anxiety and charger time/availability is a real consideration still.

My plug-in Prius gets about the same range. If that range is sufficient for most of your driving, I think PHEV is a fantastic compromise between driving electric most of the time and switching to ICE when you need the additional range.

Can't tow with the Pacifica PHEV though

Minivan seems like a great form factor for an EV. Unfortunately, the small number of companies that still make minivans are also the companies that are slowest to adopt EVs.

It is the ideal form factor for anyone with a little bit of sense. It has the best room/capacity per footprint.

They aren't the most aerodynamic and had surprisingly bad fuel economy the last time I looked, but after those concerns it's hard to beat a minivan. I was shocked just how little cargo capacity my father in law's big fancy Mercedes SUV has - I was able to fit more in a Honda Fit (which explains the name!)

Don't think fuel economy is a real concern if you compare them to most SUVs.

What use case does a minivan solve that a VW ID BUZZ does not?

I guess it's technically not a minivan(?), but it's not very far from it!

Are the middle and rear seats in the ID Buzz storable or removable? That was the only thing I remember.

I would probably be ok with the abuzz, but you can't but it in the US yet.

I saw a VW id Buzz in the road the other day

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