I have two EVs, both Nissan, a 2017 Leaf and a 2023 Ariya. Both were purchased used, and I think both are great.

The Leaf has a 40kWh battery and has an in town range of 170 miles (generally flat roads and ~45mph speeds.) It’s an older car, so no touch screen. If for some reason you’d consider a used Leaf, check two things: 1) battery state of health, aka it’s capacity, and 2) 8sphow many years/miles are left on its capacity warranty. Since the Leaf has no battery cooling system, their batteries degrade substantially faster than newer EVs. Mine degraded enough that Nissan replaced it and upgraded it, since they stopped making the 30 kWh battery packs it originally had. I got lucky there. One other drawback is the older models use Chademo plugs for rapid charging, which is already rare and is being phased out.

The Ariya is fancy compared to the Leaf. It has a mid-sized touch screen, but there are physical buttons for the climate controls and a knob for the volume. It’s very spacious inside and comfortable, perhaps too comfortable. It has a stupid big battery with a cooling system that provides over 300 miles in range, I think it’s 87kWh. That’s the main reason I chose it, seemed like the most battery for dollar that wasn’t Tesla.

Look for deals on used EVs. You can still find fairly low milage vehicles for decent prices.

We have a Hyundai Ioniq 6, about 18 months now. It has a touchscreen like all EVs (I know, there’s a truck) but it still has a lot of physical buttons, unlike a Tesla which has gone way too far with the screen. We tried the Mustang and liked it, but liked this better, plus my wife wanted a sedan.

Biggest pro is it’s not a Tesla. Also, I get home, plug it in, and go inside. Takes five seconds, and five more to unplug it. Plus, it’s not a Tesla. Way less time than it takes at the gas station to fill my truck. It’s also fast, a lot of fun to drive, and finally, it’s not a Tesla.

Con would be road-tripping. If I was doing a ton of that, I’d be perhaps looking for an EREV of some sort, although 20-80% in 20 min isn’t exactly horrible. Charger is CCS, but sometime this month Hyundai is sending me an NACS adapter, so no more issues there - we did have one time where we had to wait for CCS when a NACS was open, but not exactly a massive issue. The new models are NACS.

Forgot to mention, in US, range about 300 miles or so, and there was a sensor issue that ended up with a harness replacement that didn’t cost me anything under warranty, but had an estimate of $8500.

Pros:

• Unbeatable bang for buck (a luxury sedan that does 0-100kph in 3.8 seconds for under 70kAUD including on roads!)

• Stupidly comfortable to drive (no noise, no rattles, all the bells and whistles)

• Cheap to run, especially if you charge at home. I use a smart plug with the supplied granny charger so it only charges during free or cheap power times. This means the most it will cost to fill my “tank” - even assuming it only charges in the cheap period with no free usage at all - costs the equivalent of 1c per kilometre.

• Cheap to service (about $150 per 20,000k for the Performance model, less for the lower spec versions)

• No noise or stink if you’re parked waiting somewhere. I really notice how obnoxious my diesel is by comparison if I’m outside it.

Cons:

• Everyone else is so damn slow to take off by comparison. It’s just a constant source of frustration being stuck behind old sootybois paddling through their gears as their oil burner slowly gets to a point where it makes enough torque to get moving, only to run out of rpm and have to do it all over again using a new ratio.

• Doing stuff like touching fuel bowsers feels about a million times more disgusting now, and spending $100 AUD in one go to only travel 600k (or less) is rage inducing.

• Car noises in general are crazy frustrating now. It’s just constantly some revving, or backfiring, or turbo whooshes, or engines screaming, or some other unnecessary audible pollution. When I was participating I didn’t notice as much, but now that we’re rolling dead silent it’s really obvious.

The Soltera (and bz4x which is just a rebadge) is literally the worst new car on the market considering price, range, charging speeds, and the outdated CCS port.

Right now the cheapest EV is a model 3. Ioniq 5 comes in a distant second place. The ioniq5/6 have tiny screens if that’s what you’re looking for, but realize you’re paying more for a less technologically advanced vehicle.

I have a Lightning (which uses the same infotainment as the Mach E) and the screen is gigantic, but basically unusable if you’re not using CarPlay/AA because the inbuilt interface literally runs at 15FPS on a good day. Yes, it’s that bad. The inbuilt maps is literally unusable; it doesn’t label major street names if you zoom out a little bit and lags like crazy.

pros

charge at home (no stopping at petrol stations)

costs like $2 to fill from solar

super fast take off speeds

super quiet (not waking up the neighbours when i head out at 11pm)

cons

mine has a range of 300km, i wish it was double or more, essentially can never have enough range even if you only go interstate once in a blue moon

once you leave the big cities here in australia ev charging spots are still limited but getting better

pro/con

so far all maint was handled under warranty with the most annoying thing being a plastic hand brake lever inside the car breaking, if you’re a car guy you’re not gonna be happy as almost everything just works and the dealer fixes the rest from what i can see

Had our Bolt EUV for going on 3 years and just convinced my relatives to get an Equinox. It’s been such a game changer that I’m prob not going to buy another ICE vehicle if I can help it.

Pros:

• Saves time - no more driving to gas stations and filling up, waiting for oil changes, smog checks, etc. Depending on your state you could also get toll road or car pool lane access to avoid traffic.
• Saves money - we have solar, so charging is essentially free. Also don’t have to shell out for consumables like belts, oil/fuel filters, spark plugs, etc. Also, avoid paying gas tax.
• Saves emissions - no more breathing in fumes on start up or while the car is idling. Avoids tons of CO2 from being released and all the negatives associated with extracting fossil fuels (though making batteries isn’t exactly clean either, it’s orders of magnitude less bad)

Cons:

• Some states jack up your registration fee to recapture the missed gas tax revenue.
• Not as convenient for long road trips, you’ll have to plan your charging stops.
• Before we got a level 2 charger at home, charging was a pain. So if you don’t have easy access to one, you might spend a decent chunk of time at public chargers or use a 120v charger overnight.
• Public charging infrastructure still needs to be built up in some areas, but seems to be getting better albeit slowly. YMMV, but sometimes you’ll pull up to a station only to find it’s in use, out of service, or blocked off.

2024 Tesla Model S Long Range. Love the 600km range in summer. Love the Supercharger network and how the computer in the car knows where they are and includes it in my trip planner. Superchargers themselves don’t ask for payment, you just plug in and everything works. Love the power and how silent it is. Love how cheap it is to maintain and operate. I honestly don’t mind the touchscreen. It’s super fast (Ryzen CPU) and once you get used to it, you barely need to use it while driving. Charging at home is super easy and cheap. I only ever visit a gas station for car washes and it’s a great feeling to never have to worry about fueling up.

The only downside is the up-front cost for the car and for a home charger. Yes, Elon is another downside but I’ve heard that Tesla is looking for a new CEO and he only owns 12% of Tesla stock so much less important than people give him credit for.

If not going with Tesla, I would have chosen a Polestar or a Rivian but I’ve not driven either because there are no local service centers here which affected my decision.

Tesla model 3 for three years. I’m located in northern Finland so we get a lot of snow and low temperatures around here. These cars are perfect winter vehicles. Defrosts in 10 minutes and you can sit into a nice warm car in with heated seats and steering wheel.

I have a China made euro model so it doesn’t come with the panel gaps or many other QC issues that US built vehicles has. It’s been a great owner experience overall.

I charge mostly at home at 11KW and the fast charging network is pretty great in general so charging is seldom an issue. Next car would probably have been a Tesla again If it wasn’t an American company.

But because it is, I might have to look at in my opinion less exciting but equally nice options such as Kia or VW. I really like the new Smart 5 too.

I have a MachE

I love it.

It is amazing to drive, is quiet, easy to use the screen stuff, has a physical dial for radio volume!

It’s easy to charge and works well. Really happy with it.

I could go on forever, so feel free to ask me any direct questions and I’ll be happy to answer.

I’ve had or driven for a period of time a Chevy Volt, Chevy Bolt, Mustang Mach-e, Tesla Plaid, Rivian R1T, Rivian R1S, a weird BMW egg, and a Cadillac Optiq.

I love my EV. I forget how to get gas. I forget how to get oil changes.

Looking forward to the Optiq V.

The ID.4 Pro has been great to me. I had still been driving my paid off car from college, so all the newer “smart” features were a bit of a shock. Things like lane assist and sound alerts when backing up I turned off because they were too much/annoying. For instance, the lane assist had a hard time with some curves, or if there was an error in the road paint, or sometimes just hiccuped for no reason. It had trouble with snow on the roads as well.

I wouldn’t buy one without having the ability to use an at home charger. My commute is about 65 miles a day and I don’t often drive much further than that. I live in a cold state where in the winter it can get well below 0 fahrenheit. Battery is heavily impacted, and I do get more anxious about it general when it is very cold like that.

I have read some reports that Volkswagen wants to move away from touchscreens and back to analog buttons/knobs so maybe look for that in the future?

Ford Mach E? I’m assuming US. Get one that charges with NACS it’s unfortunately the standard.

Get the Kia EV6 if you can afford the 2025 one. Charges faster and has amazing range.

All new cars have the same problems. Mediocre interiors for the price, spyware, and rent seeking behavior for stuff like automated highway driving.

But you can’t beat being able to charge from solar. I don’t know anyone brewing biodiesel that hasn’t switched to solar and EV.

Bolt EUV. 250 Mile range. I think it’s just about perfect except climate control, and at 30,000 it was cheap. Good range, drives like a go cart, all the things you really need while driving are still actual buttons.

As to climate control… The recirculate button light stays on in defrost mode even though defrost always pulls outside air. You cannot use the windshield vents without outside air, which means recirculate has to be in your face or on your feet. The other thing is that somehow the air conditioning vents bounce the air so it comes down on top of your lap/thighs so I have a lap blanket for when it’s cold.

I love that it’s a hatchback and the seats to down so I can hail stuff too.

I bought a used Leaf over a decade ago for around $12k. It charges off a normal charger. I’ve gotten new tires, but that’s about the only money I’ve spent on it. It only goes about 70 miles on a charge. I have another vehicle for when I have to drive any real distance, but for the life I live, I can go weeks without even starting up my other car. One of the few purchases of my life that I have 0 regrets buying.

Kia EV6, I love it. The summer range is 450-500 km, and the winter is 330-360 km, depending on the heat setting. I love the features. My only issues are mostly UI stupidity. As an example, the image used on the screen isn’t the right color or on certain menus it isn’t even the right model, like I said nonsensical. Bigger gripe is the windshield wipers tuck below the hood, and in the winter, a lot of snow and ice accumulates there and in the wheel wells, too. There is nothing major, just simple oversight on design. If you have only the one car at home and have any kind of range anxiety or are put off by charge times on road trips, go plug in hybrid. It’s the best of both worlds. Do a little homework on which gets good range, like a Lexus nx hybrid, which gets about 85-90 km summer, 45ish winter. Do the math on your daily commute, and you might be surprised by how little the gas system will turn on. Also, fast charge times, like an hour and a half, using a stage 2 charger, or 6 or so hours plugged into the wall.