What EV or PHEV should I get?

February 27, 2023 11:18 AM

Been asked lately with some different constraints so here I am. My beloved 2014 Forester was hit on Friday and the body shop won't even be able to look at it until mid-April so seems like time to consider replacing.

I'd ideally like a small SUV - I haul a lot of stuff - artwork, telescopes, camping gear - so a hatchback might work too. Clearly a good time to go electric or hybrid. The two Subaru possibilities are not well reviewed and I would like to get the tax credit. So a Nissan Leaf or a Prius are possible I guess - other recommendations? What should I be thinking about? My garage has a drop for a charger but I'd need to add the actual charger too. And comments about hybrid vs EV welcome - I don't commute to work but do take long road trips pretty regularly.

posted by leslies to Travel & Transportation (17 answers total)

Best answer: If supply issues where you are are even vaguely like they are near me, the unfortunate answer to this is "whatever you can get your hands on." The wait for an EV here is on the months/years scale here in Toronto.
posted by mhoye at 11:36 AM on February 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 leans towards the small SUV form factor and might be one to add to your list.
posted by platinum at 12:28 PM on February 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I am likely going to buy an EV this year. The mini/crossover SUV format is where there are a few more options. Hyundai Ioniq 5, KIA EV 6, Chevy Bolt EUV, Volkswagen ID.4 are all ones I am looking at. I just wanted to reply and suggest you look at this site.

The EV Finder

It allows you to look up what EVs are available in a radius around where you live.
posted by bove at 12:48 PM on February 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

My husband traded in his 2014 Leaf for a Chevy EUV beginning of January and is smitten. The trunk is tiny with the seats up but folds down to have plenty of space. He transports a lot of equipment to music gigs, and he says he has more room in the EUV than the Leaf. It's been a huge step up in terms of range, but I still wouldn't be comfortable having it be one's only car (I drive a Prius, which is a good car too).
posted by obfuscation at 12:54 PM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

You mentioned camping…are they to remote places where EV charging might be hard to come by? especially if it’s a non-negotiable, that would swing my vote to the Hybrid camp, personally. RAV4 Prime seems hard to get even with insane dealer markups though.

I don’t have experience with them but I do know Volvo has a couple of hybrid and EV crossovers.
posted by bxvr at 1:52 PM on February 27, 2023

Response by poster: The camping is a concern although may do a vehicle swap with my son for that in which case an EV is the preferred option. We do some pretty remote stuff and I've pushed the Forester in terms of off road which makes this all a bit more complex.
posted by leslies at 2:13 PM on February 27, 2023

We love our Hyundai Kona subcompact. There was a battery recall that means we can only charge to 80% and it locks us out (this provides over 200 miles range), we are on the list for a new battery which will actually work out great for us financially.

I also have a plug in hybrid Ford CMAX which is reliable but I don't recommend because the range on the electric is just too short to be practical.

Note these cars have a bit less space in the hatchback space due to battery size. The Kona has more than the CMAX though and it's still a pretty compact car overall.
posted by latkes at 2:20 PM on February 27, 2023

My car unexpectedly was totaled 10 months ago and I had to quickly buy a replacement vehicle. Pickings were slim for new vehicles and only slighter better for used vehicles. I ended up with a used Kia Niro Hybrid which I really love. Definitely worth adding to your long list!
posted by lucy.jakobs at 2:25 PM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hatchback-wise, 2022 Bolt EUV driver here. Happy with it, caveats mentioned in the "What should I know about a Chevy Bolt" Ask MeFi thread.

If you're okay with a Tesla, my boss's wife got a Model Y, and that thing's got enough cargo space that I think I could stretch out and sleep in it.

Hybrid-wise, we had a 2014 BMW i3 REX for a while, and though the gasoline engine was useful for that car's very limited range, the annual oil change and the performance hit and occasional "the range extender needs to run to keep the fluids moving" cycle were a good reminder that a hybrid is dragging around two drive trains, with all of the maintenance issues of an internal combustion engine.
posted by straw at 2:39 PM on February 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have been enjoying my very used Nissan Leaf since last fall.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS, FINANCIAL: If you are in the good ol' US of A, there is a new federal tax credit, if your car was made enough in the USA. Your state/region might have a rebate or credit too (mine did).

SOME CONSIDERATIONS, ELECTRICAL: if you don't drive a lot, you can absolutely charge your car off of a dedicated 120V like I do, and your car should come with a 120V charging cord. Done.

If you drive more than a little, you'll want a dedicated 240V charger in your garage. There is a cacophony of different EV charger dinguses out there to buy, get the one with the best warranty. Also, if it's in your garage, just have it wired in directly: most of the problems I've heard of are with the kind that plug into a 240V socket, which just adds another point of failure.

If you like to go on road trips? To top up, you'll want to use a DC fast charging station. Most of them will use the Combo2 charging port (with the right dongle, compatible with the Tesla charger and vice versa), and vanishing few use the Japanese CHAdeMO that my Leaf does. Make sure your proposed road trips are compatible with your vehicle. At least on the west coast, there's a charging station in every dang WalMart.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 2:46 PM on February 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I don't commute to work but do take long road trips pretty regularly

Generally speaking, this makes the financial and practical argument for a PHEV or "traditional" hybrid stronger, and makes the environmental argument for an EV weaker.

If you're willing to buy used, I have a soft spot for the Prius V, which is the wagon. It's pretty big. There's a little community of people who use it as a camper. They stopped selling it new in the US in 2017, however, so the interior is a little basic.
posted by caek at 3:55 PM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Most of the cost benefit to an EV comes from the low cost to charge at home for typical driving. If most of your miles are from road trips, the charging cost will go up (I pay about 12 cents per kwh at home, but 35-45 cents is more typical at fast chargers I've encountered). Depending on your road tripping style, certain EVs will be better than others. The Bolt and Leaf will charge much slower than many other EVs. I'd suggest looking at plugshare to get a sense of what sort of chargers are available along any routes you might take, and abetterrouteplanner would give you a good sense of how much additional time a trip may take for different models.
posted by borkencode at 5:42 PM on February 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm quite happy with my Kia Niro hatchback. I have just the basic hybrid, but it comes in PHEV and BEV versions as well. I bought a lightly used 2019 model 3 years ago, largely on the strength of this 2018 review by Ars Technica. The more recent models have received equally positive attention from Ars.
posted by egregious theorem at 7:31 PM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I drive a 2022 Kia Niro EV and I LOVE it. I live in a flat with no garage and charge it either at friends or at public chargers, which is much easier than I anticipated it would be. I definitely had some range anxiety when I first got it, but now I'm much more relaxed about it. There are a plethora of apps that will tell you where the nearest chargers are (as will the car itself.) For road trips, I usually end up fast-charging at a grocery store or outlet mall along the way.

I go camping in it, mostly car camping in campgrounds, but my fave campground here has EV chargers. I can definitely put a lot in the back, especially with the seats down. Camping gear, 2 rooms worth of flooring planks, and a small fridge are all things that I've hauled in the back. I love how it drives -- it's really fun. It isn't eligible for the tax credit, unless you lease it. I originally wanted either the Bolt or the Kona, but when my other car was totalled by the insurance company, the Kia was the only EV on my list actually available in the area. The supply chain trumped all of my careful research and preferences.

Caveat: I came from a 20+ year old Prius, so some of what I love about the car is tech that's probably available in any new car these days, like the adaptive cruise.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:07 PM on February 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

We have a 2021 Nissan Leaf, and we love it, but I don't think it is ideal for your use case. For one, it really is quite small*, so if you are looking at an SUV amount of storage space, I think you will be disappointed. For the other, it has a fairly limited range on paper (I think it will say it has 189 miles in it on a full charge, but it's a great deal less than that in the cold) compared to other EVs on the market, plus it uses CHAdeMO, which is going out of style, at least here in the States, so fast chargers are a little harder to find than they would be for a CCS car (ie pretty much all the other non-Tesla EVs). In combination, that means when we are looking for hiking/camping opportunities, we pretty much exclusively stick to stuff within 50-60 miles so we can comfortably round-trip on one charge. Not that it's impossible to do otherwise, it just takes enough more planning that it isn't as fun anymore.

*To be fair, our use case is pretty different from what you've described here - we have a kiddo in a car seat, so we can't fold down the back seats, and of course kiddos like that necessitate a lot more gear for overnight trips than adults do.
posted by solotoro at 10:58 AM on February 28, 2023

I just got a Hyundai Ioniq 5. For your use case I think the potential issues would be storage space (although if you don't have backseat passengers this probably wouldn't be an issue). Range is great but if you do long journeys regularly you do have to be sure you can find charging points - even with the 250+ mile range you really want to be able to charge regularly to avoid running it right down to the wire. Charging takes time so you need to factor that in too (and the fact it takes time means if someone else is using a charger they will probably be there a while).
It took about 5 months to get the car, so that's also a factor.
I really like the Ioniq but I am using it 90% for local commuting so my weighting is different for the inconveniences of long journeys ( which I expect to get better over the next couple years).
posted by crocomancer at 2:48 PM on February 28, 2023

Response by poster: Sadly the answer was none - I couldn't find ANY inventory around me and the wait was many months for any vehicle. I appreciate all the insights - will keep in mind next time around when we're hopefully facing a less insane supply chain.
posted by leslies at 6:00 PM on February 28, 2023