So I have always hated Tesla and don’t like that they’ve in a lot of way tarnished the name of electric cars. The second you say electric cars every person and their mom says OHH you’re getting a tesla! Quite annoying.
Anyways, I’d like to hear from some of you folks some models of electrics you like. I have always been a gearhead deep in the gas and oil, and I still enjoy my cars, but an electric would be fun and a cost savings for me, especially since I have a ton of roof space for solar panels if I wanted to.
It sounds superficial but a big reason I used to hate electric cars is they are for the most part, hideous. Then again, to me, most new cars are hidous, the designs are just not good. But I think i can look past that.
It would also be a huge bonus if there were any models out there with the least possible features. I prefer cars with manual locks/seats/doors and no screen, which is of course impossible with current cars (sadly). But the less digital garbage the better.
Generally, anything that isn’t a Tesla because politics aside, Teslas are built terribly and are reportedly already falling apart.
Performance-wise if you’re filthy rich, the Rimac Nevera is one of the fastest EVs in existence and snatched performance records left and right when it launched.
If you have mech and electrical skills, you could also build your own out of something like a Geo or an older Civic by swapping the gas drivetrain for the drivetrain out of a wrecked EV, although you’d need a custom controller for it.
Chevy Bolt EUV (sorta kinda bigger than a normal Bolt) Premier without self driving: very good.
Cheap feeling like any American car. Infotainment is trash; you can’t skip tracks on CarPlay using the steering wheel controls most of the time because it’s always indexing. A problem no other OEM or even the cheapest of aftermarket radios I’ve ever touched has had. Remote climate control (essentially what we always mean when we say remote start) is locked behind a $50/mo OnStar subscription. Spies on you to sell data.
But, it costs like $30-40 a month to drive, it’s zippy enough, I’ve got front and rear seat warmers, it’s a hatch, and most importantly, it was a steal. We got it like four days before the tax credits were eliminated. Before that I’d have said EVs were the only deals to be had in the automotive space. Now there simply are no deals. My $18k Bolt Premier was the last chopper out of 'Nam for getting anything resembling a decent deal of a car.
We like it. Charging at home is nice. We hope it doesn’t break. Hybrid is a smarter buy because of the added flexibility afforded by gas but again, you weren’t getting any 2022 fully* loaded hybrid with 60k miles for $18k. Since this isn’t our only vehicle this was the easy choice.
I have a VW E-Golf and I like it a lot. Isn’t full of garbage electronics like most EVs. Range is pretty bad tho, ~110 miles on real tires.
Of what I’ve personally driven, even for just a test drive.
Tesla S: meh Tesla 3: cramped for a tall guy Rivian truck: middle back seat is super uncomfortable. Only option is 1PD (one pedal driving) and I hated that. Everything else about it was cool Polestar: again, not good for tall people MachE: great unless you have to ride in the back seat. Plenty of room, but likely to induce motion sickness Lightning pickup: perfect, no notes except its overall bigger than it needs to be. Loading stuff up in the bed is more of a pain than it needs to be. Some people don’t like the range, but I’ve done a couple 1500+ mile road trips and never minded it.
I’m sorry, how TF does one pedal driving work? That sounds terrifying
Instead of a brake pedal, you take your foot off the go pedal with the electric wheel motor slowing the wheel down and stealing its energy
Is there any way to control how fast you slow down?
Cards on the table, I’ve only driven one EV and it has a brake pedal.
The more you lift off the pedal, the more it brakes. You also change the settings on the car to change the severity of braking with regards to the lift off pressure
Lucky enough to have a 2025 Peugeot E-2008 GT, and it’s a great car honestly.
I quite like the design though if you’re into the smaller and sleeker cars it may not be for you.
I’ve got a first-gen 2017 Chevy Bolt, battery upgraded by recall in the 2nd year we had it (price of being an early adopter). No complaints, no issues beyond having to tape over the chrome on the dashboard so I don’t get blinded.
The only maintenance so far has been tires; brakes last forever thanks to one-pedal driving. Eventually we’ll have to do the regular chassis stuff like bushings and struts, but at 60+k mi we’re still a little ways away from that.
Srsly the best car I’ve ever owned.
Bolts live up to their name too. Much quicker than you’d suspect.
Absolutely loving my Mustang Mach-e, gets almost 400km of range, Cost’s under $40k CAD used, and just an absolute blast to drive.
Traded mine in for the lightning, but the MachE was a great car except it made the kids in the back seat car sick.
The absolute most basic electric car you can get is probably the Dacia Spring.
Great, small car. Less than 20.000€ in Europe. It’s the closest thing you can get to a bare-bones electric car, and it’s absolutely lovely.
About a month ago it got a face-lift, giving it a solid-state battery.
Absolutely worth checking out.
I have a 2020 ioniq ev and my wife has a 2024 leaf. Both are great and have different talents. Happy to answer any Q’s and would recommend either.
I see Rivians around a lot. Not sure how good they are but they are way prettier than Tesla’s. Polestar also makes some nice vehicles. Both are still a little pricey though.
Rivians are everywhere here in LA, but they seem to only be for the rich.
I’m keeping an eye on Aptera, a solar powered vehicle based in San Diego that may start delivering this year.
Aptera has been saying this since 2017.
Personally, I like the Mach E, but I have some fundamental complaints about EVs right now, specifically, they looks like ICE cars. The propulsion method has changed, but the packaging has not updated to fit the new capabilities. Electric cars now are like jets in the 1950’s, we need to move past old frames and ideas and work to make the vehicle fit the motor better. Also, EVs are too damn big, and thats because charging infrastructure is a fragmented PITA right now. We wouldn’t need 250 mile+ capable vehicles if you could count on having a fast charger at most highway exits.
I’ve been following them for a few years and they’ve been very transparent about their progress. They’re building their production-intent validation vehicles now, so unless there are any major flaws they can’t work out, shipping this year or next seems possible. The world needs a vehicle that costs nothing to operate — at least in places with a lot of sun like California.
I got a 2021 Chevy Bolt. Insanely cheap, has worked great. We have the highest trim model, but you can get lower ones with less features.
In the peak of used car nonsense post covid, we traded a 2012 Nissan Sentra (no trim level) with 80k miles for the 2021 Bolt with less than 3k miles. After tax incentives, I think the difference was $2,500. It didn’t make sense at the time and still doesn’t. But people were really afraid of electric cars then.
I don’t recall special EV fear at that time. I recall insanely cheap gas prices in the summer of 2020 and a drastic reduction in commute demand. Once the excess oil was depleted and production hadn’t come back up to speed by like summer of 2021, gas prices shot up. I’m deep in a sub/urban mix, so that affects my experience, I’m sure. While all cars had their market value increase at that point, used EVs and Hybrids had an additional 50%+ markup, comparatively. I was shopping for them and ended up passing on the idea due to excess price. I vaguely remember prices being about $12k for ~2010 Priuses and $5k for 1st gen Leafs with deteoriated 50-mile batteries. I don’t recall Volt/Bolt prices and was already disinterested in Teslas.
I think it was peak buyers remorse. People wanted electric but didn’t fully know the downsides. For example, our Bolt had a battery that said like 230 miles. I’m in the Midwest… Cold highway driving makes that like 140 or so, no joke. It’s just not a road trip car.
We knew that going in, so it’s a great second car. But I think some people realized that no road trip ability plus hour long charging stops were just not going to cut it.
Legit in the dead of winter it was like 60/40 driving vs charging time. Charging for an hour got you like 90 minutes of driving.
Been seeing a bunch of ionics around my semi rural area with very much not the infrastructure already existing.
I love my iX, fantastic family car.
Man, I love how ugly that thing looks!
UK. Wife has a Mini Aceman.
Gets about 200 miles range and is very fun to drive.
The only thing I dislike is the almost total absence of any physical buttons.
