I’m facing a really tough situation right now and I could use some input from others who may have gone through something similar.
Basically, my wife and I are considering purchasing or leasing an electric vehicle as our next car. We are having difficulty finding knowledgeable people to talk to. It seems that auto dealers are not really interested in talking about EV. They try to steer us away from such a vehicle and point us toward their hybrid or ICE vehicles, basically stating EVs are not perfected enough to satisfy the average person and further try to dissuade us because of the high upfront purchase price. When we do find salespersons willing to somewhat talk about EVs, they seem to focus mostly on the fact that they are great to use around town but not really suitable for over the road use due to the lack of charging stations. Additionally, we found that the few dealers that do sell EVs only have one or two in stock and are usually hesitant in offering a test drive for some reason.
Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation? How did you handle it? How did you end up? Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.
No, I bought a Tesla online and have zero problems. I sit down in the car, and I start going. I don’t fumble with keys, parking brakes, or the other 5 things you have to do before you start moving.
The cars at those dealers are generally pretty good too. But it’s a red flag to me if I have to deal with a company who sees their product as more of a problem then something to sell, which is ashame. Maybe it’s a conspiracy because you won’t need their service department ever.
But if i wanted to force someone to sell me something, I’d rent an apartment from a complex for that type of treatment.
Thank you for your speedy reply. I like your perspective and insight.
If you can charge at home, and drive less than 50 miles a day on average, then an EV is easier than a gas car. Charging at home doesn’t require a special outlet unless you need to charge more than 50 miles a day. A higher output outlet will cost approx 300-1000 dollars.
If you road trip often, then currently a Tesla is much easier to live with, though that will change over the next two years.
If you currently can’t charge at home, and don’t live near a super charger, then a hybrid is best.
Thank you for your speedy reply. Thank you for your clear advice.
Not hard. There’s a wealth of information on YouTube as well as this sub and others. I learned everything I needed to know via those sources.
Thank you for your speedy reply. Thanks for your comments. I have begun that as well after discovering the information I disclosed in my above post.
Forget dealers. As you say: they aren’t giving you good info as they make far more off of selling you an ICE or hybrid. You shouldn’t be giving money to dealers, anyways (what for?)
Click yourself an EV from those who sell online. Good source of info based on real world trips is the youtube channel by Bjorn Nyland. He’s tested basically every EV under the sun.
You might try asking in the /r/electricvehicles Weekly Advice thread or /r/EuroEV Weekly Advice thread if you’re in Europe.
Basically, there is an EV that will fit most needs, unless your budget is terribly restrictive or very unusual (e.g. medical courier that does 400 miles a day).
For me, at least, I just started reading about BEVs. Specifically, the reviews of cars I was interested in… and, quite frankly, of reading comments in /r/electricvehicles and /r/electriccars to see the sorts of issues and praise people had regarding BEVs.
Thank you for your speedy reply. I just came across r/electricvehicles last night. Thank you for suggesting r/electriccars aa well.
It’s hard to buy a car full stop. It’s a big purchase decision and there is a lot of choice and that seat that felt fine on the test drive is a pain on a long trip. The hardest part of buying an EV is you have all that AND you have to REALLY consider the drive train because they are NOT a commodity.
Around town ALL EVs are awesome and the drive trains are non-issues. As soon as you start talking about road trips though, you have to start doing multi-variable calculus.
- How long are your road trip legs? - Do you drive 400 miles and get a hotel and then drive another 400 the next day or do you drive 800 mile legs in one go for 12+ hours?
- What type of driver are you? Are you fine with a drive that you could do in a gas car in 7 hours taking 9 hours or is 8 fine or do you need something that can do it in 7.5 hours?
- How much are you willing to trade rough road experiences now for the car you like better knowing that in 1-2 years when the car gets NACS it will be fine?
- Are you willing to wait 3-4 years for the 800V EVs to have good charger experiences?
Tesla is the only brand you don’t have to worry about today. VW, Audi and Porsche are still unknowns as they haven’t signed up for Tesla SuperCharger network yet. All the other brands you have to decide what type of driver you are and how good the car you like is at charging. If you need good charging, figuring out which cars charge well is very complex in itself.
So there is a national Electric Vehicle association with local branches. I dont even remember how i found my local branch, but Iv’e been to a few of their meetups - one at an earth day event in a park, one at a coffee shop on a saturday morning. There were owners there really happy to show you their cars and talk about what they liked about them. And then a used EV lot opened up in my town a few months ago - I stopped in 2 weeks ago and spent an hour chatting with the sales guy and sitting in cars (I just wasnt in the mood to test drive). So look for similar local resources!
I didn’t know that - I’ll check into it. Thanks!
If you can’t test drive, move on. This applies to all vehicles not just EVs.
I’ve done several road trips exceeding a thousand miles each, however I did them in a Tesla which has the most comprehensive fast charger (Supercharger) network in the U.S…
Look up where the nearest Tesla Center is to you. They are not dealers because all Teslas are purchased via their web page. With no commitment, schedule a test drive. It can be a fun outing and it will give you a reference point. Ask them all the questions you like, they don’t get paid to sell you a car, they are paid to answer questions and provide test drives. Even if you’re anti-Tesla, it’s still fun and will provide good information. They are not there to sell you a car!
One important part about having any EV: Home Charging. Yes it’s possible to function without it but home charging makes everything easy and cheap.
Ultimately choose the EV you like but you absolutely need to drive a Tesla to have a point of reference, both good and bad.
As paulwesterberg suggested. Hydroplaning on warm snowy days should be carefully considered, especially on dry roads.
My wife took 5 minutes to figure out how to put an ICE BMW we were looking at in drive. Her learning curve for the Tesla was much shorter.
Honestly, the biggest learning curve with an EV is adjusting how you do longer drives.
EV chargers aren’t as plentiful or as speedy as gas stations, so you need to take that into account when planning a longer journey. You need to think about where you’re going to stop and whether you have a backup plan if the chargers are all in use or not working. You also have to look at whether overnight charging is available away from home because that can help get you on your way a bit sooner.
The faster you drive, the more energy you use. You may want to consider taking it a bit slower if there’s a big gap between charging stations. On a recent long drive, dropping my speed from 118 km/h to 115 km/h (about 2mph difference) was enough to give me about 20km (12mi) extra range on a full charge. It doesn’t sound like much but it does add up.
The instant torque is amazing, but if you get a RWD vehicle, it can be a bit treacherous in the wet. I have to be careful accelerating when cornering at intersections, as I’ve had the tail slide loose on me a few times.
That’s about it. Aside from this, an EV will drive just like a normal car. Except it’s better because there’s no engine noise, you can “fill the tank” at home, and the maintenance costs are a lot lower.