I’m looking for an electric car to drive back and forth to work. I cannot charge at work at this time. I can level 2 charge at the new house, definitely 3kw, probably 5kw, maybe 7kw.
We have two cars, I always let my SO have the better of the two. I drive a bucket of rust to work, and I’m fine with that. Happy even.
We used to have a Chevy volt, I liked it, my SO hated it. They prefer an SUV with AWD for our snowy winters. That’s fair.
We moved slightly north recently, and while we used to have an equal commute, mine is now significantly longer than theirs.
It is 75 miles round trip, 26 miles at 70mph, the rest mostly 50-55mph.
Though I can and am willing to add 10 minutes to my drive to cut out those 26 miles taking side roads if I need to, I know high speeds are bad for electric economy.
My goal is to buy the cheapest electric car that will do the job, and not much more. My car sits unused 4 days a week.
I’m not opposed to something tiny bit nicer, we have shared events twice a week that would benefit from using electric over gas, about 50 miles round trip.
But we just spent a lot of money, so I’m fine going super cheap for something that just gets the job done.
I’d like to spend no more than $5000. I can stretch to $8000 without too much guff. And $10,000 if I really have to but I don’t want to.
I know this is a horrible time to buy, but I swear I was pro electric before gas went insane.
Does such a car exist? I don’t even know where to look.
Are old defunct leafs cheap? This is the type of jank I’m talking about haha.
Edit: to be clear, I do my own vehicle maintenance, that’s why I always drive junkers. It’s cheap and easy for me to keep them on the road. I know EVs are a bit different, but I bought my last volt for $2000 3 years ago because it was non functional, and I fixed it.
I’m not exactly looking to do that again, but that’s also on the table if there’s good documentation.
(Assuming you are in the US since you used miles and $)
Availability, even of used vehicles, appears to be pretty limited in the sub-10k range.
It’s important to note that EV range estimates in the US are often based on the EPA estimate for new vehicles, so the cells on older models will likely have degraded and thus the range will be lower than stated. Frequently charging above 80-90% and discharging below 10-20% are also bad for the longevity of the cells, so whatever you get should have enough cushion in the range to avoid that if possible.
I’d look at listings on craigslist and facebook marketplace. Aggregator sites like Car Gurus will also be useful here.
Good reminder, I don’t want to destroy the battery just to get the range I need every day, so slightly bigger is probably better
I think your answer is Chevy volt unfortunately. It ticks all the boxes.
Yeah it kind of does seem that way. If I got a Gen 2, it could make almost the whole trip, and then use a touch of gas. Plus I could still go elsewhere if I needed.
I just really wanted to join the full EV gang
Make sure that you check out the battery and make sure it’s balanced. There’s an app you can check it with and you plug in a Bluetooth dongle to the obdii port.
I don’t know if you will be able to buy a used EV with the distance range you need for that price. You can pick up old “compliance cars” on the cheap like a fiat 500e, or an eGolf, but they only had an 80 mile range to begin with, and they don’t fast charge. Many of the older models don’t have a cooling/heating system for the battery either, which will impact range in cold weather. Avoid the original Chademo Nissan Leaf for the same reasons The later larger redesigns of the Leaf would work, but they will cost a lot more than $5000.
I didn’t know about the heating/cooling being so bad, I thought it was standard to run a water loop through them. I’ll keep that in mind
Do some research into the Volkswagen E Golf. I think it needs to be newer than 2018 model to have the bigger battery or fast charging but the nice thing about it is it’s just an car that has an EV drive train instead of ICE. Nothing fancy. And seeing as the big battery version really only gets 100ish miles to a charge nobody really wants them.
That does look like a good option! Thanks!
Any EV under 10k is getting nearly instantly bought out. You don’t want a leaf, the battery pack is air cooled and fails quickly (3 or so years) as a result, plus it uses a chademo port, defunct now.
Literally anything but a Tesla or a car with Tesla drivetrain otherwise will work.
I don’t know if you’ll find a junked Chevy Bolt, but it has over 200 miles of range on a full charge (in normalish weather, at -15°F or below it has ~120 miles). With 3kwh minimum charging you should be fine.
Dealerships have used Bolts for around $10k, so if you can find one in need of repairs or something from a private seller, you might be able to get it within your budget. I got one that was basically new (other than sitting in a GM buyback lot) for about $15k last summer.
Oh I forgot about the bolt! Good suggestion thanks!
If you can find a Hyundai Ioniq electric with a good battery health for that price, that would be my pick. It’s a very efficient car with a good reputation for an early ev
A friend just sold their Volt for scrap prices because it had a battery issue. If you can fix that, that might be a cheap way to go. Not fully EV, of course.
Thanks! A battery swap is something I considered doing. It’s just a lot of work because it’s so gosh darn heavy. The logistics always put me off.
There’s a method to do it, I’d just need extra hands and that’d cost a lot in beer haha
Might not even be a battery issue, it could be another system component. But Volt batteries are small compared to pure EVs.
Old leafs use ChaDeMo chargers, which are rare. Other than that, you’re just looking for a car with 100 mile autonomy, which isn’t asking for much. New vehicles easily reach twice that even in their most basic offerings. The price point you’re asking though… Not sure you’ll be able to find anything.
Not that rare. Many larger fast charging stations (6+ stalls) have one, but it’s often shared with CCS and might be in use. Regardless, their use case is strictly charging at home. I’m seeing conflicting info on earlier years, but at least since 2018 the Leaf uses J1772.
That said, there are still reasons to avoid the Leaf. They mention snowy winters, which means cold. My experience with the Bolt means significant range loss in the winter. I find that it’s reasonable to take the required range (75 miles, as they mention) and double it to find the minimum EPA rated range for their needs. That covers wind resistance, snow, cabin heat, buffers at the top and bottom of charging, and battery degradation.
IOW, they need to get something rated for 150 miles. Which was common for the Leaf after 2018. This would now be 8+ years old, so it should be rather affordable.
The Leaf, however, is not a good car. The batteries are notoriously bad, at least in earlier years. Repairs have been a major concern for owners. OP does their own maintenance, but I don’t know how feasible that really is. The entire electric drivetrain is different from ICE, and parts may not be readily available.
A Chevy Bolt from that same era should also be fairly available and cheap. But it does come with the caveat that you have to verify that it either was not affected by the massive battery recall, or that it was already replaced.
Thanks for this information!
