I have a 2017 Chevy Volt (plug-in hybrid) bought in 2023. LOVE IT. I have a long commute, so I use the battery up and then it becomes a hybrid on gas so I get good mileage.

I charge at home on my regular 120 volt plug. On road trips I just use gas.

We recently had hurricane Milton where I live. I didn't lose power, but gas stations were like mad max and the thunderdome! I usually only have to fill my car every 9 days or so, even with my long commute, so I didn't have to deal with that-it's better now and I will fill today. I'm SO glad I have the plug-in hybrid, and would buy another (maybe a Prius Prime, which is similar to the Volt).

Volvo EX 40, bought last year. We have a rented parking space nearby and could install a charging station without any issues. We love that car and take it also for road trips. Always found a charging station when needed.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s great if you have dedicated charging at home, a short enough commute that forgetting to charge it one night is not going to ruin your morning, and don’t care that you lay $$$$ more for a car to save $$ on gas. Calc will change when BYD imports arrive, maybe

EVs are at price parity in many cases. For instance, a base BMW 4 series is $50,700 and a base i4 is $57,900. At first glance, it would seem that you are correct. But if you lease, BMW will roll in the $7,500 federal rebate which means the cars are only $200 a part. These are the same car other than the drivetrain.

They are only at price parity for luxury cars. $60k for a car?

Show me an electric civic for $30k. The closest is a Tesla 3 for $42k for a rear wheel drive (which isn’t great around DMV).

2025 Chevy Equinox EV, $33,600 - $7,500 federal credit = $26,100.
2025 Kia Kona EV, $32,875 - $7,500 incentives = $25,375.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s great if you have dedicated charging at home, a short enough commute that forgetting to charge it one night is not going to ruin your morning, and don’t care that you lay $$$$ more for a car to save $$ on gas. Calc will change when BYD imports arrive, maybe

EVs are at price parity in many cases. For instance, a base BMW 4 series is $50,700 and a base i4 is $57,900. At first glance, it would seem that you are correct. But if you lease, BMW will roll in the $7,500 federal rebate which means the cars are only $200 a part. These are the same car other than the drivetrain.

They are only at price parity for luxury cars. $60k for a car?

Show me an electric civic for $30k. The closest is a Tesla 3 for $42k for a rear wheel drive (which isn’t great around DMV).

Anonymous wrote:It’s great if you have dedicated charging at home, a short enough commute that forgetting to charge it one night is not going to ruin your morning, and don’t care that you lay $$$$ more for a car to save $$ on gas. Calc will change when BYD imports arrive, maybe

I paid a pretty small premium for the EV version of the XC40, but I was buying used from the dealer. Different dynamics and maybe I just got lucky with timing.

Anonymous wrote:It’s great if you have dedicated charging at home, a short enough commute that forgetting to charge it one night is not going to ruin your morning, and don’t care that you lay $$$$ more for a car to save $$ on gas. Calc will change when BYD imports arrive, maybe

We charge maybe once a week with a shirt commute. Do not miss the gas station.

Anonymous wrote:It’s great if you have dedicated charging at home, a short enough commute that forgetting to charge it one night is not going to ruin your morning, and don’t care that you lay $$$$ more for a car to save $$ on gas. Calc will change when BYD imports arrive, maybe

EVs are at price parity in many cases. For instance, a base BMW 4 series is $50,700 and a base i4 is $57,900. At first glance, it would seem that you are correct. But if you lease, BMW will roll in the $7,500 federal rebate which means the cars are only $200 a part. These are the same car other than the drivetrain.

It’s great if you have dedicated charging at home, a short enough commute that forgetting to charge it one night is not going to ruin your morning, and don’t care that you lay $$$$ more for a car to save $$ on gas. Calc will change when BYD imports arrive, maybe

Drive a Volvo XC40 which I’ve had for nearly 2 years. I love it. I got a good deal on it used with low miles. The convenience of never having to find a gas station and fill the car up is nice. I charge at home every night. I’ve used high speed chargers maybe 3 times since I got the home charger installed.

If you drive less than 200 miles per day an EV is a no brainer. We went from about 15-17 cents per mile to about 4-5c per mile on EV.

If you need a road trip car, well gas mileage is just one factor. We have a massive gas guzzling SUV for any trip over 200 miles.

We have an EV and a plug-in hybrid. Both Toyotas, and both are great. We have a home charger, so we almost never need to charge anywhere else, but in the DC area, so many shopping centers have chargers that we've never had difficulty on those few occasions when we do.

For road trips, we use the hybrid, as we aren't always sure about the charging infrastructure in the places we're going. [However, earlier this year I had an EV rental while on a business trip to a (very) small town in the Southwest, and my hotel had a free charger, so it worked out just fine.]

We bought the plug-in hybrid and leased the EV, as we figured that in 3 years battery capacity might have increased enough that we won't want to be tied to the current EV. We'll see.

I agree with 10:53 - I really enjoy driving them.

Anonymous wrote:Tell me about your experience with electric/hybrid cars. How long have you had it, experience with charging. Anything you want to share. Include any financing, leasing experience. Thank you.

We have two EVs. We bought the first one in March of this year and the second in July. I think EVs are great if you have home charging. That is cheap and convenient. I wouldn't rule an EV out if you can't have home charging, but that removes one of the biggest conveniences. One of our cars has limited range and is our "around town" car. The other we have used for several road trips including three trips that were roughly 1500 miles round trip. Road trips take a bit of planning due to charging needs, but we haven't run into any significant problems.

There are a lot of great leasing deals but we bought both of ours primarily because we always buy cars and didn't feel like changing.

We had an EV on a cheap lease for three years and I loved it.

Driving experience was noticeably better with instant torque for acceleration to merge onto the beltway and regen for braking (one pedal driving with all the stop signs in my neighborhood). And no oil changes or maintenance.

We don’t have much of a commute so we just plugged it into a regular electric outlet— pretty much always full.

We're on our second hybrid. Considered an electric but we live in the city and don't have dedicated off-street parking so chargin would be a pain. I know we could do it, but the simplicity of using gas, just much less of it, outweighs the slight environmental/cost benefit of going full plug-in for us.

We have only had Toyotas and found them very reliable. Had the last one for 7 years and only traded it in when we needed a larger vehicle, no mechanical or electrical problems along the way.

We just got a plug-in hybrid Kia Sorrento. I love it. We've used one tank of gas in two months. We installed a charging station at home at minimal expense. Charge it overnight. No issues.

Tell me about your experience with electric/hybrid cars. How long have you had it, experience with charging. Anything you want to share. Include any financing, leasing experience. Thank you.