Any current suggestions for a new EV?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My daughter plans to move out soon, and due to the end of the federal EV credit, maybe we should buy a replacement for the car we will give her now, and not wait until it actually happens.

We will be a two car household. I want enough range to take 4 people 150 miles in could weather when the car is a few years old, and not worry about running out of range. And i want to be able to carry a full load of groceries with one driver. So… I suspect most of what’s on the market now will do this. Oh, and i can charge it in my garage. And i don’t want a Tesla, for a number of reasons. I decided that before i realized Musk is a Nazi

What’s nice? What handles well, has good visibility, good safety features, and as many physical controls (knobs, buttons) as are available? Bonus points if it runs Android Auto.

2

A close friend of mine recently traded in his VW Beetle for a 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E and is very happy about it. This is in California, where gas prices are high, and every other car on the road is a Tesla. It has a 300-mile range, but it probably isn’t that comfortable for four people on a long trip. Unfortunately, he makes too much to qualify for the EV discount and ended up paying $50k for the car. Too rich for my blood.

3

Oh, also, I will need to park this car in the city. So small and tight turn radius are both big plusses.

4

I had a Ford c-max that i loves, except it was a lemon. We had soooo many problems, from a handle falling off to it refusing to shift into reverse to not being able to turn off the radio to…

I loved the automatic windshield wiper. And the parallel park feature worked well. But I’m hesitant to buy another Ford.

5

310 mile range, 830 hp, and roomy: 2026 HUMMER EV SUV | Electric SUV | GMC

:grin:

6

TLDR: You should test drive the Kia Niro EV and see if you like it. (It comes in both PHEV and BEV)

If you missed it, we recently discussed a few similar options in Car PICKING advice? (Trying to find a mid-size or larger AWD SUV, preferably a plug-in hybrid). That thread started off with PHEVs (plug-in hybrids) but ended up with BEVs (battery electric vehicles, aka regular EVs).

For what it’s worth, I really like — but not quite love — the 2025 Subaru Solterra we got. With a lease offer from Subaru, it was the best value we found among AWD EV SUVs, and it has physical buttons & knobs for the AC and volume — hard to find!), great safety features, automatic parallel parking (it drives itself into the space), good-enough 360 cameras, and handles well. That said, it has a low range (222 mi) in good weather and a variety of quirks that takes some getting used. There’s better options available if you don’t need it to be a SUV or have AWD. For winter driving, snow tires help more than AWD anyway.

We test drove some bigger Kias and Hyundais, but they were too futuristic and touch-screeny (and expensive) for us.

But that week, while car hunting, I also happened to rent the smaller Kia Niro. That was a very pleasant surprise. That thing was FANTASTIC, a subcompact crossover that was zoomy and very functional (250 mi of range), had plenty of physical knobs at least in that year’s model, etc. I only rented it because it was $20/day at Enterprise, and I didn’t expect to like it so much. If I didn’t need AWD and just needed a daily urban commuter, that is probably the car I’d get. It was way more comfortable than the Leaf and Bolt and Volt and similar family sedans. It just felt like a fun small SUV. I was a bit sad to have to return the rental once we bought the new car. @bobsmom101 also likes that car.

I didn’t like any of the Leaf models I’ve been in. They are small and cheap… maybe too much so. They were uncomfortable and just generally felt meh. I’d consider a Bolt or Volt, but only as a last resort… they also didn’t feel great, and I don’t trust GM to be reliable at all.

If cost isn’t an issue, Rivian makes an EV with 410 mi of range (the R1S Dual Max Battery), but it’s nearly $100k and has really bad reliability from what I’ve seen.

Toyota (and by extension Subaru, who rebadges their EVs) are also coming out with a bunch of new EVs for the 2026 year, both smaller and bigger, but I dunno if they’ll be out in time for the tax credit.

Some other lists: https://www.caranddriver.com/rankings/best-electric-cars/cheapest

https://www.edmunds.com/electric-car/articles/cheapest-electric-cars/

7

Some family members of mine have been happy with Polestars, and they seem to make really nice cars, though I have not been in one myself — no dealers nearby. BYD is another foreign brand with a limited US presence.

But both are Chinese-owned companies, which is a bit scary right now considering the tariffs, trade war, and maybe war-war soon, who knows.

(Disclaimer: I think one or both might be customers of ours at my work, but this is my own opinion. My employer is a software company, not automotive.)

8

Really? I keep hearing people love them and Mrs. Cad wants that to be her next EV if the Tesla gives up the ghost.

9

Not firsthand experience, just what I saw online: Rivian Is Last In Consumer Reports' Reliability List. Owners Still Love Them

and Rivian EV Reliability: The Hard Numbers Behind Their Worst Ever Score and https://old.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1h8ec0u/rivian_ranked_dead_last_in_consumer_reports/ and https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/rivian-reliability-is-a-problem.37236/, etc.

And YouTube is full of Rivian horror stories about parts breaking, dirt getting inside unreachable places, etc.

It reminds me of Tesla’s early days when they were still working out the kinks.

Personally, Rivians are still the EVs I’m personally most intrigued by (and they seem to rank really high in customer satisfaction despite the reliability). I really like the idea of having a domestic SUV/light truck EV company that isn’t Musk’s. And I REALLY want their 400-mi SUV. If I were so rich that buying a $100k car (which is like 4x more than what we paid for our EV) was no big deal… I’d think that their maintenance issues wouldn’t be a big deal either. You can just keep throwing money at it if you enjoy the ride, I suppose.

But practically speaking, as a lower middle-class household, that isn’t the sort of risk I’d want to take on for a daily commuter. Maybe in 10 years? If the company survives, I think they will work out the kinks over time.

10

When I’m shopping for a new car, my first criterion is “how big”? Do I want a family-sized car, do I want a compact, or do I want an SUV that can pull a two-ton trailer?

When I’ve decided on that, I usually find that (except for the family-sized car), there’s usually only two to four models to choose between if I’m looking for a battery-electric vehicle. If I’m lucky.

11

Is this recent experience?

I remember that being the case 5-10 years ago for sure, but when we recently shopped earlier this summer… there were so many choices that it was overwhelming. It was hard enough to even to compile a short list of EVs we wanted to try. And of that list, we got so tired of test-driving we didn’t even make it through half of them.

There are sooooo many brands making them now.

12

Yes, I’m starting with:

Big enough to hold 4 adults, it 1 adult plus a bunch of stuff. Not too large to park in the city.

So the rivian is out, because it’s too large.

Also, 200-250 miles of range on a charge is enough.

I just test drove the Hyundai ioniq 5, which is a little large, but very comfortable to drive. It also has more physical buttons than i expected.

I will look at the Solterra, and the Niro. I’d like all wheel drive if it’s not too pricey.

The federal credits end at the end of this month.

13

Fairly recent. We bought our last BEV just two years ago. Cars, and perhaps particularly BEVs, are getting bigger all the time. Finding a true compact (Toyota Corolla/VW Golf class) BEV is getting harder all the time. And good luck finding a BEV which can legally pull a two-ton trailer. Last time I checked I could count those on one hand, with a solid margin.

14

Adding second hand anecdotal support for three choices others have mentioned. The Subaru Solterra is very popular here in Colorado, though I’ve not ridden one. It’s been ranked highly among people I’ve talked too as an AWD all-EV option (my wife and I are in the PHEV faction for various reasons), and several have mentioned that the AWD feels more “real” than some of the 4WD/AWD options where it more of a secondary partial assist.

Before other issues made us pivot to the PHEV, the Ioniq 5 was our top contender for a BEV. We likes the looks, the styling, the comparative large number of tradtional buttons, so we’d heartily endorse it, but since we didn’t buy it, we can’t speak for long term issues or reliability.

Lastly, the Kia Niro wasn’t part of our shopping experience, but a friend visited us mid-summer who had rented it for a series of road-trips and it was a great balance. Reasonably roomy, easy to to park, the screens didn’t stick out and detract from the experience as much as many do, and would be a great option. We road around the neighborhood in it and felt it was a solid ride and choice.

15

I don’t think the Niro comes in AWD, but other Kias do.

The Solterra isn’t technically eligible for the tax credit because it’s not domestic, but Subaru gives you a $7500 incentive if you lease it first:

Your dealer may or may not honor Subaru HQ’s $299/mo * 36 mo deal (which is a great offer) but they should be able to do something to get closer to the $7500 incentive. You can buy it out for its residual value at the end of the lease, if no better EV leases are available then. We got our Limited trim for a $15k lease + $21k residual value (=$36k vs $42k MSRP). Check for state incentives on top of the federal one; Oregon gave me another $7k off.

You should know that the 2025 model doesn’t yet have a NACS port. The 2026 one will, though, so we assume that soon after that, we should be able to find a NACS to CCS2 adapter. The Solterra also doesn’t fast-charge as fast as some other cars, has other quirks (no glovebox, no rear wiper, broken driver profile system, shitty app) etc.. But we’re still quite happy with it, primarily due to the way it drives & handles. We’ve been offroad a few times with it (I just mean onto dirt & gravel paths, not rock hopping or dune crawling or anything like that) and it handled much like our other Subarus — even though it’s technically a Toyota. Subaru rebadged it, added standard AWD and gave it a tiny bit more ground clearance. I think it’s usually cheaper than the Toyota variant too.

16

Just wanted to mention a tool from the other thread that was quite helpful when comparison shopping: Dimensions: Ford C-Max 2010-2015 vs. Subaru Solterra 2022-present

Good website for visually comparing different car sizes as you shop.

17

Ooh thanks for this!

I drive a 2017 Volt, great car, though there are a few known problems that are covered under extended warranty that I’ll have to worry about.

Last year my car was nearly totaled, and I did a bit of car shopping thinking I’d have to replace the Volt. I liked the VW id.4 for decent range on the Pro-S trim, and I like the looks of it. It doesn’t qualify for the $7,500 credit anymore. On the plus side, it’s about the same length as my Volt, so it’ll fit in our garage and isn’t too big. I sat in it in the LA Auto Show and liked it. Rumor has it they’ll be substantially redone for 2026.

Other contenders: Honda Prologue (but pretty big), and Nissan Ariya (similar). Kia Niro was intriguing, and not too big. The Chevy EVs would be OK but the new ones don’t have CarPlay/Android Auto, so that rules them out for me. Plus, quality is an issue, though they do qualify for the Federal credits. Good luck!

18

We love our Lyriq–probably a little big for your use case, but the Optiq is getting good reviews. No CarPlay or AA but people seem to like the native Google system.

19

Thanks!

20

The Subaru is basically sold out. The dealer told me there are only 5 unsold Solterras in the state, none nearby. Kia and Hyundai have limited stock, but are able to give me a test drive.