# What are your electric vehicle plans? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614 "2020-10-22T18:45:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 106
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2026, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2126 "2026-07-01T19:18:45Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > We have home solar+battery so it just makes sense to go electric. We do net metering (when you make more than you need, you sell it to the electric company. Then you buy it back at night). When the system was designed I said “Add 3 more panels”. I see the writing on the wall. So far it has been great. Have not paid a dime for electricity since it was installed. It’s just the two of us, but it’s a big house. I thought the AC was gonna be a problem. Nope, not at all. We are all set for electric cars now. But neither of us need a new car. My wife will probably go for a car first since she drives more than me. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2127 "2026-07-12T16:41:25Z")
Oh cool. BYD is not allowed to sell in the US, i believe, but the specs look really impressive. I’ll be curious to hear how you like them. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2128 "2026-09-01T12:57:23Z")
Bump to say I now have my own BYD (Sealion 5, PHEV, silver) and love it so far (it’s been a week) and it’s now several months of the wife having the Dolphin Surf and it’s been amazing. I won’t say “why didn’t we go electric before!” because at South African prices that was unattainable for the middle class before BYD came along. But I will say I’m very glad they’re here now. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2129 "2026-09-01T13:00:22Z")
That’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2130 "2026-09-01T14:00:07Z")
I realized I never posted here. Last August I got a 2022 Ioniq 5, used. There were a few initial hiccups–the dealership was sketchy with a few things, and the 12V battery died like two weeks after I brought it home and I was out that cost, and then a freakin’ rat built a nest in the wires and led to a $10,000 repair that was thankfully covered by insurance. But other than that, I adore the car. I’ve never had a car that I enjoyed driving before. My wife has a 2015 Prius, and on the few occasions where I need to drive it I feel grumpy. Charging at home is a breeze. Charging on road trips is variable: in the Southeast, the infrastructure is still not where it ought to be, and it’s fairly common for me to navigate to a fast charger only to find out that it’s unavailable for some reason or another. But I’ve never gotten stuck, only mildly annoyed. Definitely recommend getting an EV, for folks on the fence! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2131 "2026-09-01T15:38:35Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > 2022 Ioniq 5, I went on a road trip recently with a friend who bought a used Kia EV6, of about that vintage. They are basically the same car, just rebranded, with some cosmetic changes. It was great for that road trip. It comfortably fit four of us and our luggage. It charged in about 15 minutes. (From about maybe 20% to 93%). I took a turn driving it and it’s very comfortable to drive. I have the Kia Niro, which has almost the same interface (missing some nice bells and whistles, like the 360° parking view) so the transition was easy. But i bought my Kia in part because the interface was intuitive. (I originally rented one, kids by mistake.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2132 "2026-09-01T15:59:29Z")
You rented children by mistake? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2133 "2026-09-01T16:03:21Z")
I think the previous renter left their kids in the car. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2134 "2026-09-01T16:05:52Z")
[![](https://y.getyarn.io/b2d4b631-58f8-4873-b873-4be08fbc6b69_text.gif) ](https://y.getyarn.io/b2d4b631-58f8-4873-b873-4be08fbc6b69_text.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2135 "2026-09-01T16:06:54Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I went on a road trip recently with a friend who bought a used Kia EV6, of about that vintage. They are basically the same car, just rebranded, with some cosmetic changes. > > It was great for that road trip. It comfortably fit four of us and our luggage. It charged in about 15 minutes. (From about maybe 20% to 93%). I took a turn driving it and it’s very comfortable to drive. I have the Kia Niro, which has almost the same interface (missing some nice bells and whistles, like the 360° parking view) so the transition was easy. But i bought my Kia in part because the interface was intuitive. (I originally rented one, kids by mistake.) That matches with my experience (my kids were on purpose, but I think you voicetyped “kids” kinda by mistake). The trunk/hatch is super-roomy, to the extent that a couple of times I’ve taken it on overnight trips where I just blow up an air-mattress and pop it in the back and sleep comfortably there. And I really like the modern driving assists, even when they’re a little scoldy: the lane-drift alert, and the warning that there’s somebody in (or soon to be in) the lane you’re changing to, and the steering aid and dynamic cruise control are all fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2136 "2026-09-01T16:25:38Z")
We picked up a Chevy Bolt back in April and we’ve had much the same experience. We’ve mostly driven it around town, save for one two-hour jaunt to an airport up the road, and It’s done really well. It’s smaller than the Ioniq-type cars, but it’s easy for my mother-in-law to get in and out of it, so we’ve taken to using it to drive her around a lot instead of using the minivan. The Bolt also has the driver assist features, but lane-drift alert is a bit of a pain right now because a major street near our house is undergoing renovations, one of which forces the used traffic lanes, set out by cones, to straddle the original lanes painted on the pavement - so lane drift goes haywire. All in all, it’s a really nice car to drive and we may never go back to internal combustion, save for perhaps a plug-in hybrid for long trips. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2137 "2026-09-01T16:29:55Z")
The longest trip I’ve done was a beach trip of 258 miles/5 hours, with four people in the car and a week’s worth of vacation gear. We stopped once on the way down to recharge and once while we were there and once on the way back. Recharging while we were there was a bit of a pain, since the nearest fast charger was nearly a half-hour away; but I took it as a chance to get away from everyone for an hour and run another errand or two while I was out. I’m pretty conservative about when I charge: I hate for it to get below 20%, and usually charge while it’s still in the 30% range. If I were willing to live on the edge, I could charge less while out and about. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2138 "2026-09-01T16:39:31Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’m pretty conservative about when I charge: I hate for it to get below 20%, and usually charge while it’s still in the 30% range. If I were willing to live on the edge, I could charge less while out and about. We’re lucky about charging; my wife’s work has several Level 2 chargers free for employee use. So far, we’ve charged at home once overnight, mostly to see how well that worked, and at a fast charger three times, the first time to see how it worked, and the other two on the airport trip, mostly just to get over any range anxiety. Beyond that, we’ve used the work chargers - a full day on one yields just under 200 miles of charge. Free charging is nice if you can get it! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2139 "2026-09-01T18:15:47Z")
I like everything about the driving alerts except that when i want to change lanes, i usually signal before there’s a clear space (when i see one coming) so the drivers around me know what to expect from me. But the car sees that the space isn’t currently clear and beeps at me. It obviously bothered my friend, on the road trip, too. The first time it happened she explained to us that she wasn’t planning on driving into another car, just on telling other drivers she planned to change lanes. But even though it has a slightly different idea than i have about where in the lane to cruise (especially going around curves) i like that feature, and most of the others. Oh, i also don’t like that when driving out of our driveway, it often unnecessarily slams on the breaks for no reason. It does it to my husband, too. Yes, the garage is narrow and there’s a rock wall out there. But we’re going really slowly, and there’s nothing actually in the way. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2140 "2026-09-01T18:18:45Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > The Bolt also has the driver assist features, but lane-drift alert is a bit of a pain right now because a major street near our house is undergoing renovations, one of which forces the used traffic lanes, set out by cones, to straddle the original lanes painted on the pavement - so lane drift goes haywire. Can you turn that off until the road is repaired? The Kia gives a lot is choices about what alerts work how. (Most of the time, I like both of the alerts that bug me.) ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2141 "2026-09-01T18:45:31Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Bump to say I now have my own BYD (Sealion 5, PHEV, silver) and love it so far (it’s been a week) and it’s now several months of the wife having the Dolphin Surf and it’s been amazing. I did a bit of crunching, and the all electric and hybrid mode ranges (assuming the base model) are very similar to my base model 2025 Toyota Prius PHEV. The “modern” Prius PHEV is more zippy on acceleration (depending on your settings) with 2.0L engine, but carries a smaller tank (so less total range) and the BYD looks to have more storage space and room for passengers. So considering the comparative prices, I think you got a great deal and hope you continue to enjoy it! ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2142 "2026-09-01T18:50:49Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Can you turn that off until the road is repaired? The Kia gives a lot is choices about what alerts work how. (Most of the time, I like both of the alerts that bug me.) That’s a good question, I haven’t checked - but I kinda like how lane-drift alert works, so unless I could turn it off in a geofenced area, I’d be forgoing its benefits when I’m not on that particular road. The Bolt gives haptic feedback through the steering wheel - it kinda tries to turn the wheel back into the lane, so to keep the drift you have to turn against the feedback - which I like better than an audible or visual signal. For lane changes or overtaking too quickly, the haptic feedback comes from the seat cushion - sort of a vibration effect - which is nice, but has the occasional false alarm, like when there are two lanes of traffic turning left and I’m the right one with my blinker going, at which point I get the seat vibrate effect if there’s a car to my left, even if we’re staying in our respective turn lanes. I almost feel like it’s spoiling me to where I might be more dangerous driving one of our other three cars that don’t have that feature. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2143 "2026-09-01T18:50:58Z")
New factor entering into my next EV purchase: I won’t buy any vehicle that is made in the USA or by any USA based company. That means the Bolt and Mustang are out. (Tesla was already WAY out) As is the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which I was looking at - it’s made in Kansas. Although it apparently has over 50% Chinese sourced parts. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2144 "2026-09-01T19:13:10Z")
I don’t blame you a bit for wanting to boycott the USA. So which countries are you thinking are OK? If you want a car with few Chinese parts it pretty well needs to be European. A car with zero Chinese parts is going to be a very rare ~~bird~~ rodent. And one heck of a lot of Euro- or Japanese cars intended for the North American market are assembled in the USA. Even setting aside EV vs ICE, you may find buying a Canadian spec e.g. BMW means buying one made in South Carolina. The ones made in Germany are Euro-spec and may not be readily importable to Canada at any cost. Same story for e.g. Toyota. I’m not meaning to pooh-pooh the idea of boycotting shitty countries with bad governments and their shitty toadying companies. I am questioning how practical that is for a high tech high capital investment machine like a car. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614/2145 "2026-09-01T23:46:06Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > So which countries are you thinking are OK? If you want a car with few Chinese parts it pretty well needs to be European. A car with zero Chinese parts is going to be a very rare ~~bird~~ rodent. > > And one heck of a lot of Euro- or Japanese cars intended for the North American market are assembled in the USA. I know… It’s hard. I like the LEAF, but I guess it’s mostly made in Tennessee - at least for the US market. I need to do some research to see if the Canadian models are actually made in Japan. You’re absolutely right- for cars with parts coming from all over, a full “boycott” is hard. It’s hard enough with regular products. I just found out that my favorite gin, which is still made locally, was bought out by a Texas based company that buys up brands. And apparently the company is run by Republican donating shitheads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614.md?page=105) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-electric-vehicle-plans/923614.md?page=107)