Are you in Nome? Jesus that’s cold. We’re suffering here at 14F.
Check the blue book value. If you can sell it for more than the buyout, instead of turning it in and the end of the lease sell it back to them. So, for example, if the car is worth 15k and the buyout is 13k, you can turn it in and wash your hands of it, or sell it to the dealership, pay off the lease and walk away with 2k in your hand. Also, the dealership will (usually) take care of all that.
I’ve done that for every leased car I’ve had since I learned about it and it always works. In fact, the value usually ends up higher than the buyout 6 or 12 months(ish) before the lease is up so you can do it then as well.
When the lease on my last car was up, in the middle of the chip shortage, I think I ended up something like $9,000 since the used car market was so high at that point.
However, some manufacturers have been changing the lease agreement so there’s no buyout option. You’re required to turn it in.
Also, the lease on my Kia Niro is up in August. I’m looking forward to not having that car. And, to be clear, I love having an EV, I have issues with this specific car. It seems to have a lot of bugs that need to be worked out.
A Tesla may be in my future, but I’m not sure yet.
I guess I didn’t need to add the F to -40. Even for MT that’s cold. Up to -15 now. The Lyriq managed the cold but the defroster could barely keep up at -40.
In my experience, that isn’t unique to EVs.
Hijack but I’ve driven my ICE car in a blinding snowstorm, and the waste heat from the engine was enough to make the cabin toasty warm, so I could be comfortable in a short sleeve shirt. Very pleasant until I had to get out to clear the ice off the wiper blades or get gas.
We’re suffering here in Hawaii at 52°, Wearing a hooded sweatshirt indoors with a large cup of coffee. Considering soup and or a big pot of stew later. I’ll be going out later in shorts and flip flops (slippahs) but it will be unpleasant. 
There might be a buying opportunity coming up for anyone interested in a used EV. Hertz is selling off at least half of its EV fleet and going back to gas. 20,000 EVs, mostly Teslas, should be showing up on the used market. That should depress prices for a while.
It needs to be noted that they’re doing it because it’s more expensive to repair an EV than an ICE car.
AN reports, “Average repair costs were $5,552 for Teslas, $4,474 for non-Tesla EVs, and $4,205 for combustion vehicles in the quarter.”
On average, a damaged Tesla costs $1,347 more to repair than a damaged gas-powered car, but a damaged EV from another automaker costs just $269 more.
So, not even that much more, just more, and when you multiply by how ever many cars they have to repair, it can add up.
However, I wouldn’t think an extra $269-$1347, on average, for a post-accident repair is going to bother most people.
ETA, forgot the cites:
Particularly because it will be paid for by insurance. Of course you’ll see a difference in premiums. I’m guessing Hertz self insures, so they pay that directly. Hertz also isn’t paying for the gas, so that increased cost doesn’t matter. I also am guessing the increased maintenance costs on a gas car doesn’t make up the difference, because it’s probably only 3-5 oil changes.
The increased repair cost of the Tesla I don’t think has much to do with it being an EV, unless the battery is damaged, more the aluminum, parts cost, and high tech sensors.
In the sale, a two wheel drive, standard range Model 3 is going for as low as $14,000.
I hit a deer at low speeds in my iPace. The repair bill (covered by insurance) was almost $20,000. It was primarily the electronics. Some body work too.
Someone, not me, backed into something at low speed in our Tesla. Insurance paid nearly $5000 to replace a scratched bumper cover and a slightly bent fender.
Someone, also not me, backed into the door of my Tesla, and they ended up paying about $1000 for a new door to be installed. Damage being completely limited to the door made that much cheaper. Looking, it was $750 for a new door shell, and $250 for labor and miscellaneous parts to swap the shell on the door.
Yeah–a lot of icy ICE cars driving around today. Definitely sucks down the range at these temps. Pretty fancy car for us rural yokels.
Unfortunately my electric vehicle plans have been scrapped as of lately.
I bought a 2019 Nissan Leaf back in 2022 since I wanted to finally get off fossil fuels and stop contributing to anthropogenic climate change. I thought not having any place at home to charge my car wouldn’t be as much of an issue with fast chargers nearby, but the situation quickly became a major hassle. My Leaf only had a 140-mile range, so I would have to charge frequently, often multiple times just for a single relatively nearby round trip. Which would also sometimes heat my battery to a point where I would need to limit my driving to cool it down. And “fast charging” is in no way actually fast.
Couple this with the charging stations I used the most disappearing and becoming fewer and farther between (EVgo stations were my go-to around here, until they all disappeared after their contract with Wal-Mart ended), and I realized I couldn’t continue with it. So last year I traded it in for a 2019 Nissan Altima and I’ve been much happier. I wanted a hybrid, but they were all quite a bit more expensive at the time and out of my price range. Unfortunately, trading the Leaf in didn’t cover all that I owed, so I still have to pay it off partially.
I hope to get an electric car again in the future, but the charging infrastructure just isn’t here yet to justify it. And that is here in Southern California, so Newsom has some major obstacles to overcome if he wants to keep us on track for 2035.
Well, my 2021 Job 1 Mustang Mach E is getting long in the tooth. Despite my repeated claims that it’s the best car I’ve ever had, I think it’s time to get something else.
I placed my order for a 2024 Mustang Mach E Rally! It’s being called “late availability,” so no idea when I’ll actually get it, but I can’t wait!
It will actually have less range than my current Premium, but given that I don’t take it on road trips due to shitty charging infrastructure, it’s no big deal. I don’t think it will have the NACS plug, but if it does, then maybe road trips without lots of luggage become a possibility.
EV’s aren’t for everyone, and our infrastructure still sucks, but in the long term, they’re the future, and in the meantime, for the valid use cases, they’re a lot of fun. Whoohooo!
My 1965 Mustang Fastback is still doing very well, thank you.
(Also have a 2013 LEAF)
We asked the dealership about this, but they were not interested. We test drove an Ioniq 5 & 6, both very nice. But neither are so much nicer than our current car (at least in terms of driving and amenities) that we want to take on the significant extra expense. Deals are not good right now. So we’ll be buying out the Kona and keeping it for another couple of years and then see where things are at.
Jalopnik had an article about this. They had many Model 3 sedans with 50-100,000 miles selling for $20-25,000. And the IRS offers a $4,000 tax rebate on used EVs, so these cars might cost $16-21,000.
BTW I remember reading someplace that one reason Hertz soured on EVs is that Tesla’s price reductions reduced the value of its fleet.
I noticed this morning on my drive into work that I hit 20,000 miles on my Kona EV, after just under 3 years of driving. I thought it might be fun to work up some charging data to go along with that milestone. Here’s what I’ve been able to compile. Note that, unlike many/most EV owners, I do not have off-street parking, so I very rarely charge at home, and when I do it’s Level 1 trickle charging. My stats for that are very much a guesstimate. 90+% of my charging is at work, where I get a substantial subsidy, with occasional stops at public chargers. This data is from the three charging apps I’ve used over that time (Chargepoint, Electrify America, and EVGo) plus a guess about home charging based on my electricity rates.
20,000 miles driven
Total estimated price paid for charging: $332
Gotta say that paying about $110/year for fuel feels pretty fucking great.
At $3.50 per gallon, that gets me about 2,600 miles in my Subaru.
We are test driving a Tesla Y and X this weekend…I hope.
We’re 12 days in with our Lyriq, and enjoying it. It’s comfy, absurdly quick (and it’s not really that quick for an EV: 0-60 in 4.5), stereo rocks, and tried the Supercruise hands-free driving today on I-90 and it did great. It has PLENTY of electronics but still retains buttons and stalks for climate control, volume, turn signals etc etc which is appreciated. With Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10s it does great in the snow. Definitely not an amorphous blob like most SUVs anymore. At $.15 a kwh it costs us $12 for 250 miles of range.