Picking an Electric Car

For background on cars in my life in general and how I got to this point see here.

A few years ago, I thought that if I had to buy another car I wanted it to be electric.  There is just so much good about electric cars: low operating cost, low maintenance cost, less maintenance in general and then there is maximum torque at zero RPM (what fun).

But, the down side is higher initial cost.  So, while the first answer might be Tesla.  (I would love to get one of the original Roadsters, but that is never gonna happen.)  Not only are Teslas quite pricey, I feel like the company maintains too much control of the current crop of cars.  (Over the air updates creep me out.)

So I looked at alternatives. Now if you read the previous page it's obvious I needed at least 100 miles of range, but that has become more common now; of course, more range would be better.

When the Nissan Leaf came out, I was sort of interested for a while, but it's range was only 73 miles meaning I could not get to work and back on a single charge.  With the new versions the range is longer, but the lack of a active cooling for the Leaf still seems to make it a bad choice in the Texas heat.

Then I looked at the Chevy Bolt EV.  At first I looked at used ones but before 2019 they had a smaller battery and the newer ones on Carvana all had pending sales. Then I found that the new ones were all marked down. (Probably because the 2022 are going to have a facelift. But the power train will not change.  Same 200 HP motor and same 66 kWh battery. )

So I went for a new 2021 LT trim version.  I am not big on fancy car options.  So I was happy buying the lower trim package with no options.  (I never worry about resale value, by the time I get done with a car it doesn't have one.  We'll see in about ten years.)

I did need to get the DC fast charge option, without it the car is "commuter only". I did not see any offered without the DC fast charge option for sale.

So its rated at 259 miles per charge.  It looks like my driving will only yield about 200, that's a tad disappointing, but I will only need to make one stop to get to Galveston; so, it's good enough.  It's got a nice radio and Android Auto that works well with my phone. The performance is great, handling is pretty good for the type of vehicle it is.   There are no seat heaters, so the four or five times a year I will need those here I will just have to run the heater.  

I did well price wise, I paid about 60% of the price for the full optioned example that is on the Chevy web site and $1000 less than the GM web site quotes for a car like mine.