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I live in Seattle and am currently considering what car to buy next. It will likely be an ICE car because during the summer we regularly will drive 70-100 miles

I live in Seattle and am currently considering what car to buy next. It will likely be an ICE car because during the summer we regularly will drive 70-100 miles in one direction to a hike. There are not and will not be charging stations at the trailhead. Typically we eat breakfast on the road or before heading out, eat lunch on the hike & get back home for dinner. Stopping for over an hour on the way back would be a big change of pace. This is also true for some of the ski resorts. There are a couple charging stations, but parking is already enough of a disaster at the ski resorts that I'd rather not deal with it. We'll likely follow the crowd and get a ICE Subaru.

rjplatte 8y ago
Get a PHEV. The Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid looks amazing, and the 2019 Prius has AWD. Save yourself some money until electric is ready.
- uxp100 8y ago
  The PHEV prius doesn't have AWD. It's a higher trim for a normal prius only. And the Crosstrek gets pretty poor mileage for a hybrid after the battery is empty, probably because it has "full" AWD. The Prius has a more limited form of AWD, though it is likely enough for most AWD vehicle buyers needs. If you are interested in a PHEV AWD car (I am interested in PHEV, my wife is interested in AWD), other vehicles to check out are the Hyundai Outlander, the Mini E Countryman S, and a few more expensive BMWs and Volvos. Kia might have one? That's pretty much all of them. Crosstrek seems like the best to me, but has definite downsides and is a compliance car not widely available in the US.
- gnicholas 8y ago
  The Crosstrek plug-in hybrid looks nice, but the battery takes up a lot of storage space (and only gets you 17 miles of EV range). We love the look of the Crosstrek in general, but found acceleration in the ICE to be sluggish, and the storage space is the same as the Impreza. In the plug-in Crosstrek, there's a big battery in the trunk, so storage is even more limited. We crossed it off our list and are looking primarily at the RAV4 hybrid.
modeless 8y ago
200 miles round trip should be fine in a 300+ mile range car. Also you don't need to stop for an hour if you just need a few extra miles of range to get home. You can add 50 miles in 10 minutes at a Tesla supercharger.
gibybo 8y ago
So 200 miles round trip for the hike, plus 20 or so for food/buffer? 220 miles isn't hard to get on a single charge, wouldn't you just charge it when you got back home?
PuffinBlue 8y ago
Or just get an electric with greater range perhaps? Hyuandi Kona would do it. Plus it seems a bad time to buy right now. Lots of new models coming in 2019.
Latteland 8y ago
EVs like any car have scenarios that work well and other things that don't. Driving your Tesla 250 miles, doing something for 10 minutes, and then driving home won't be a good experience. But driving 70-100 miles, even if going to Snoqualmie Pass or Mt Rainier, then driving home, that's fine in even a 4 year old model S 85D like mine. First, did you know that going downhill your car can charge or at worst drive a long way without using any power. Second, the raw range of the car is such that I can go from Seattle to pretty much any place around here and back (Stevens, Olympic Peninsula). My car's modest 265 mile range is dwarfed by a model 3's > 300 miles. If you don't live in a garage with any charging it can be a pain. I have just 120 volts in my garage, but I rarely need to go to a higher power charger, because I get 50 miles added overnight. If I am going to say ski two days in a row I can get enough charge at home to be ready to go the next day. If I was doing such a drive day after day I'd upgrade to higher power. If I was living in Seattle with a car on the street where I couldn't run power to it, or in a parking garage, I agree that it's too much trouble. But the key thing is the range and power used by your ev can be reliably modeled. Check out (among many such sites), https://www.evtripplanner.com/ https://www.evtripplanner.com/. Try planning a trip, picking a car, listing the temp, how many people. It's true that you have to do a little planning if you are going to the limits of your car's range, but I almost never need to do this planning. When I used to go driving around the backcountry in Utah I also had to plan out where I'd get gas and decide if I was going to bring extra gas with me too. I never did that normally of course.
vertex-four 8y ago
Would renting a car once a year not wind up cheaper?
- X6S1x6Okd1st 8y ago
  We go skiing and hiking much more than once a year. Also buying EV has a very high up front cost.

rjplatte 8y ago

Get a PHEV. The Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid looks amazing, and the 2019 Prius has AWD. Save yourself some money until electric is ready.

uxp100 8y ago
The PHEV prius doesn't have AWD. It's a higher trim for a normal prius only. And the Crosstrek gets pretty poor mileage for a hybrid after the battery is empty, probably because it has "full" AWD. The Prius has a more limited form of AWD, though it is likely enough for most AWD vehicle buyers needs. If you are interested in a PHEV AWD car (I am interested in PHEV, my wife is interested in AWD), other vehicles to check out are the Hyundai Outlander, the Mini E Countryman S, and a few more expensive BMWs and Volvos. Kia might have one? That's pretty much all of them. Crosstrek seems like the best to me, but has definite downsides and is a compliance car not widely available in the US.
gnicholas 8y ago
The Crosstrek plug-in hybrid looks nice, but the battery takes up a lot of storage space (and only gets you 17 miles of EV range). We love the look of the Crosstrek in general, but found acceleration in the ICE to be sluggish, and the storage space is the same as the Impreza. In the plug-in Crosstrek, there's a big battery in the trunk, so storage is even more limited. We crossed it off our list and are looking primarily at the RAV4 hybrid.

modeless 8y ago

200 miles round trip should be fine in a 300+ mile range car. Also you don't need to stop for an hour if you just need a few extra miles of range to get home. You can add 50 miles in 10 minutes at a Tesla supercharger.

gibybo 8y ago

So 200 miles round trip for the hike, plus 20 or so for food/buffer? 220 miles isn't hard to get on a single charge, wouldn't you just charge it when you got back home?

PuffinBlue 8y ago

Or just get an electric with greater range perhaps? Hyuandi Kona would do it. Plus it seems a bad time to buy right now. Lots of new models coming in 2019.

Latteland 8y ago

EVs like any car have scenarios that work well and other things that don't. Driving your Tesla 250 miles, doing something for 10 minutes, and then driving home won't be a good experience. But driving 70-100 miles, even if going to Snoqualmie Pass or Mt Rainier, then driving home, that's fine in even a 4 year old model S 85D like mine. First, did you know that going downhill your car can charge or at worst drive a long way without using any power. Second, the raw range of the car is such that I can go from Seattle to pretty much any place around here and back (Stevens, Olympic Peninsula). My car's modest 265 mile range is dwarfed by a model 3's > 300 miles. If you don't live in a garage with any charging it can be a pain. I have just 120 volts in my garage, but I rarely need to go to a higher power charger, because I get 50 miles added overnight. If I am going to say ski two days in a row I can get enough charge at home to be ready to go the next day. If I was doing such a drive day after day I'd upgrade to higher power. If I was living in Seattle with a car on the street where I couldn't run power to it, or in a parking garage, I agree that it's too much trouble. But the key thing is the range and power used by your ev can be reliably modeled. Check out (among many such sites), https://www.evtripplanner.com/ https://www.evtripplanner.com/. Try planning a trip, picking a car, listing the temp, how many people. It's true that you have to do a little planning if you are going to the limits of your car's range, but I almost never need to do this planning. When I used to go driving around the backcountry in Utah I also had to plan out where I'd get gas and decide if I was going to bring extra gas with me too. I never did that normally of course.

vertex-four 8y ago

Would renting a car once a year not wind up cheaper?

X6S1x6Okd1st 8y ago
We go skiing and hiking much more than once a year. Also buying EV has a very high up front cost.