3 ms·

The author seems to be myopically fixated on arguments aimed toward people who can afford a nice new car. For those of us with smaller budgets, but who still n

The author seems to be myopically fixated on arguments aimed toward people who can afford a nice new car. For those of us with smaller budgets, but who still need a car because of lack of viable alternatives, there still isn't a choice.

edent 5y ago
I'm not sure where you are in the world, buy you can buy plenty of 2nd hand EVs. Looks like they start at around £6k. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?sort=price-asc&postcode=w1a1aa&radius=1500&include-delivery-option=on&price-from=6000&fuel-type=Electric https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?sort=price-asc&postc... But, you can lease a brand new low-end EV for around £200-£300 per month.
- mavhc 5y ago
  I bought a 3 year old Leaf 7 years ago for £6500, apart from tyres, spent £30 on new windscreen wipers, and last week £125 on a suspension thing. 1p/mile, £0 tax per year. And same year model is on sale for more than £6500 today
- i_am_proteus 5y ago
  Which person trusts the battery on a ten-year-old early-generation electric vehicle? What down payment is required before leasing a new electric vehicle for two or three hundred United Kingdom Quids? How much insurance must be carried for such a vehicle? I do not doubt that the electric vehicle is a fantastic choice for the financially secure person. But many are not so fortunate.
  - edent 5y ago
    The batteries seem to be fine - they're doing better than most people expected. But the dashboard will give you the battery's predicted range. You might as well ask how many people will buy a 10 year old ICE with a knackered gearbox! I paid £250 down, then £250 per month for my last EV. Insurance was roughly the same as an ICE. But that will depend on the driver and area as much as the vehicle. Are there sub £1,000 beaters in the EV market? No. You can buy an ancient petrol Clio - and then keep spending to keep it running. But I daresay it'll cost you more in petrol than you'd save in electricity.
  - helsinkiandrew 5y ago
    A few thousand (about 12 times the monthly cost) The following site lets you play with expected mileage, upfront amount and the term: https://www.leaseloco.com/car-leasing/search https://www.leaseloco.com/car-leasing/search A Nissan Leaf for 4 years with no upfront fee and 8K miles a year would be £288.40 a month, a Porsche Taycan £904.63
cowmix 5y ago
I just bought a 2014 Chevy Spark EV for ~ $6500US with 66K miles. Drives like new - it is an amazing car. If you don't have any charging available to you at your home, it would be a hard car to own otherwise it is the best $$$ I've spend. Before that I owned a Chevy Volt for 8 years and put 110K (and 30K gas) miles on it.
- SamBam 5y ago
  We bought a used car a year and a half ago, and the number of second-hand EVs available was tiny. (Looking nation-wide with Carvana.) I'm guessing it gets significantly better with each passing year, but at the time there just wasn't something at the price-point we wanted. We also couldn't decide on the environmental impact of buying a used ICE (ended up with a 2014 Mazda 3) or a new EV. We ended up deciding that, with the small amount of driving we do, a used ICE was better. We weren't going to burn all that much gas anyway.
theluketaylor 5y ago
A fair criticism, but one that should work itself out as EVs gain more marketshare among new vehicles. Used car prices in general are a little crazy right now due to shortages of new cars, but it won't be that long before used EVs start flooding the market, making them more accessible at tons of price points. Right now most used EVs for sale are very early designs and/or compliance cars which were never that good to begin with, but it won't be long before lessons learned cars are available used. I suspect early VW ID.4 coming off lease in 1-2 years will be excellent bargains, for example. It's a shame VW isn't bringing ID.3 to north america since they'd be even better. Batteries are also continuing to come down in price and economies of scale are starting to kick in for EV manufacturing, so new EVs are becoming available at more accessible price points. I think we have crossed the threshold where spending money on a new ICE passenger car doesn't make sense, but I think there is tons of value to be had in fuel efficient used cars, particularly Toyota's hybrids that have bulletproof drivetrains. Chevy Volt gen2 is also an excellent gateway (PH)EV.
KaiserPro 5y ago
> there still isn't a choice. It depends on what market you're in. The uk for example, there are a bunch of EVs that are now coming nito the second hand market. For example Zoes and leafs. Sure the range isn't great, but if you are in london, you don't pay congestion charge(£15 a day), or road tax(70-300 a year, https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables). Plus city driving, you're not doing 100miles a day, its more like 20. But the secondary point is this, whats new now, in five years will be affordable to the rest of us (once this ridiculous shortage is out of the way) Cars value exponentially decays, so the more rich people buy them now, the better it is for the rest of us later.

edent 5y ago

I'm not sure where you are in the world, buy you can buy plenty of 2nd hand EVs. Looks like they start at around £6k. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?sort=price-asc&postcode=w1a1aa&radius=1500&include-delivery-option=on&price-from=6000&fuel-type=Electric https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?sort=price-asc&postc... But, you can lease a brand new low-end EV for around £200-£300 per month.

mavhc 5y ago
I bought a 3 year old Leaf 7 years ago for £6500, apart from tyres, spent £30 on new windscreen wipers, and last week £125 on a suspension thing. 1p/mile, £0 tax per year. And same year model is on sale for more than £6500 today
i_am_proteus 5y ago
Which person trusts the battery on a ten-year-old early-generation electric vehicle? What down payment is required before leasing a new electric vehicle for two or three hundred United Kingdom Quids? How much insurance must be carried for such a vehicle? I do not doubt that the electric vehicle is a fantastic choice for the financially secure person. But many are not so fortunate.
- edent 5y ago
  The batteries seem to be fine - they're doing better than most people expected. But the dashboard will give you the battery's predicted range. You might as well ask how many people will buy a 10 year old ICE with a knackered gearbox! I paid £250 down, then £250 per month for my last EV. Insurance was roughly the same as an ICE. But that will depend on the driver and area as much as the vehicle. Are there sub £1,000 beaters in the EV market? No. You can buy an ancient petrol Clio - and then keep spending to keep it running. But I daresay it'll cost you more in petrol than you'd save in electricity.
- helsinkiandrew 5y ago
  A few thousand (about 12 times the monthly cost) The following site lets you play with expected mileage, upfront amount and the term: https://www.leaseloco.com/car-leasing/search https://www.leaseloco.com/car-leasing/search A Nissan Leaf for 4 years with no upfront fee and 8K miles a year would be £288.40 a month, a Porsche Taycan £904.63

cowmix 5y ago

I just bought a 2014 Chevy Spark EV for ~ $6500US with 66K miles. Drives like new - it is an amazing car. If you don't have any charging available to you at your home, it would be a hard car to own otherwise it is the best $$$ I've spend. Before that I owned a Chevy Volt for 8 years and put 110K (and 30K gas) miles on it.

SamBam 5y ago
We bought a used car a year and a half ago, and the number of second-hand EVs available was tiny. (Looking nation-wide with Carvana.) I'm guessing it gets significantly better with each passing year, but at the time there just wasn't something at the price-point we wanted. We also couldn't decide on the environmental impact of buying a used ICE (ended up with a 2014 Mazda 3) or a new EV. We ended up deciding that, with the small amount of driving we do, a used ICE was better. We weren't going to burn all that much gas anyway.

theluketaylor 5y ago

A fair criticism, but one that should work itself out as EVs gain more marketshare among new vehicles. Used car prices in general are a little crazy right now due to shortages of new cars, but it won't be that long before used EVs start flooding the market, making them more accessible at tons of price points. Right now most used EVs for sale are very early designs and/or compliance cars which were never that good to begin with, but it won't be long before lessons learned cars are available used. I suspect early VW ID.4 coming off lease in 1-2 years will be excellent bargains, for example. It's a shame VW isn't bringing ID.3 to north america since they'd be even better. Batteries are also continuing to come down in price and economies of scale are starting to kick in for EV manufacturing, so new EVs are becoming available at more accessible price points. I think we have crossed the threshold where spending money on a new ICE passenger car doesn't make sense, but I think there is tons of value to be had in fuel efficient used cars, particularly Toyota's hybrids that have bulletproof drivetrains. Chevy Volt gen2 is also an excellent gateway (PH)EV.

KaiserPro 5y ago

> there still isn't a choice. It depends on what market you're in. The uk for example, there are a bunch of EVs that are now coming nito the second hand market. For example Zoes and leafs. Sure the range isn't great, but if you are in london, you don't pay congestion charge(£15 a day), or road tax(70-300 a year, https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables). Plus city driving, you're not doing 100miles a day, its more like 20. But the secondary point is this, whats new now, in five years will be affordable to the rest of us (once this ridiculous shortage is out of the way) Cars value exponentially decays, so the more rich people buy them now, the better it is for the rest of us later.