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I'm sure my perspective is skewed as a longtime carless city-dweller, but why would anyone by a ICE commuter car these days? I understand the options aren't exp

I'm sure my perspective is skewed as a longtime carless city-dweller, but why would anyone by a ICE commuter car these days? I understand the options aren't expansive, but do most drivers really need anything beyond a Nissan Leaf?

erik_seaberg 5y ago
No garage. I parked a block away, on a street full of cars that have nowhere to plug into.
sokoloff 5y ago
I’ve daily driven a LEAF for 7.25 years. I love it, so this isn’t some anti-EV whine. With that context, there’s no way I’d be happy with the LEAF if we didn’t have a second (ICE) car. Around once a month, I have a day where the LEAF doesn’t have the range to fully reliably do my day of driving so I switch cars with my spouse. I’m not going to rent a car on random short-notice 12x per year.
- senectus1 5y ago
  yeah this is why I'm still sticking with hybrids.
throwawayboise 5y ago
Because you can get a reliable used ICE car for $5k or so, and not have to worry about range.
Ancapistani 5y ago
Yeah, your perspective is skewed. To be fair, mine is as well just in the opposite direction. I live in a town of ~15k people in the South. For context - I’m taking my daughters to their homeschool coop tomorrow morning. It’s an 82-mile round trip if we go straight there and back; more typically I’ll run some errands and grab lunch to make a total of ~120 miles travelled. Wednesday one of them has a dentist’s appointment. That’s 140 miles round trip. My family of four has two vehicles: my wife’s 2015 Kia Sorento and my 2000 Jeep Wrangler. They average 24 and 14 MPG respectively. We average around 35k miles per year between them. We live “in town”, and the nearest grocery store is still ~5 miles away. The nearest convenience store is ~1 mile away. I suppose it would be feasible to walk or bike there… if I wanted to do so on a 55 MPH highway with no sidewalk or shoulder. There is no public transit. The majority of people in the US live in “urban areas” - but it looks like the US Census Bureau considers a population density of 1k people per square mile to be “urban”. My town qualifies at 1,165.

erik_seaberg 5y ago

No garage. I parked a block away, on a street full of cars that have nowhere to plug into.

sokoloff 5y ago

I’ve daily driven a LEAF for 7.25 years. I love it, so this isn’t some anti-EV whine. With that context, there’s no way I’d be happy with the LEAF if we didn’t have a second (ICE) car. Around once a month, I have a day where the LEAF doesn’t have the range to fully reliably do my day of driving so I switch cars with my spouse. I’m not going to rent a car on random short-notice 12x per year.

senectus1 5y ago
yeah this is why I'm still sticking with hybrids.

throwawayboise 5y ago

Because you can get a reliable used ICE car for $5k or so, and not have to worry about range.

Ancapistani 5y ago

Yeah, your perspective is skewed. To be fair, mine is as well just in the opposite direction. I live in a town of ~15k people in the South. For context - I’m taking my daughters to their homeschool coop tomorrow morning. It’s an 82-mile round trip if we go straight there and back; more typically I’ll run some errands and grab lunch to make a total of ~120 miles travelled. Wednesday one of them has a dentist’s appointment. That’s 140 miles round trip. My family of four has two vehicles: my wife’s 2015 Kia Sorento and my 2000 Jeep Wrangler. They average 24 and 14 MPG respectively. We average around 35k miles per year between them. We live “in town”, and the nearest grocery store is still ~5 miles away. The nearest convenience store is ~1 mile away. I suppose it would be feasible to walk or bike there… if I wanted to do so on a 55 MPH highway with no sidewalk or shoulder. There is no public transit. The majority of people in the US live in “urban areas” - but it looks like the US Census Bureau considers a population density of 1k people per square mile to be “urban”. My town qualifies at 1,165.