I have owned EVs -- including PHEVs -- for 12 years now. They've included two different LEAFs, a 2011 and a 2017, a Tesla Model X, a Volvo XC90 T8, and a Jaguar

I have owned EVs -- including PHEVs -- for 12 years now. They've included two different LEAFs, a 2011 and a 2017, a Tesla Model X, a Volvo XC90 T8, and a Jaguar I-PACE. Based on my own experience with these cars, I would insist on two things for any car I buy. First, the manufacturer should have an established reputation for building quality cars that are reliable. If they already know how to build reliable ICE cars, I think they are able to apply their acquired engineering acumen and culture to do a better job with an EV. I think you know where I am going with this. Both the Tesla and the Jaguar have had major issues, and neither the LEAFs nor the Volvo have had significant problems. The Tesla was in the shop maybe a dozen times before I finally traded it in for the Volvo. The final straw for me was when the half shaft started shuddering due to an engineering flaw and Tesla tried to pass that off as "normal." The I-PACE was actually pretty good for about 4 years until now. It was in the shop the least of any ICE I've owned, except when it failed, its failure mode was catastrophic and extremely dangerous. It started up and engaged drive just like always with no indications of a problem, except once I pulled out into traffic, the accelerator just stopped working. No forward force at all, and I only got to maybe 3mph before that happened. It was only then that I got battery error notifications on the dash with a warning to "stop safely." Except before too long the 12v battery got completely drained, and then the brakes stopped working too. Then the emergency brake applied, and the car died completely. No way to shift into neutral and push the car or anything. It was just a dead brick in the road that couldn't even be towed by anything but a flat bed. I'm generally pretty tolerant of technology blips from immature tech, but what if that had happened when I was driving my family on the freeway earlier that same day? Porsche had a similar "loss of power" issue with the Taycan at first, and they had to do a recall early-on for that. Oh, and remember that Chevy Bolt battery flaw where the cars were exploding? Yeah, so Jaguar installed those same flawed LG Chem battery packs in the I-PACE. So far Jaguar's response has been to give me a battery control module firmware update that's supposed to detect when the pack is about to explode and then do something to stop that from happening, I guess. This experience literally has me now looking at manual transmission ICE cars with emergency brake levers that attach to cables and springs. You know, things I can fix on the side of the road with a jack, some tools, and maybe a hardware store nearby. Or at least something almost any auto mechanic can fix for me in a few hours. Regardless, I'm done with early adopter stuff for the machine I entrust my family's life to. It was fun while it lasted, but the failure modes must be better than "Surprise, now you can't accelerate or stop!"