So I have always hated Tesla and don’t like that they’ve in a lot of way tarnished the name of electric cars. The second you say electric cars every person and their mom says OHH you’re getting a tesla! Quite annoying.
Anyways, I’d like to hear from some of you folks some models of electrics you like. I have always been a gearhead deep in the gas and oil, and I still enjoy my cars, but an electric would be fun and a cost savings for me, especially since I have a ton of roof space for solar panels if I wanted to.
It sounds superficial but a big reason I used to hate electric cars is they are for the most part, hideous. Then again, to me, most new cars are hidous, the designs are just not good. But I think i can look past that.
It would also be a huge bonus if there were any models out there with the least possible features. I prefer cars with manual locks/seats/doors and no screen, which is of course impossible with current cars (sadly). But the less digital garbage the better.
Very happy with a KIA EV6.
The Polestar 2 is great at being a (fun) car first and a electric car second, if that makes sense. The door handles are just regular door handles, the instrument cluster has an extremely clean and minimal design without visual noise, there’s physical buttons for the radio and defroster and the gear (direction) selector! Range isn’t as amazing as Tesla 3, but as a daily car I think it’s nicer. Also the optional tow hitch is rated for a 1t trailer load which is a bit more than the Tesla 3.
Skoda Enyaq is another good alternative, though slightly bigger, more of an SUV. The Honda E was really fun to drive, but a bit expensive given size and range. For smaller cars the Renault Zoë is a a top contender, and quite popular here Kia has a whole range of great EVs, as does VW.
If I was in the market for a new car, I’d be seriously looking at the new Mazda 6e right now. It looks slick as hell, and it’s one of the very few non-SUV non-5-door-hatchback EVs on the market. Another alternative is BMW i4 and i5. The i5 is even available as a stationwagon / estate , which as far as I know is a first for EVs.
The Lucid looks slick as well, for those with deeper pockets :D
You didn’t mention where you live or what size and budget you’re looking at, some of these models may not be available in all markets, and as you can tell wary greatly in size and cost
Seconded on the P2! I bought a 2021 launch edition in October and still get excited every time I get behind the wheel lol.
I’m also going to echo loving the polestar 2. I may get something else when my lease is up just because I do want the higher range.
The 2024+ Long Range Single motor (rear wheel drive) is rated for 655km which is pretty decent. Compared to the 2021 first gen dual motor (long range) which was rated at 390km
Concur on the PS2. Been super happy with ours.
Chose it because we disliked Musk and wanted buttons.Cupra Born as the second car. Also been a problem free and fun little thing.
Today I would look at the EX60, I4 or Polestar 4.
All good Cars I didn’t know about! I’m super out of the loop with electrics. I’m more in tune with 1967 to 2002 myself.
The polestar seems cool but a little too SUV like for my taste. Dang the Mazda 6 is sweet but of course we won’t get it in the US!
Thanks for your input!
No personal recommendation, but around where I am, I think that Hyundai Ioniq has been the most-increasing-in-prominence car in the same base price range as the Tesla Model 3.
It would also be a huge bonus if there were any models out there with the least possible features. I prefer cars with manual locks/seats/doors and no screen, which is of course impossible with current cars (sadly). But the less digital garbage the better.
The Hyundai Kona is less-expensive than the Ioniq. I know a few people that drive that and say that they like it.
If you’re determined to have less stuff, the Slate Truck isn’t out yet, but as sold, base, it doesn’t have automatic windows or a screen or or a radio or speakers. No car computer. No cell radio to phone home. You get airbags and climate control, and you can mount your cell phone or tablet or whatever on the dash if you want a car computer, and that’s pretty much it. Also considerably smaller than current trucks. Kind of a 1980s no-frills truck, but electric.
I would not get a Hyundai Kona. It was never meant to be a EV, they just fitted batteries under a regular ICE car, so a lot of it just doesn’t make sense.
I leased a Kona EV for the last couple years and I really liked it. Great city car, albeit a little cramped on the interior. The range was great but the charge time was pretty ass, making long road trips quite tedious.
I have the Ioniq 5 now and I like it almost as much. The range is a little better but the charge time is leagues ahead; more than twice as fast. It’s bigger and feels like a boat in comparison with the Kona but I just tend to prefer smaller vehicles. If you go with the Ioniq I’d recommend the AWD, it makes acceleration so much smoother.
Wow that Slate truck is refreshingly simple, and kind of cute. I don’t think it will ever come to the south east Asian market anytime soon as we are just flooded with Chinese EV, but I hope they get the traction they need to be sustainable.
I drive a Volkswagen ID.7 since soon 2 years now, had a Tesla Model 3 before that. Absolutely love the VW. It’s a “real car” with manual controls where you expect them yet all the modernities you can imagine. The AR HUD is absolutely awesome giving you all the relevant information incl. navigation where you’re looking without having to take your eyes off the road.
There’s a big screen as well though, but it’s not something you have to poke at to do regular stuff as in Teslas.
I don’t have an electric car so I don’t have any first hand knowledge/advice to give. However, the guy who runs the YouTube channel Technology Connections has a Hyundai Ioniq that he really likes and I believe it is a genuine expression. I think the biggest thing he doesn’t like deals with how the car’s internal navigation system handles recharging stops.
There’s an ICCU issue with them he experienced and while he still likes the car I believe he doesn’t recommend it as much until that gets sorted.
Taycan 4S Cross Turismo (wagon). Absolutely incredible car all around. Competent on a racetrack, comfy on long roadtrips, tons of cargo room, easy installation of a roof box for even more cargo, very fast DC charging.
Ain’t perfect and I could rant about software/infotainment but I’m not paying for the now-expired internet connectivity and it’s been totally fine not having that, especially with Android Auto working with GrapheneOS.
I have been seriously looking at one of these, what’s your experience with maintenance costs?
Did my own cabin air filter replacement, fairly straightforward. I run separate sets of summer and winters on their own sets of wheels so I swap those out twice a year myself.
Only big ticket item so far was replacing brakes at 20k miles since I wore through them with five full track days. and I mean FULL, like every lap HARD braking from 140mph down to 65-75mph, and going as long each day as possible while leaving to recharge after 20-35 minutes of pushing it each session.
No real other maintenance so far and I’ve had it 3.5 years and its a tad over 30k miles. There have been a few scary error messages that all went away after the car was shut down and left for a few minutes, mostly camera/ADAS stuff but one time it was an error about the chassis leveling or something. AC stopped wotking once during a road trip but came back after the next charging stop.
One warranty repair done for a proximity sensor that stopped working well. And a few recalls. But the brakes have been the only spendy bit, that and it’s the last season for this set of winter tires so tires and brakes basically!
Nice thanks for the info!
sure thing! Happy to answer any questions or review builds or listings, or give advice on options!
This car really is a treat to drive. Especially with four wheel steer and all the other performance goodies. But even the base Taycan sedan on springs with zero options is amazing to drive, honestly. Had one for a loaner and it was honestly great.
I’ve got a first-gen 2017 Chevy Bolt, battery upgraded by recall in the 2nd year we had it (price of being an early adopter). No complaints, no issues beyond having to tape over the chrome on the dashboard so I don’t get blinded.
The only maintenance so far has been tires; brakes last forever thanks to one-pedal driving. Eventually we’ll have to do the regular chassis stuff like bushings and struts, but at 60+k mi we’re still a little ways away from that.
Srsly the best car I’ve ever owned.
Bolts live up to their name too. Much quicker than you’d suspect.
I have a 24 Aryia. I’ve got 13k miles on it and so far it’s been great.
I have over 40k kms on mine. No issues at all so far, aside from they really hobble that 400hp off the line so you don’t cook tires.
I have the mid range one but I believe the top model has AWD and so you get a lot more go from a standing start.
I have the top model and you really don’t. The power doesn’t really come on until you’re doing like 30-40 kph, even in stupid spaceship sound mode with all the traction control off.
I can’t find the data now but from memory the AWD model is supposed to do 0-100kph in about 4 seconds as opposed to the 7.5 or so of the FWD models, so I assumed you’d be able to feel the difference 😆.
It’s apparently 0-60 in 5 seconds, but the Subaru Solterra does the same with half the horsepower. They may have changed it for 2025, but you can’t melt tires on the 2024, trust me. Once the power comes on it rips, just not out of the hole
Interesting that duel motors and AWD make hardly any difference! I’m quite happy with my single motor FWD performance, and it seems like they might be similar.
I also have a 2024 Ariya! Also love it, only had it less than 6 months (bought an ex-demo car for about 60% of the price of a new one).
Nissan have been making Leafs for years, built in Japan, we got the 63kWh mid-range model. It’s not a huge SUV but big enough we can easily fit three kids in the back and they have leg room. Has all the bells and whistles, like adaptive cruise control, steering assist, auto wipers, auto-lock/unlock, bluetooth, beepy things when you get too close, uses Lidar not cameras like tesla, but also have cameras so you have the overhead 360 view. All sorts of beeps and barps for various warnings but you can turn off anything you don’t like.
I’d say the most unusual part is that there’s no separation of driver and front passenger footwell, just one giant gap. After reading about it online I did what others do and bought a baskety container thing and velcroed it to the floor so now there is so much storage for all the books and jerseys and whatever, on top of the two glove boxes.
Comes with free updates to the satnav maps that you can also do yourself (I ended up using my wife’s Windows computer as I didn’t get their software working on Linux, maybe someone else has had better luck).
There are things I don’t like but overall, a solid car, no regrets. If you have more money they also sell a higher spec AWD version with a bigger battery. We get about 300km range on our 63kWh version by the time we fill it with stuff and 5 people.
We have an Audi e-tron GT. Wife wanted a 4-door car with a trunk and I wanted a low-slung sporty drive.
Not manual by any means, but it has Apple Car Play and buttons for almost everything else - aircon, media, driving controls etc.
We charge with excess solar so driving it is basically free.
How do you like it? Have you taken it to a racetrack? If not I highly recommend doing so if you have one close enough that also has DC charging nearby
The drive is very good, comfortable and you have the power when you need it available, but it’s not scary.
I’m not much of racetrack person myself. I can tell you that two child seats fit in the back, and on long journeys the battery lasts 300 miles even though the car is four years old.
There have been some recalls for it, to replace parts that I don’t know what they’re for. I haven’t figured out how to “log in” to the car so it always says “welcome guest” but I’m fine with that.
I haven’t figured out how to “log in” to the car so it always says “welcome guest” but I’m fine with that.
Honestly that’s pretty fucking awesome.
Do not buy the Hyundai Ioniq. The car itself is great (although it has a lot of modern features you dont want) but dealing with Hyundai is such a nightmare that I will never again buy a Hyundai.
A few years ago I got into a wreck in an Elantra (only me, no one else harmed) and none of the airbags went off. If I had been forward thinking enough to document it, I’d have filed a lawsuit immediately.
The car was great while I had it, all the bells and whistles, great mileage, everything. But I won’t ever get one again for safety reasons.
Modern airbags only go off if you crash in a direction that they can help, e.g. if you slide sideways into a pole, you’d only expect curtain airbags to go off, not the one in your steering wheel. Airbags are dangerous so you only want them to go off when they aren’t going to make things worse.
Though by the way you italicised “none”, perhaps the car is full of airbags all over and they still didn’t go off?
I also seem to remember a massive recall from a decade back because the world’s biggest airbag manufacturer found many of their airbags didn’t go off properly.
Dunno about the recall, but you’re right in that I had airbags all around me. I hit a tree in the driver side door, neither airbag around the doorframe went off. I’m lucky I made it out with just a broken shoulder bone, among the other injuries I could have/did sustain.
Allegedly it was a spinout caused by over correction (I got knocked out by the impact and don’t remember most of that night), so maybe the spinning motions fucked with the directional sensors, but I would expect in the event of a spinout collision, every airbag should go off, at least programming wise.
I don’t know if airbags are connected enough to coordinate with each other, but you kind of expect they should err on the side of going off if unsure rather than not going off!
Just looked up the recall, apparently 100 million airbags recalled starting from 2013. It seems to have resulted in the bankruptcy of the company!
It might be a little early to be related to your crash if it was just a few years back. Hopefully you’re doing ok now!
Very much might be then, it was a 2012/2013 Elantra, wish I’d known about the recall.
My wife has a Honda clarity PHEV that goes about 40 miles on a charge and for the most part she only needs the engine for highway driving day to day.
From an engineering and tech standpoint Honda makes an impressive hybrid system I just wish they had it on the Odyssey. You can get it on the Civic and Accord hybrids.
I’m personally looking at the Pollstar and Volvo wagons since I won’t get a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV. But I’m also taking a serious look at the Porsche Taycan as it’s essentially a wagon.
The mustang Mach E is actually a decent car, one of my best friends wanted an EV and had not even thought about Ford when I suggested it. He test drove one and took it home that day!
I have also tested the VW id BUZZ and it’s great but as a van it’s not as good as the Odyssey.
What I want more than anything is Honda to get it’s shit together but I’m at 200k and I won’t wait forever so one of the above vehicles is going to get my money if Honda won’t sell me what I want.
Toyota also makes some PHEVs as well. We’ve had a Toyota Prime for a few years and it’s been fine.
I just don’t like the Toyota hybrid. Prius prime was good when I test drove it but the rest are meh.
Fair
I have a Citroen E-Berlingo and I love it.
I wanted something with the best indoor space / outdoor footprint ratio I could get and also a car with a small battery, because imo big batteries on EVs defeat the purpose (too heavy, wears out tires and roads faster) and 99.9% of the time I travel less than 100km a day.
The same electric platform is on all Stellantis cars if I’m not wrong (eg. E-208, E-C3).
Also what I like about it is that I could opt out of all the “connected” junk and now it looks like a normal car (I don’t use navigation, apps or anything, I just want my car to transport me).
Love my kia Niro ev. Looks like any other normal car. Fun to drive.
We’ve got the Kia Niro Wind and I agree they’re fun to drive. Wish it’d charge faster (capped at 75kW I think?) for long trips, but it’s been more than fine for what we need
We’ve had our Niro EV for over 6 years now and it remains an excellent vehicle. The only failure so far was in the AC. Other than that, it had required almost no maintenance.
We did a proactive reduction gear oil change and had the brakes cleaned once due to lack of use (regen and driving style mean the brakes are not used frequently).
Love that it just looks normal.
Also had our AC die, leaked and needed a piece replacement. Was fixed under warranty though so not really a problem.
BYD is very popular here in Australia. Tried one out and it just goes.
BYD is very popular everywhere, it just overtook Tesla as the biggest EV manufacturer.
Personally I avoided BYD due to the whole China data sovereignty thing, but from what I hear their cars are solid.
I have a 23 Mustang Mach E. Due to where I live, I felt AWD was necessary and that limited my EV options substantially (along with all the tax incentive changes happening at the time I ordered it in 2022).
Honestly though, while it’s bigger than what I wanted and doesn’t have as many manual features as I would prefer, it is a supremely fun vehicle to drive. I wish EV charging infrastructure was better so that taking it on a road trip was more feasible.
I bought my parents’ 2021 Mach E last fall and I love it. I have the RWD extended battery version and it has plenty of range for what I need, mainly local driving and going between St. Louis and Kansas City. There’s several high speed charging options on that route so I haven’t had any issues and I can charge at home for daily drives.
I got a 2023 MME GT and my sentiments are almost the same. Great car. Scary fast when you put your foot all the way down. Feels huge, but I am coming from a Honda CRZ. All in, I’d say the CRZ was more fun, but the MME is a much better car overall.
