I cross shopped the i3 to the Volt when I was looking and the i3 feels like a car you can only justify by looking at the badge, it's seriously overpriced for what it is. Getting it used helps to some extent, but only by so much.
Leasing EVs is also not a bad deal, there's people who've gotten brand new Volts for ~150 a month with a minimal downpayments.
Volt also gets 50-60 miles electric range. And can do full speed on ice unlike the i3 Rex
Wife and I tried a Volt, but the rear leg room was horrid. I'm 6'5" and need to put the seat all the way back. Though for $21k by kids can suffer behind me.
Holding out for the Hyundai Ioniq plug-in hybrid. Looked at Prius Primes, but the Toyota dealers here in flyover country are all assholes (to deal with), and they won't stock any.
I have a Leaf, but my wife calls it a golf cart and refuses to drive it due to range anxiety. Thus she wants a plug in hybrid.
This was in Santa Clara, CA. At freemont Chevy. I believe they sell the most volts of any dealer in the world.
Does the new federal tax bill preserve the EV credit? Last I heard it was chopped.
It's fine, I'd be very surprised if it was repealed, automakers would be left very unhappy since it's been shown time and time again, current EV sales are very reliant on those credits, and they're a powerful lobby.
BMW i3 max speed on it's ICE is 70mph. Which sucks if you’re going on a road trip. I've only used my volts ICE when going on long road trips.
The Chevy volt had no issues going 80-90 on it's ICE.
To me the major difference is that the i3 is only a commuter car. And a good second car. Whereas the Chevy volt can be your only car.
I.e. only use the battery to get the last 10-20 kph of your speed.
Hold will (try to) hold the battery where it currently is.
Both essentially do what you describe, use ICE primarily and the battery as a secondary. The battery mostly ends up only being used under heavy acceleration at highway speeds (ie, to get your last 10-20 mph of your speed).
I just bought a 2014 leaf with 36,000 miles for $9,000. But yes used battery electric cars are a great deal right now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/leaf/comments/5s22yq/battery_capaci...
https://www.reddit.com/r/leaf/comments/48c37x/question_about...
They failed a NHTSA crash test and don't yet have a fix.
"5th-percentile women who are in the driver’s seat and not wearing a seatbelt (emphasis mine) [...] generally defined as weighing between 100 and 110 pounds and standing about five feet tall."
One advantage of the i3 I did not account for was a recent trade in by a coworker on their new X3. While they were upside down because the trade in dropped a lot the BMW dealers were quietly accepting at some predefined value as trades regardless. Your mileage may vary.
I love the REX concept and think its the best solution until batteries become faster to charge and a weigh a lot less. Seriously, who can think a thousand pounds or close to it is a good solution for a car
The only downside to the pre-2017 models is the range on pure battery is something like 60m; the 2017 edition roughly doubled that to 111m on a charge.
So far I have not need the range extender and have run it on electric only the past 2.5 months.
Also, it's exceedingly quick off the line - the fast BMW ever made 0-30 which is mostly when I need that capability. Also fun to see the look of shock on Raptor drivers faces when I zip by them in the blink of an eye.