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It's fine, I'd be very surprised if it was repealed, automakers would be left very unhappy since it's been shown time and time again, current EV sales are very reliant on those credits, and they're a powerful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 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.