Make sure that the car matches your expectations.

Don't trust their range claims, most of the time they are exaggerated and only able to get that range on a perfect day doing constant 45mph without hills.

Do you have a reliable place to charge it? If you don't have a personal parking place, and cannot install a charger at said place, trusting you have the range you need gets difficult, and expensive. As you have to rely on public chargers that are not very reliable, and worse for battery longevity (level 3 chargers)

Speaking of range. What range do you actually NEED? My opinion is the minimum range should be double the normal daily commute, as most level 2 chargers can add ~18 miles/he charging (overnight charge means 144 miles charge). Double your commute gives you a buffer for the heater, or the grocery run after work. For most people this is only 80 miles.... which almost every electric only car can do without issues.

Is the cost worth the vehicle? Buying new is expensive, buying used can be risky. Do your research thoroughly and you'll be able to decide what fits what you NEED (and that answer may easily be a used ICE vehicle instead)

I've had a full electric vehicle for 5+ years now as my daily. But I have always had a personal parking place, with a level 2 charger. I consider electric only to be a commuter car at best. It's not going to be able to do a road trip. And depending on the car and the commute may even not be able to do a grocery run after work some days. If you have another car that is ICE that you can keep for those times, cool. Or if you are ok with planning, and rent a car when you want to do a road trip, great.

Personally I suggest a plug in hybrid for anyone who can only have one car, and is considering going electric. Prius prime, Chevy volt, Chrysler Pacifica are the ones that have enough range for a short commute, the rest are trying but just haven't gotten there yet.

I've gone from the Chevy Volt, to the Bolt, to a Polestar 2, to a Ford Mach E. 7 years in EVs, around 100k miles, with no regrets and no intention of going back to ICE.

I'm not even sure what the downsides are. Maybe longer trips require a tiny bit more planning? The infotainment systems do all the work though, telling me where to stop and how long to charge.

The big question is if you can charge at home. Depending on the car, it's feasible to do so on a normal outlet if you drive ~30 miles or less per day. A 240 volt outlet can be a game changer on top of that though. My setup charges my car 0-100 in about 6 hours (you know, overnight, when I'm not doing anything and electricity is cheapest). But if I were in an apartment and had no access to overnight charging I'd consider other options.

(Chevy Bolt EUV)

I've been wanting a plug-in hybrid, where you're fully electric under ~40mi of daily travel, and if you exceed it switches to gas for backup. RAV4 prime has been my dream car lately....

I got within an extremely close distance to getting a Model Y this year during the price cuts; I secured the loan and was looking into the insurance costs which is what ultimately killed my decision.

My car is paid off and I only pay for gas (I have the Prius Aqua 2016, ~53mpg, 4.44L/100km)

When I looked into the Y, first of all they don't allow you to get an insurance quote without first putting a down payment. If I had gone through with the purchase, I'd be looking at almost 570$/month on the car loan alone with the trade-in, plus another 140/month (I currently pay 80$/month, roughly) for insurance through my current company (this is only a ballpark figure based on me pulling a VIN number online and feeding it into a quote; that number could possibly be significantly higher). That puts my excess car expenses conservatively at 650$/month just for a new car. The literal only problems I have with my current car is that it can't tow my horse trailer and that it's a "dumb" petrol car with no infotainment and a physical key. I'm probably going to put a 12" iPad in the center console for infotainment and call it a day and keep that around for another 4 years until Apple CarPlay 2 trickles down to affordable EVs.

In summation, I really don't think EVs are worth it unless you absolutely must buy a new car. There are new infotainment options on the horizon like Apple CarPlay 2 and Android Automotive with Android Auto as standard... right now is the literal worst time to buy a car. Not to mention that NACS is going to replace CCS in the USA in the 2026 model cars. Your resale value in the mid 2030s will be absolute dogshit if you don't wait for the NACS port in next year's cars.

Other than the fact that I overspent a bit, I don't regret it. Especially since I live in Florida and didn't have to deal with the gas shortages due to the hurricanes. As long as you have a reliable means of charging at home (or at work), you are good 95% of the time.

If you do any regular long-range driving, be sure you get one that can support that distance. Public EV chargers can still be hit-or-miss, and that's the biggest downside in my opinion. They aren't too frequent, and a lot of times they just don't work. You also generally need to get an account for each charging network, or else it can be hard to pay or you just pay more. But I can live with that, because it is very much an exceptional part of my driving habits.

I would get a hybrid, but I have nowhere to charge an electric car. I live in an apartment, and unless you're rich you can't afford an apartment with charging stations. I've never even seen one, personally.

My Hyundai Ioniq 5 is my favorite car ever! We've taken it on two long road trips with very few issues. The biggest issue was one charging station in a rural area had a 2 hr wait to use it. But we typically only take 15-20 mins to charge from 10%-80% on road trips.

Not sure where the top commenter is getting their range issues from. Our level 2 charger at home adds ~250 miles of range in 4 hours. In hindsight probably would have gone a cheaper route of a simple exterior 240V outlet on the wall and a compatible cord to save a few hundred dollars.

Otherwise there's very minimal maintenance and the car is super easy/fun to drive. Love the 1-pedal driving mode after a short learning period, it's so responsive that the car feels like it reads my mind on where I want to go/how far to be behind the next car.

Edit: the 2025 Ioniq 5 models are coming with the Tesla charging port, so that will open up a lot more charging stations!

I haven't regretted it. Did a road trip across the country. Takes more planning because chargers are more sparse than gas stations, but totally doable. Having a place to charge is a must. I lived in an apartment complex without charging and REALLY had to plan my charging sessions or it could get stuck in the parking garage.

God damn this thread is depressing. We need a carbon tax yesterday.

I have Kia Niro, the range isnt as advertised and the gauge is not accurate. I barely made it hom when I should havenhad 40-50 km left in the charge.

I occasionally drive three hours to the office and same back necessitating two stops to charge.

The 200v chargers are more expensice than regular fuel. I have paid 100 euro for that return journey above.

I love mine, Chevy bolt. The biggest downside is that you need to plan road trips more carefully with them, and road trips will just take longer. Once you accept that, it's actually kind of nice to periodically take 20-30 minute breaks while on a trip.

These problems are greatly alleviated if you also have a fossil fuel car. My partner has a gas car, so if we're just going for a weekend or there aren't good charging options, we just take the gas car so we don't have to worry about charging.

I have not regretted it. Bought a second EV for my family as well. Most of my extended family have also bought EVs and all had positive experiences. I don’t know anyone who has regretted it.

I think EV cars are mature enough. A lot of colleague have EVs, Tesla 3, Bolt, Ioniq 5, Soul EV, etc. and no-one regret it.

Me I don't need one because I WFH and do maybe 4000 miles (6000km) per year, so buying a 60k$ EV compared to a 30k$ ICE does not make sense, for money.

If your #1 priority is to save the planet and not pollute and you have the money, so of course go for it.