200 miles of range at this point. If you have a short commute (<30 miles total) you could even look at plug-in hybrid EV (PHEVs), although having a more complex vehicle that retains all the maintenance of a gas engine is, for many, too much of a drawback. Do you plan to use this vehicle to regularly travel to a certain destination more than 100 miles away? Like a weekend ski trip or family in another state? You can use apps like plugshare or A Better Route Planner (ABRP) to plot out these trips and see what public charging is available. Almost nowhere in the US is completely inaccessible to EVs anymore, but some places are much less convenient. Another way to ask the previous question is: do you have another vehicle in your household? A gas vehicle is, in 99% of cases, indisputably better for long distance travel compared to an EV. If you decide that your vehicle will only ever charge at home (outside of emergencies), you can completely ignore fast charging rates, which are relatively difficult to research and understand. Do your researchOnce you have a handle on your needs (miles of range, fast charging needs, etc.) you can start to actually look into cars. If you are new to EVs, you should contact a dealer and test drive one, ASAP. Doesn't even matter what kind, just go and try it. You'll never forget the first time you put the pedal to the floor in a Chevy Bolt and it accelerates like a Porsche. Obviously, you'll have your own price range and vehicle preferences, but here's what you should know about the electric side of things. Many sites like cars.com actually let you filter by range, so you should set filters for this and price, and survey which vehicles are in your budget. Give yourself a shortlist and then, for each one, drill down on the following features: Maximum fast charging speed (sometimes called DCFC speed): Ignore this if you only plan on charging at home, because it determines your maximum speed at a fast charger. Usually given in kilowatts (kW) or alternatively described by "10% to 80% charge time", this is the peak charging rate. A number of 50 kW is almost unbearably low (60+ minutes to recharge), while 150 is solid and 200+ is as fast as they come (<20 minutes to recharge). This stat is not standardized so it has to be individually researched for each model you're interested in, and it's worth keeping in mind that it's a maximum value, which is affected by things like temperature and how many other people are charging. One thing that might be helpful is to go on PlugShare and check out the specific charging stations you expect to use. The app encourages "check-ins" from real users where they report their vehicle information as well as how their charge went. "Fuel" efficiency: For ICE vehicles, miles per gallon (MPG) is a useful metric for showing the cost of running the vehicle. It's somewhat less important for EVs because electricity is generally cheaper than gas, but can be valuable information to know. Unfortunately, there are 3 metrics for this in EVs right now that all represent the same thing. Here's the short version: MPGe is an attempt to bridge the gap between gas and electric, so the specific number is mostly useless but fine for comparison. Bigger number is better, typically above 100 MPGe. Miles per kilowatt-hour (mi/kWh) is my favorite, since it's just miles/gallon but swapped to the common unit for electric energy. Bigger is better, and numbers range from ~2 for trucks and go up to ~5 for efficient sedans. You can invert it and get kWh/mi, and since this is a decimal it's often shown as kWh/100 miles. For this, smaller is better, and numbers range from 20 to 50. Vehicle-specific subreddits are usually a good source of people reporting their numbers, although I've noticed people tend to self-report their good numbers more than their bad ones. Additional range information: Here's a few quick things you need to know when evaluating how much range is right for you. EVs are more efficient in the city than on the highway, by a significant margin. This is because EVs are more affected by aerodynamics, and going faster will steadily eat into your range. Most "highway range" numbers are given for fairly conservative speeds of 65-70 mph, so if you want to go 80, you'll shrink your range. Electric motors and batteries also get less efficient in the cold, by like 20-30%. Combined, this means that a car with 300 miles of advertised range will get an absolute maximum of ~200 miles of range in cold weather, and that's if you're charging to 100% and driving it down to 0%. Good practice is to just cut the advertised number in half if you plan to do winter road trips and want to know the most reliable, practical range. Elevation and weather are also usually important. I would recommend finding YouTube "range tests" of the type of car you want. There are tons of these online. Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability: This is worth a mention basically because of Tesla, although other automakers are starting to offer some functionality. It can be a very attractive feature, especially if you do a lot of driving. For reviews, I would watch some YouTube videos or go to the vehicle-specific subreddit and ask around. This one is also really important to evaluate in a test drive. Plug type: This is last because it's less important, since adapters exist, but you should know if the vehicle you want uses the NACS (also known as SAE J3400) or CCS plug type (SAE J1772). In the US in 2023, Tesla convinced the government to adopt theirs as standard, meaning hooray we get to be different from the rest of the world. Starting in 2025, many new vehicles will be rolling out with this plug type. 2026 on, most manufacturers that I'm aware of have committed to it. If you see a "CHAdeMO" plug type, run away; CHAdeMO isn't real, it can't hurt you. Just kidding the Leaf is fine, just kind of outdated at this point. How to chargeDuring your vehicle research process, you should also, in parallel, determine how you're going to charge at home. You may already be aware of the different "levels": Level 1 charging is a basic wall outlet, Level 2 usually has a dedicated breaker and is basically a high voltage/amperage outlet, like you would get for industrial equipment. Level 3 is DC charging, and these are exclusively for public charging. To give some loose numbers, in order to add 50 miles of range, Level 1 takes 10-15 hours, Level 2 takes 2-5 hours, and level 3 takes less than an hour. Many people can get by with basic level 1 charging, and do not need to spend ~$1000 on installing level 2 charging in their home. Evaluate your daily driving, and how long your vehicle is parked at home. You still might want level 2 charging if you do anything that adds big spikes of driving into your schedule. It sucks to get back from a road trip and stress that you won't be charged enough to get to work the next day, or to leave for a road trip and not be at 100% because you charged too slow. If your garage doesn't have electric hookups or your breaker box is in a weird spot in your basement or something, it will become quite expensive to install level 2 charging. Usually, it costs something like $400 for the hardware itself and $200-800 for basic installation. If you want specifics on which chargers are good, consult /r/evcharging. If nothing else, know that you need to ensure your equipment meets certain safety specs, so look for UL or ETL standards under product specs. Making the purchaseOnce you've drilled down on the vehicle you want, there's a few additional considerations that happen when you've fully locked in on the car you want and are ready to buy. Tax credits: Although not relevant after Dec. 31 2025, there are currently federal credits for EVs, both new and used. The quick and dirty summary is that used ones require you have less than a certain AGI, pre-tax sale price of vehicle less than $25k, and model year greater than two years older than current year. New ones have similar but much higher limits on the numbers, and replace the year requirement with a "made in USA" requirement (there's a list online of which ones fit). There's also a "lease loophole" to sidestep that requirement that is relatively easy to take advantage of. Be careful when shopping, since some dealers will incorporate the tax cut into the advertised price, while some do not. General trends with EV sales (March, 2025): The big thing right now is that depreciation on EVs is relatively high compared to the rest of the car market (and doubly so for Teslas). Importantly, this is not for technical reasons. EV battery degradation is minimal, electric motors are more reliable than gas with fewer moving parts, and 94% of people who have an EV plan to stay with EVs. However, EVs still occupy a bit of an "early adopter" niche, so the people who want them are more likely to buy new. Long story short - lease or buy a gently used vehicle for the best bang for your buck. But, like, I'm not your dad or anything, do what you want. Test drive: Do not buy your first EV without a significant test drive. If you've done your research well, you'll likely know more about the vehicle than the sales rep. Try out different levels of regenerative braking. Sit with the tech interface for a bit, and see if anything pops out as annoying. Try the self-driving. If there are different drive modes, give them a test. Most people dislike one-pedal driving at first but fall in love with it later, so just leave that off if you can. Also, after driving it for 10-15 minutes, look at what the range is projecting and the current battery percentage. Use those numbers to get the range at 100%, and see how that stacks up with your expectations. Thanks for reading!Hopefully this helps someone! Please feel free to leave a comment or suggest anything. If there's advice from non-US sources, I'd be happy to include it." title="First-Time EV Buyer's Guide">full image - Repost: First-Time EV Buyer's Guide (from Reddit.com, First-Time EV Buyer's Guide)
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I often help people on the weekly General Questions and Purchasing Advice thread, and have been thinking about doing something like this to compile my answers to common questions. I'm going to structure it like a guide for each part of the buying process, but it's more like a collection of my thoughts. I'd be happy to add to it if anyone has anything else to contribute! This is also US-centric (sorry). The Starting LineSo you want to buy an EV eh? Awesome! The process is, in general, very similar to buying a standard internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, but with a few key additional areas of research. I'm going to assume you generally know the basics of ICE vehicle ownership, and make this guide as specific as possible the electric portion of the vehicle purchasing. Assess your situationAs always you should buy a car that suits your needs. Trucks for construction work, vans for families, etc. EVs are no different, but you should ask yourself a few additional questions to determine which, if any, EV is right for you: The first, most important question - do you have a place to charge? The main benefit EV owners cite is that the vehicle can "refuel" at home, every night. In contrast, the "worst" part of the experience is public charging. Even for Superchargers, which are widely considered the most reliable and easiest to use network, charging takes longer than refueling with gas and almost always eliminates any cost savings from getting rid of gas. It's less common, but you can 100% get by if you charge at work or a public area like a shopping center you regularly visit. What's your normal daily mileage? How much battery do you need? Almost all full battery-powered EVs (BEVs) have >200 miles of range at this point. If you have a short commute (<30 miles total) you could even look at plug-in hybrid EV (PHEVs), although having a more complex vehicle that retains all the maintenance of a gas engine is, for many, too much of a drawback. Do you plan to use this vehicle to regularly travel to a certain destination more than 100 miles away? Like a weekend ski trip or family in another state? You can use apps like plugshare or A Better Route Planner (ABRP) to plot out these trips and see what public charging is available. Almost nowhere in the US is completely inaccessible to EVs anymore, but some places are much less convenient. Another way to ask the previous question is: do you have another vehicle in your household? A gas vehicle is, in 99% of cases, indisputably better for long distance travel compared to an EV. If you decide that your vehicle will only ever charge at home (outside of emergencies), you can completely ignore fast charging rates, which are relatively difficult to research and understand. Do your researchOnce you have a handle on your needs (miles of range, fast charging needs, etc.) you can start to actually look into cars. If you are new to EVs, you should contact a dealer and test drive one, ASAP. Doesn't even matter what kind, just go and try it. You'll never forget the first time you put the pedal to the floor in a Chevy Bolt and it accelerates like a Porsche. Obviously, you'll have your own price range and vehicle preferences, but here's what you should know about the electric side of things. Many sites like cars.com actually let you filter by range, so you should set filters for this and price, and survey which vehicles are in your budget. Give yourself a shortlist and then, for each one, drill down on the following features: Maximum fast charging speed (sometimes called DCFC speed): Ignore this if you only plan on charging at home, because it determines your maximum speed at a fast charger. Usually given in kilowatts (kW) or alternatively described by "10% to 80% charge time", this is the peak charging rate. A number of 50 kW is almost unbearably low (60+ minutes to recharge), while 150 is solid and 200+ is as fast as they come (<20 minutes to recharge). This stat is not standardized so it has to be individually researched for each model you're interested in, and it's worth keeping in mind that it's a maximum value, which is affected by things like temperature and how many other people are charging. One thing that might be helpful is to go on PlugShare and check out the specific charging stations you expect to use. The app encourages "check-ins" from real users where they report their vehicle information as well as how their charge went. "Fuel" efficiency: For ICE vehicles, miles per gallon (MPG) is a useful metric for showing the cost of running the vehicle. It's somewhat less important for EVs because electricity is generally cheaper than gas, but can be valuable information to know. Unfortunately, there are 3 metrics for this in EVs right now that all represent the same thing. Here's the short version: MPGe is an attempt to bridge the gap between gas and electric, so the specific number is mostly useless but fine for comparison. Bigger number is better, typically above 100 MPGe. Miles per kilowatt-hour (mi/kWh) is my favorite, since it's just miles/gallon but swapped to the common unit for electric energy. Bigger is better, and numbers range from ~2 for trucks and go up to ~5 for efficient sedans. You can invert it and get kWh/mi, and since this is a decimal it's often shown as kWh/100 miles. For this, smaller is better, and numbers range from 20 to 50. Vehicle-specific subreddits are usually a good source of people reporting their numbers, although I've noticed people tend to self-report their good numbers more than their bad ones. Additional range information: Here's a few quick things you need to know when evaluating how much range is right for you. EVs are more efficient in the city than on the highway, by a significant margin. This is because EVs are more affected by aerodynamics, and going faster will steadily eat into your range. Most "highway range" numbers are given for fairly conservative speeds of 65-70 mph, so if you want to go 80, you'll shrink your range. Electric motors and batteries also get less efficient in the cold, by like 20-30%. Combined, this means that a car with 300 miles of advertised range will get an absolute maximum of ~200 miles of range in cold weather, and that's if you're charging to 100% and driving it down to 0%. Good practice is to just cut the advertised number in half if you plan to do winter road trips and want to know the most reliable, practical range. Elevation and weather are also usually important. I would recommend finding YouTube "range tests" of the type of car you want. There are tons of these online. Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability: This is worth a mention basically because of Tesla, although other automakers are starting to offer some functionality. It can be a very attractive feature, especially if you do a lot of driving. For reviews, I would watch some YouTube videos or go to the vehicle-specific subreddit and ask around. This one is also really important to evaluate in a test drive. Plug type: This is last because it's less important, since adapters exist, but you should know if the vehicle you want uses the NACS (also known as SAE J3400) or CCS plug type (SAE J1772). In the US in 2023, Tesla convinced the government to adopt theirs as standard, meaning hooray we get to be different from the rest of the world. Starting in 2025, many new vehicles will be rolling out with this plug type. 2026 on, most manufacturers that I'm aware of have committed to it. If you see a "CHAdeMO" plug type, run away; CHAdeMO isn't real, it can't hurt you. Just kidding the Leaf is fine, just kind of outdated at this point. How to chargeDuring your vehicle research process, you should also, in parallel, determine how you're going to charge at home. You may already be aware of the different "levels": Level 1 charging is a basic wall outlet, Level 2 usually has a dedicated breaker and is basically a high voltage/amperage outlet, like you would get for industrial equipment. Level 3 is DC charging, and these are exclusively for public charging. To give some loose numbers, in order to add 50 miles of range, Level 1 takes 10-15 hours, Level 2 takes 2-5 hours, and level 3 takes less than an hour. Many people can get by with basic level 1 charging, and do not need to spend ~$1000 on installing level 2 charging in their home. Evaluate your daily driving, and how long your vehicle is parked at home. You still might want level 2 charging if you do anything that adds big spikes of driving into your schedule. It sucks to get back from a road trip and stress that you won't be charged enough to get to work the next day, or to leave for a road trip and not be at 100% because you charged too slow. If your garage doesn't have electric hookups or your breaker box is in a weird spot in your basement or something, it will become quite expensive to install level 2 charging. Usually, it costs something like $400 for the hardware itself and $200-800 for basic installation. If you want specifics on which chargers are good, consult /r/evcharging. If nothing else, know that you need to ensure your equipment meets certain safety specs, so look for UL or ETL standards under product specs. Making the purchaseOnce you've drilled down on the vehicle you want, there's a few additional considerations that happen when you've fully locked in on the car you want and are ready to buy. Tax credits: Although not relevant after Dec. 31 2025, there are currently federal credits for EVs, both new and used. The quick and dirty summary is that used ones require you have less than a certain AGI, pre-tax sale price of vehicle less than $25k, and model year greater than two years older than current year. New ones have similar but much higher limits on the numbers, and replace the year requirement with a "made in USA" requirement (there's a list online of which ones fit). There's also a "lease loophole" to sidestep that requirement that is relatively easy to take advantage of. Be careful when shopping, since some dealers will incorporate the tax cut into the advertised price, while some do not. General trends with EV sales (March, 2025): The big thing right now is that depreciation on EVs is relatively high compared to the rest of the car market (and doubly so for Teslas). Importantly, this is not for technical reasons. EV battery degradation is minimal, electric motors are more reliable than gas with fewer moving parts, and 94% of people who have an EV plan to stay with EVs. However, EVs still occupy a bit of an "early adopter" niche, so the people who want them are more likely to buy new. Long story short - lease or buy a gently used vehicle for the best bang for your buck. But, like, I'm not your dad or anything, do what you want. Test drive: Do not buy your first EV without a significant test drive. If you've done your research well, you'll likely know more about the vehicle than the sales rep. Try out different levels of regenerative braking. Sit with the tech interface for a bit, and see if anything pops out as annoying. Try the self-driving. If there are different drive modes, give them a test. Most people dislike one-pedal driving at first but fall in love with it later, so just leave that off if you can. Also, after driving it for 10-15 minutes, look at what the range is projecting and the current battery percentage. Use those numbers to get the range at 100%, and see how that stacks up with your expectations. Thanks for reading!Hopefully this helps someone! Please feel free to leave a comment or suggest anything. If there's advice from non-US sources, I'd be happy to include it.
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