I am looking to buy my first EV, it will end up as our second car and probably our primary vehical for our growing family. I have been looking at reviews and test driving when I have time.
One thing that has been getting to me about the reviews is they focus so much on how sporty the car is, especially it's acceleration. Thing is, I live in a big city and don't particularly care about that kind of thing. Yeah, I get that the tech for an EV is inherently more tuned for that, but it's like every review is "It's so fast!".
They also compare to Tesla a lot, but as this would be my first EV, it doesn't really mean a lot to me and I am not particularly interested in Tesla.
Seems like the things I really want to know never really get talked about - how does it hold up with kids? can it fit car seats without a hassle? How frustrating are the controls I actually use (climate, environment, lights, wipers, etc)?
Are there any resources aimed at just the normal every day experience in the car?
Hello there,! The questions you’ve asked are super generic that would honestly depend on the brand (holding up with kids, control button layouts, etc). Just like ICE cars, what you pay is what you get. The higher you pay the better the materials and build quality (except maybe tesla). I’m sure you could find some bloggers that have a family and use their EV. Maybe I can help add my short experience to help you decide.
A little background:
I’ve found that the bolt is an amazing second car for driving around town. It really saves us from taking out the van just for short runs. My kids are on the shorter side (I’m 5’8” and my wife is 4’11” so they ddon’t have a chance), but they seem to have enough room for travel. I will say that the base model bolt doesn’t have decent cup holders, they’re built into the doors, but they really suck. They don’t have any chargers in the back either so for tablets they would need to use their battery.
The climate controls are okay, but they did take a page from tesla’s book and made them controlled from the screen. It isn’t as bad though because there are physical buttons for the speed of the fans and the temperature.
I find that the smaller size helped save a ton of room in our already small garage, which was really needed. I had a 05 honda accord and it would barely fit in the garage with the shelves we had in there and with the van. This isn’t the case with the bolt.
I also like that my car qualifies for the US tax credit. I checked with my liabilities and it looks like I’ll probably be able to utilize all 7500 which I’ll use to pay down the car. You can do similar things with other EV’s that don’t qualify if you use the leasing loophole (if you look at the EV subreddit you’ll find it).
Additionally, GM payed for a new outlet to be installed in my garage for me to have a level 2 charger. I just ordered my actually charger unit so it’ll be nice to use that instead of the trickle charger.
All in all, I think that maybe as a primary vehicle it might prove to be difficult if you drive a lot of miles in a day, or if you want to road trip in it. I hope this helps.