My wife currently drives a 2013 Toyota Sienna and she absolutely loves that van. Over the years we've used it for family trips, hauling stuff etc. and it's a workhorse that now has 145K on it. But now are two kids are grown, one is in University the other is heading to University next fall. She currently works as a Pharmacy tech and moves between a few pharmacies. Her commute can be anywhere from 30 miles to 50 miles a day and more when she goes shopping. So as you can imagine, she mainly drives it on her work commute and shopping, so that 3.5L V6 is not fuel efficient. In gas alone she was spending around $200 a month. Also that van eats through tires and brakes, which ain't cheap. So I began looking into replacing the Sienna, but the problem is, my wife loves it. She also has a ton of nostalgia due to all the trips we took in it over the years with the kids. So I had to figure out a way to hold on to it, and at the same time get her a vehicle that's roomy, comfortable, and efficient. The answer was an EV.

I won't get into all the details, but I looked into several EV's, including Tesla, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt etc. did a bunch of test drives, put numbers down to paper, and in the end, I ended up leasing a 2020 Hyundai Ioniq EV in November. And it was the best decision I made all year! It wasn't the most powerful, nor did it have the longer ranges of some of its competitors, but what it did offer was the best value. 178 miles on a full charge, 10 year powertrain warranty, and $190 a month for a 36 month lease ($3500 down, I got back $2000 from the State of California and $800 back from PG&E, our local utility company). It's not only a very nice looking car, but well built with leather seats, fully loaded and very easy to use infotainment system. It only has 138 hp, but EV motors don't need a lot of power because of the amount of torque they produce. In a gasoline engine, 138 hp is a no go, but with an electric motor it's like driving a 180 hp 4 cylinder. It's extremely smooth at 80 mph on the highway, and has a pretty awesome self driving mode when using the adaptive cruise control.

But the best part is what it costs us to drive...between my solar and the EV plan I am on, about $55 a month in electricity costs. And the best part...My wife or I just plug it in at night before we go to bed and it's fully charged and ready to go in the morning. No gas stations to visit. And if ever in a pinch there are more than 30,000 charging stations in our area that are no more than 5 minutes away.

My plan over the next 3 years is to wean my wife off of her van, and when our lease is up to sell the van and replace it with a Ford Mustang Mach E. Right now the Mach E gets about 300 miles on a charge, but in the next 3 years they will probably have a 400 mile fast charge battery. Also with the current administration favoring EV's, I anticipate tax credits going up and prices of EV's going down

 

So, does your wife like it?

 

I forgot to mention this, but yes, she loves it. She does keep saying she misses the van (which is parked in our backyard), but all in all, she is happy with the EV

 

Moved to car chat.

Congrats, and I'm glad you're enjoying it! I liked the Ioniq when I saw it at the Chicago Auto Show, seemingly 11 years ago but actually last February.

 

Haha, so to the point and the most important question of all.

If the van is in the back yard, why do you keep it? Oh and congrats on the EV! A friend has a Kona EV and loves it.

 

Congrats and welcome to the EV world! It will be interesting to read your experience with the car as time passes and what you see are the pros vs. the cons.

There are quite a few threads on here and you will get both viewpoints (for and against) EV's. They can get quite "interesting" some times.

Interesting statistic you mentioned is that there are 30K charging stations in your area - California - the EV capital of the US! Which apps do you use when you want to charge outside your home? ChargePoint / ChargeHub / PlugShare / EVgo ?

 

Yard art? Jungle gym? Maybe there’s a river running through his back yard and the van is parked by it?

 

haha, matt foley.

 

A few reasons.Technically, it's still our long range family trip/vacation vehicle, as my other vehicles are a 2006 Camry SE (3.3L V6) and a 2010 Lexus IS350. The Camry is now at 155K and is used by my daughter, and the Lexus is my commute car. The IS350 is a comfortable long range car as well, except that it has a very small trunk, so we really cannot use on trips with the whole family or trips to Lowes or Home Depot. The other reason is my wife is a creature of habit and does not like change. So the best way to get her into an EV is through a lease where holding on to the van doesn't cost me very much. The money I am saving leasing the Ioniq easily makes up for the cost of holding on to the van for now. When the lease is up in 2023, my wife will be fully weaned of the Sienna, and I will sell the van, return the Ioniq and get a long range EV with more room like the Ford Mustang Mach-E

 

Thanks, it's a great car. I was actually surprised how far Hyundai has come. Out of all the EV's I test drove, it was the most comfortable, had the most features, warranty and lease price. $190 month, that's less than the cost of filling up our Sienna every month! All other maintenance like tire rotation is free from Hyundai for the duration of the lease. Also the fit and finish of this car is excellent. It's so aerodynamic that if you open the window, it actually throws the car off. And road noise is very minimal, even at 80 mph

 

This is all I can say: people who are anti-EV have never driven or owned one and are getting their info on them from fake news put out by the fossil fuel industry. I was very skeptical of EV's, until I actually drove one. Living in Silicon Valley, I have so many co-workers that drive EV's and they say "I can never go back to a regular car". Now I understand what they mean. And all that range anxiety talk...it's way over-blown. In three months of driving we've never ran into an issue of being low on charge. And we drive this thing a lot, we already have almost 4000 miles on it.

There are fast chargers everywhere here, over 30K of them. They are at shopping centers, hotels, places of work, but we have never had to use one. We plug the car in at home after 9PM, and it's fully charged by the morning. The lowest the charge has ever gotten with driving all day all day, with a couple of trips to the East Bay is 50 percent. We do have I beleive have ChargePoint in case we need to hit a charger

 

I guess you can call it Yard art of a sorts. As you can see, my wife has turned its body into a type of canvas by all her artistic scrapes and scratches LOL

 

I'm not anti-EV but you certainly are California biased. I'm happy for you. The rest of the Country is still way behind on Charging stations compared to California. There are maybe 3 charging stations within 30 miles of my home. You have more than one vehicle so you don't need to rely on the EV. I'm an empty nester with one vehicle that my wife and I share. I'd like to se an EV in my future but not at this time.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

When I drove a Model S back in 2016, I was smitten, but couldn't afford one at the time. I knew right after that very short 15 min drive I had to get one, it was a complete no brainer.

Fast forward to 2019, I was finally able to get a used 2016 one and I made it work financially. I now have a permanent "Tesla grin".

 

Oh, I get that. EV's are not for everybody and every part of the country. But they will get there. Californians didn't start adopting EV's right away, it took 10 years. And in a few years when they charge in 15 minutes and have ranges around 400 miles, you will be able to rely on them as a primary car. That's coming very soon