For those on the fence, how has your buying / prospecting experience been with other EVs?

[shrspeedblade]

There comes a point when the size of the battery and the issues brought by not using the gas engine for so long make it an impractical PHEV option, imo. With the Mercedes b-class 100miles range and charging at home I would have refueled once every year -- at most.

I agree, but to a lot of people range anxiety is still a very real hurdle, and giving them something to alleviate that is helpful.

I actually think Tesla's solution with the supercharger network to be a better one, but it involves a lot more risk than any traditional automaker ever would have run unless law mandated they had to.

 

[MeTooFull]

SDGE in San Diego has a EV day, I went a couple of years ago and if I remember correctly it has almost all non Tesla EV available from local dealerships there for test drive. At that time I think we test drove the Leaf, Golf, i3. I think even ClipperCreek (L2 chargers) had a booth/rep that as well.

If you live in SoCal and on the fence with which EV to get this is a good way to check them all out without driving around town.

Electric Vehicle Day | San Diego Gas & Electric

 

[smak]

I bought my fusion energi through True Car and it was so simple. They sent me a few cars around town with the specs and pricing that I was looking for. I found one I thought was a great deal. I did the financing via email and went and picked up the car when it was ready.

If you know what you want you don't have to deal with the dealership except for signing a few papers and picking up the keys.

 

[dhrivnak]

I had a great experience buying my Volt. The sales person was considerate and swapped to get the right car for us. We did not have to put anything down and we just paid for it when we picked it up. We had a minor warranty issue that was quickly taken care of with no problem. 38,000 miles and I still have the original tires.

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

It may be an orderly process but the wait time may still be over two years for some. I still have a reservation but meantime I'm extremely pleased with my Bolt. It has some really way cooler tech than my Model S and is a blast to drive around town.

Mr Wozniak is that you?

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

Had a fantastic experience leading a B-Class mercedes benz w the Tesla battery.

- decided the features I wanted w their online configurator

- at the time in WA the mb dealers here hadn't figured out the tax incentives and lease approach for Ev. But talked to service manager to get assurance an EV obtained elsewhere would be serviced under warranty.

- emailed 3 dealers in Oregon wth my specs
- they called and discussed inventory they had and delays for exactly my config- I decided to flex my requirement and forego the auto parking feature to get one right away.

- they emailed the specs and price and lease terms (4k down 325/mo 3 y)

- I accepted and paid $300 home delivery fee. The EV was brought on a flatbed to my driveway, signed some papers, inspection and done.

- bought a tesla UMC Jesla put on a nema 14-50 . I absolutely love the Jesla.

- mercedes called with instructions to activate their car app (which sucks compared to tesla's but does some basics like soc monitoring and climate control)

- service is great - mb quality- just had to take it once on a charger issue (ended up being on my side, my UMC jesla) and A goofy tire pressure monitor



Had terrible experience with Toyota PHEV Prius 6+ years ago. Will never step again - hopefully- on a Toyota dealership.

I'm looking at a B-class for my temporary car while I wait for my 3... Found one for 20k with only 12k miles... The looks are a bit of a let down but for Tesla innards and that nice of an interior I don't think I'd be making a mistake...

 

[McRat]

I'm looking at a B-class for my temporary car while I wait for my 3... Found one for 20k with only 12k miles... The looks are a bit of a let down but for Tesla innards and that nice of an interior I don't think I'd be making a mistake...

87 EPA miles. Seats don't fold flat for large objects. Performance similar to the i3.

B250e vs Bolt vs Focus EV vs i3
Compare Side-by-Side

Used 80-100mi EVs begin at about $6000.

Leases start at $79/m zero down for 2017 BEVs with ranges similar to the Benz.

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

87 EPA miles. Seats don't fold flat for large objects. Performance similar to the i3.

B250e vs Bolt vs Focus EV vs i3
Compare Side-by-Side

Used 80-100mi EVs begin at about $6000.

Leases start at $79/m zero down for 2017 BEVs with ranges similar to the Benz.

"BEVs" ?? I'm sorry not familiar with this term...

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

"BEVs" ?? I'm sorry not familiar with this term...

Ohhhh you're talking about BOEV. Lol I just call an EV an EV. And I'm surprised the seats don't fold flat! That is a huge mark against the vehicle...

 

[cwerdna]

My Leaf leasing experience was painless in July 2013. I returned it at end of lease and bought a used Leaf in July 2015 from a used car dealer. That was also painless.

But I already knew quite a bit about Leafs, trim levels, range, limitations, packages, pricing, charging, etc. going in. It didn't matter much what the dealer might've known or not known.

 

[cwerdna]

"BEVs" ?? I'm sorry not familiar with this term...

BEV isn't that uncommon an acronym. For example, see
Light Duty Electric Drive Vehicles Monthly Sales Updates | Argonne National Laboratory
DriveClean - PEV Resource Center
Alternative Fuels Data Center: All-Electric Vehicles
https://avt.inl.gov/pdf/fsev/batteryi5658.pdf

HEV is the one that I don't see much. (Nissan Altima Hybrid literature refers to it as HEV all over the place.)

 

[swaltner]

BEV = Battery Electric Vehicle (only electric/battery - no gasoline engine allowed)
HEV = Hybrid Electric Vehicle (generally a traditional hybrid like a Prius, but possibly a plug-in hybrid like a Volt)
PHEV = Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (hybrid that has a larger battery than a regular hybrid, which can be recharged from "wall outlet")
EREV = Extended Range Electric Vehicle (GMs nomenclature for for the Volt to differentiate it from the Plug-In Prius, which needs both the gas/electric engines to provide full acceleration)

I think the BEV term came into vogue because of all the angst over people calling the Volt an EV. The BEV term is there to specifically say that they are not talking about any of the plug-in hybrids, even the great ones that have full power on battery power alone. I've mostly stayed clear of that holy war consisting of ~1,400 posts in Pure BEV Dogma. It's page after page of the same arguments back and forth on if a Volt should be called an EV, PHEV, EREV, or something different.

If you want to make that argument on what to call a Volt, please continue that discussion over in Pure BEV Dogma. I was only pointing it out here to explain the BEV term and answer why some people prefer to call pure electric vehicles a BEV instead of just EV.

 

[JonathanD]

BEV is also a helpful distinction from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (that a handful of companies insist on producing), which technically have an electric drive train.

 

[cdub]

I've test driven most of the EVs on the market, with the exception of the BMW i3 and some of the other lesser-known compliance cars in California. In general, the dealerships I've visited have been lacking in EV knowledge at best, with the worst ones not even having their cars charged. One particular example was a specialty used car dealer that only had their Mercedes-Benz B250e charged to 12 miles of range. Another example was a local Chevy dealer that had a gen 2 Volt completely discharged, so I could only test it on gasoline.

Well that means for sure you shouldn't buy from them... as they've probably borked the batteries by doing that.

 

[SageBrush]

If you want to make that argument on what to call a Volt, please continue that discussion over in Pure BEV Dogma. I was only pointing it out here to explain the BEV term and answer why some people prefer to call pure electric vehicles a BEV instead of just EV.

I write EV or *EV, but it has yet to catch on ;-)

 

[swaltner]

To answer the original question of this thread, my purchase on my 2013 Leaf was relatively painless. 4th new vehicle I have purchased (two cars, 1 pickup, 1 motorcycle). I made a total of three trips to the local dealer.

The first was a test-drove the Leaf they had on hand. First time driving an EV. The test drive was a quick less than 4 mile trip, little bit of highway travel and a trip through my neighborhood for trying out residential driving and regenerative braking. I had pointed out that I was only interested in an EV, so didn't get any of the grief that some people had gotten on trying to switch to a gas-powered car. After leaving the dealer, I settled on a config that I wanted and a couple e-mails back and forth with the salesman and we settled on a price (using the pricing listed at truecar.com as a starting point).

At that point, I stopped by again and left a $500 deposit because they were custom ordering a vehicle from the factory. I started the 7 week wait to get the exact configuration I was after - all the options I wanted, none of the options I didn't care for. During this wait, I came across the Nissan VPP (Vehicle Purchase Program). My employer is one of the thousands of companies listed. With that program, I was able to get a final price of ~$900 less than the invoice price I previously negotiated. No issues claiming that discount, "bring your employee badge when you pickup your car."

On delivery day, the biggest nuisance was that it took 30 minutes for the finance guy to be available, even though I was paying "cash". I guess, only two people at the dealer were able to actually able to complete the final paperwork. I was inspecting the paperwork and noticed they didn't credit me for the previous $500 deposit that I had made. Took a few minutes to get that cleared up, so get through all the paperwork in a total of 30 minutes. Another 30 minutes of a brief intro to the user interface, pairing the iPhone, etc... and I was on my way.

 

[kablammyman]

He's just being smart, probably able to write off some of his racing/track time as an expense related to his business. Something I wish I could figure out a way to do, it's an expensive hobby!

McRat I'm in NorCal too, if you want to autoX our Model 3s together somewhere shoot me a PM!
(It's not like real track time, but it's still fun!)

Im also down to AutoX! I used to do it all the time after my college basketball career, but once i added a turbo to my integra, and the SFR had fewer and fewer AutoX locations near me, I stopped doing it...but I want to start it up again. It would be nice to have a few model 3s rollin' in together

Anyway, I got a used RAV4 EV. It was pretty hassle free experience. I got it from San Francisco Toyota. They have a haggle free policy, so that was cool to not feel like i was getting cheated. I also knew more than the sales person when it comes to EVs, but, since everything was so pressure free, I was able to take care of the deal in a hassle free way.

 

[internalaudit]

What advance tech are talking about besides the potentially half-baked (due to regulations) Auto Pilot?

Besides that, nothing is so high tech in a Model 3 that other competitors don't include in their luxury divisions.

There are probably three segments of reservation holders:

1. Tesla owners who are impressed with their S or X and would like to obtain a cheaper/smaller Tesla
2. Tesla fans like yourself who think Tesla vehicles are the coolest and would not consider any other make
3. Reservation holders like myself who would consider 200-mile alternatives as long as the purchase is eligible for government incentives

Besides the Bolt, the Model 3 is the only EV that will be made available later this year. There really is no current alternative, especially one with AWD that could make it by the June 2018 cut-off (where I live) after which, the incentives could be dropped. In a year or two, there will be a lot to choose from (at least in my case) and if my household will want another EV, we may go the used car route four or five years down the road and just get extended warranty.

Please don't suggest the SCN as a competitive advantage because I don't care much about cross-country driving.

It's not like I won't be able to afford financing without a government incentive but at around $10k where I live in Canada, that's a lot of financial incentive to accelerate my EV purchase. I would also like to drive a little faster than my usual 70 mph on the highway and we may need a 3rd vehicle (to replace an 02 Civic).

From people's comments, it seems it is easy to secure a Volt or the current Leaf but all other models could be a pain. I'm actually surprised some people cancelled their reservation without waiting to test drive the vehicle.

 

[EchoDelta]

87 EPA miles. Seats don't fold flat for large objects. Performance similar to the i3.

B250e vs Bolt vs Focus EV vs i3
Compare Side-by-Side

Used 80-100mi EVs begin at about $6000.

Leases start at $79/m zero down for 2017 BEVs with ranges similar to the Benz.

Having lived with the B-class and having many friends with Tesla, i3, mievs, And other EVs, I am very happy w the B class lease, especially with the interior and ancillary features. Seats do fold flat. Can take 2 car seats and a passenger in the back seat without apologizing, if needed.
Re battery, have seen no degradation.
The 87 miles is charging at 85%ish. Keeps up pretty well in the cold, too. Performance is great; tires are the limiting factor.
My wishes is that it had chademo or ccs but it happily takes 40A /10kW (approx 30mi/h). Anywhere I drive to for 2 hours in it I can plan to stay long enough to go back once charged. I've never seen it as a hassle.
And, it's always-on radar based regen that regulates regen strength based on the speed of traffic ahead has me spoiled.

I do admit a slight bias to MB as a prior SL owner, a hardtop Tesla convertible would be a "shut up and take my money" offering.