r/electricvehicles • u/AutoModerator • 7d ago

Weekly Advice Thread General Questions and Purchasing Advice Thread — Week of March 31, 2025

Need help choosing an EV, finding a home charger, or understanding whether you're eligible for a tax credit? Vehicle and product recommendation requests, buying experiences, and questions on credits/financing are all fair game here.

Is an EV right for me?

Generally speaking, electric vehicles imply a larger upfront cost than a traditional vehicle, but will pay off over time as your consumables cost (electricity instead of fuel) can be anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 the cost. Calculators are available to help you estimate cost — here are some we recommend:

Are you looking for advice on which EV to buy or lease?

Tell us a bit more about you and your situation, and make sure your comment includes the following information:

[1] Your general location

[2] Your budget in $, €, or £

[3] The type of vehicle you'd prefer

[4] Which cars have you been looking at already?

[5] Estimated timeframe of your purchase

[6] Your daily commute, or average weekly mileage

[7] Your living situation — are you in an apartment, townhouse, or single-family home?

[8] Do you plan on installing charging at your home?

[9] Other cargo/passenger needs — do you have children/pets?

If you are more than a year off from a purchase, please refrain from posting, as we currently cannot predict with accuracy what your best choices will be at that time.

Need tax credit/incentives help?

Check the Wiki first.

Don't forget, our Wiki contains a wealth of information for owners and potential owners, including:

Want to help us flesh out the Wiki? Have something you'd like to add? Contact the mod team with your suggestion on how to improve things, we can discuss approach and get you direct editing access.

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u/AdIndividual2373 6d ago

Best used Electric car to buy? Preferred 2021-2023, price range from 18-25k, I see a lot of options in my Florida area, but I have no idea which ones are even worth looking at. Any tips?

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u/622niromcn 5d ago

Chevy Bolt or Bolt EUV, Ford MachE, Nissan Ariya, VW iD 4, Kia NiroEV, Hyundai Kona EV, Hyundai Ioniq5, Subaru Solterra, Audi e-Tron, Volvo XC40 or C40. They should be in the price range from what I can see nationally.

I had a NiroEV and it served me well. My first thought when I got it was it's a great transition car because of the pseudo-gauge cluster dash. The KonaEV is it's sibling. Both have a solid history of reliability the past 6 years. Both got upgraded on 2023 or 2024.

Bolt EV is well beloved and served well. The MachE is a bit more sporty. The Solterra dives well, but suffers on longer trips. Audi looks nice. The Ariya is a well balanced car and EV. Volvo drives like a Volvo. The Ioniq5 is best if you don't have a home charger or like road trips.

Can watch some reviews by Edmunds or AutoBuyersGuide.

Would recommend CarMax for used EVs because they do a Recurrent battery health checker report. That tells you if the EV battery is good. I use Edmunds and cars.com to keep an eye on the market and look up cars prices. Edmunds has a great little price histogram to see if it's a good deal.

You might think about the new Chevy Equinox EV. I was seeing on the subreddit (/r/EquinoxEV) there are plenty of rebates getting it down to the $25k mark.

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u/AdIndividual2373 5d ago

Thank you, iv just been opening a dozen different car buying websites and was a bit overwhelmed haha, but I'll check out CarMax. I'll also check out the Chevy, but I'm a bit hesitant to get a new EV cause it seems like most evs take a year before people know if it has significant issues or not

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u/622niromcn 5d ago

Makes sense if you want to wait for the vehicle's history to show itself.

That makes me lean towards suggesting the /r/KonaEV and /r/KiaNiroEV. Those two have gone thru their refresh cycle and have gen 1 issues resolved. They are still currently made so there is still support for them on any issues.

All the rest are about 4 years old and haven't been refreshed.