We do a lot of long trips. Its not unusual for us to drive 500 miles in a day and we seem to do it every couple months. I would love an electric but we aren’t going there until recharging the battery is as quick and easy as pulling off the highway into a gas station. I haven’t looked at hybrids. Maybe that would work for us.
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We have a 2014 Prius V2 (our hybrid long distance car, also it’s a station wagon size, so good for trips with stuff or the dog). We also have a 2017 Nissan Leaf (4 dr hatchback electric) for short errands. The limited range is an extremely handy “leash” for teen drivers. You know they can’t go all over and collect gas money from friends to refill and keep going – so they’ll be home here and there to charge. 
Once both kids move out, and we’re at the point where we need to replace the cars, I’m not sure we’ll be willing to go full electric (get rid of the hybrid), but I could definitely see us owning one electric car and keeping a rental budget for occasional longer distance stuff in gas or hybrid cars.
I’d been wanting to buy and electric or hybrid car for the last 3 or so years, but my former hometown lacked charging infrastructure. (Plus Tesla is not allowed to sell cars inside the state due to some antiquated laws prohibiting any direct-to-consumer new car sales.) I’d been on the local Subaru dealer’s waitlist for a hybrid Crosstrek for 2 years.
Recently I moved to another state and settled very close to my older daughter. My daughter bought a Model Y last year. D’s house has a 220 wall charger and as many solar panels as her house can support. After my move, I still wanted to get an EV or hybrid but SIL convince me that a hybrid just means you have TWO engine systems to maintain instead of 1 and since I never drive very far I don’t need an extended range gas engine. I looked at a variety of EVs and went halfsies on a Model 3 with my SIL. We share the car since neither of us drives every day.
I’d consider a hybrid, but probably not an electric. Electrics aren’t worth the price premium for the vehicle and charging station you have to install at your house. Also, the need to find a place to charge along your route makes them impractical for long trips. I don’t think they’re any better for the environment once you factor in the processes for manufacturing the battery components (mostly in China), the disposal of the batteries after 5? 6? years, and the fact that most electricity is still produced by fossil fuels.
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Thanks for the Subaru EV link. I think I’ll be keeping an eye on this vehicle. And I signed up for continued emails updates on it. 
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I’m in much the same situation as you. When the electricity is off and the evacuation orders are given, I want a car that is not reliant on electricity to run. The last time I evacuated I used my van to pack up all the things that couldn’t be replaced if the house burned down.
The same reasoning can be used in the event of earthquake. The power will go out if there is an earthquake like the Northridge quake in 1994. So if your house is unlivable and you need to get out, you need a gasoline powered car with a full tank. Gas stations won’t be able to operate either with no electricity.
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We are 4-5 years out from out next new car. Will see what’s available then but it will be our long hauler so less likely we will go electric. Next purchase after that is 7-8 years off so expect better options will be available for electric then. And its more of our commuter vehicle.
I wouldn’t buy an electric. I’d buy a hybrid if the numbers worked and it had the same sized gas tank. I don’ t want to rely on a grid, power source for any reason.
I bought Polestar (the stock) not the car. It’s made by a joint venture with Volvo. They are doing pretty well and expect to increase sales a lot in the next 2 years. If things continue in the right direction that’s likely a car I’d consider. Maybe as a third car so I don’t have to rely on it but can save $ if things are working as planned.
My next car will be a Volvo. I like running cars to 200K miles. And we live in an area with a lot of snow, so I like a heavy vehicle.
I love my Lexus ES Hybrid. I bought it at the beginning of the pandemic, when no one buying anything. You don’t plug it in, as it is able to switch back and forth on it’s own, and it’s not even noticeable. I get between 35 and 50 MPG and have taken it on two cross-country trips. Seating is really comfortable. We would consider all electric on our next vehicle, assuming there will soon be more charging stations and vehicles will go further on a charge.
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Either a plug-in hybrid or an electric. Plug-in has the best of both worlds — ability to do typical daily chore or commute driving on pure electric and the gas engine for range when needed. Plus great average MPG in-between. Main downside and reasons to get pure electric are there increasingly are more electric options than a PHEV and it would be great to cleanly lose all the maintenance of a combustion engine.
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FYI:
My Bolt lease was $149/mo with nothing down. We’ve taken it on multiple trips beyond it’s range, planning rapid charging around meals.
That said, we also have an ICE car too. I think it’s nice to have both. If I only had one, it would be a plugin hybrid with at least 30 miles of electric range.
For those who want to throw shade at the Bolt for its propensity to catch on fire, there have been 19 since 2017. We have 4150 gas station fires per year, averaging 3 deaths per annum.
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I’d be more likely to throw shade because it’s a Chevy. 
I just checked the monthly car payment for a 2022 Bolt in the absolute base configuration. With excellent credit and no money down it would be over $600 per month.
I don’t lease cars because I drive mine for an extended period of time after they’re paid off(5+ years generally).
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One of my kids used to live in Boulder Creek CA. During their first year there they had a total of 2 months worth of power outages due to wildfires and wildfire prevention. They did have a neighbor with a Tesla wall. It sure beats the gas generators for noise/pollution!
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In Dec. 2019 I was looking at getting a used Bolt. A 2017 with around 35000 miles was listed for $12500. I kick myself daily for not getting it. Currently a 2017 Bolt with around 35000 miles is listed in my area for $31000. That is insane.
A new 2022 Bolt is about that much.
How long does a battery last? How much does it cost to replace it when the time comes? Where do used batteries go to die? Are they safe to die anywhere? I am reading it needs to be replaced after 7-8 years and costs around $15K. No idea if any of that is true. If true, it doesn’t sound any cheaper than gas.
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I have driven an EV for the past 7 years. Currently drive a Chevy Bolt. Love it. Would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER go back to a gas only car. We take road trips in it — we’re in NC and have been to Florida and back in it. It’s FANTASTIC to have during power outages because it acts as a battery. You can get a converter and plug anything into it you need to. It was also great during the Colonial Pipeline disruption a few years ago when the gas stations went down. And of course it’s great when gas is so expensive.
We took it up to the mountains over the weekend (about 3 hrs away) and I used a public charger to “fill” it about halfway full and it cost me $1.91 total. Plugged into 110 at the house for the remainder and charged via regenerative braking going down the mountain too. It was a 330 mile round trip and just cost me less than $2 in fuel.
We do have hybrids, but only because we bought them cheap and used. We weren’t going to buy our '19 and '22 new cars so got them Ford C-maxes because those were the cheapest plug-in hybrids. They’re fine.
We ended up getting a used Chevy Volt as a second car for us, too, because our old van was dying, but we wouldn’t have bought a new hybrid. The EV is so much easier and cleaner and so much more fun to drive. They are just way better than gas vehicles IMO.
In fact one of our local Police forces has switched over many of their cars to Teslas and they had a quote from an officer saying previously the Dodge Charger was the best car he had driven, but the Tesla blew it away.
If y’all have any questions about EVs I’m happy to talk about them. We currently have a Chevy Bolt, which I love, and before that had a Nissan Leaf. We were thinking about getting a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or a Kia EV6 when we ended up finding that Chevy Volt for an incredible bargain price of $6200 so we jumped on that to save the money. My spouse works at home so we didn’t really need to drop a bundle on a new car when we’re sending kids to college too.
If you own your home you most likely already have the wiring to put a Level 2 (220/240) charger at your house. Your stove and dryer run on 220. We have a charger in the garage. Just plug the car in overnight like we do our phones. It’s super easy. But you can also just charge of regular household 110 like we did at the mountain house.
All y’all that are saying you would never buy an electric vehicle go for a test drive! They are so fun. I have had both. I’ve actually had all kinds of cars — gas, automatic, manual, diesel, even ran biodiesel in some of ours, too, and the EVs are by far my faves. And they are the cleanest and the cheapest overall with minimal maintenance (like tires and wiper blades and in-cabin air filters and that’s pretty much it).
And if you’re a survivalist, an EV is definitely the way to go. Sure is a whole lot easier to produce your own electricity (solar, wind, micro hydro) than it is to refine your own gas. EVs are pretty popular in those circles, too. If you’re really worried about power outages EVs are the way to go.
We get about 220-250 on a charge, btw. We didn’t have any problems with our battery but we did get a new battery with the Chevy recall which was awesome for us because that’s basically like a whole new engine. I just need to get some new tires and it’s like a brand new car!
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In general the fearmongering over EVs is by posters who have never owned one and who discount the issues that ICE vehicles create. We owned a Zapp! Every EV these days is better than that! 
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I am very happy with my 6 yr old hybrid Toyota RAV4. DH will need a new vehicle whenever we decide we’ve had enough of his ‘08 Acura. It will hopefully last a few more yrs, but then he’s talked about possibly getting an EV. We shall see.