Will you buy an electric or hybrid car next?

We’ve held on to our second minivan for 10 years and counting because it has no equal for capacity. Not fun to drive, constant issues, so it’s a love/hate relationship but we know once its gone it will occasionally be sorely missed. If we still were doing constant carpooling of ours and other kids to things, it wouldn’t be a question that we could live without it. It’s the right tool for that lifestyle. But since all the kids are old enough to drive now, it will likely be the next car to go to be replaced by an EV or PHEV.

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Yep. And if you want or need AWD, I think the Sienna is your only option.

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We regularly got two teens, two parents, and a 60lb dog in our Chevy Bolt, but if there were more people than that unless they were skinny they had to drive a second car. Still have the Bolt, but the teens are 19 and 22 now. New 45-50 lb dog. She hates car rides so far. It holds a LOT of stuff. Not as much as our old Honda Odyssey, but a surprising amount of space.

DS bought a used Tesla model X from Tesla several years ago. He got the 6 seater, IIRC. I believe there is also a 7 seater. Seems to hold a lot of stuff and he paid half the price by buying used, but Tesla uta all the FSD on the used car and warranty’d it for a year.

The Sienna hybrid piqued my interest awhile back. Minivan drivers have been waiting a long time for such a vehicle. But I noticed that it uses a Ni-MH battery instead of Li ion. I will be curious to see if this model is received as well as Toyota’s other models that use a better quality battery.

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NMH is less energy dense than Li based batteries. For a non-plug-in hybrid, the small energy storage capacity needed can be handled by a NMH battery at presumably lower cost without excess weight or volume.

Note that there are also various kinds of Li based batteries, with various trade-offs between energy density, cost, safety, longevity, etc.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-01/rivian-s-troubles-don-t-end-at-a-93-wipeout-tech-watch

Rivian makes a couple really great vehicles and owners (including many Tesla converts) all love them. But, yeah, too early to call if the company makes it. Their production rate has orders backed up 4+ years in some cases. And the support and repair can be a huge problem. I saw on another forum last week a person post the details (and pics) of his relative minor fender-bender. Someone hit him from behind. Not fast or hard enough to trigger airbags. His Rivian looked like it had a minor dent in the bumper. Two months and $42,000 later he got his truck back. There were exactly 3 places in his whole state that could repair it and get parts.

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There was a guy outside the local coffee place today protesting and holding up a sign that said something like: “Teslas are killing the planet and our climate.”

I can’t remember exactly what it said, since I quickly drove by it. I rolled down my window and yelled “Twitter sucks too!” :rofl:

Omg. That’s horrible. :woman_facepalming:t3: :cry:

Sad. In addition to Electrek’s conclusion, Thai also proves that Teslas are now so ubiquitous even gun-toting nutcases drive them.

Maybe this belongs in the gun control thread

Does anyone have experience with the Honda CRV or Toyota RAV4 hybrids?

I just bought a 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid Sport Touring

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How is it?

I really like it so far! It is comfortable and handles well.

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I think the confusion and change of the tax credit might have a bit to do with it.

Maybe if the government wants more people to buy EV’s, they should make the incentive easy to understand. :roll_eyes:

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All new cars have been getting more expensive, due to car companies dropping most of their lower price models (this includes the discontinuation of the Bolt at the end of the 2023 model year). Since there are not that many used EVs around, that means that someone in the lower price used market has more limited options of EVs.

That page also mentions that gen-Z is less likely to consider EVs, which makes sense when considering that younger adults are more likely to live in rental housing rather than owned housing where they can put convenient charging in their own garage.

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