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Comment by evo_9 | Hacker News Reader

I recently bought a 2017 BMW i3 REx edition and love it. Considering you can buy a used i3 in Denver for 20k or less it's by far the best deal in EV's right now.

The only downside to the pre-2017 models is the range on pure battery is something like 60m; the 2017 edition roughly doubled that to 111m on a charge.

So far I have not need the range extender and have run it on electric only the past 2.5 months.

Also, it's exceedingly quick off the line - the fast BMW ever made 0-30 which is mostly when I need that capability. Also fun to see the look of shock on Raptor drivers faces when I zip by them in the blink of an eye.

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Seeing as you can get used 2nd Gen Volts for 20k I'm not so sure about that, and used 1st Gens for around 10k.

I cross shopped the i3 to the Volt when I was looking and the i3 feels like a car you can only justify by looking at the badge, it's seriously overpriced for what it is. Getting it used helps to some extent, but only by so much.

Leasing EVs is also not a bad deal, there's people who've gotten brand new Volts for ~150 a month with a minimal downpayments.

You can buy a new volt for 20-21k after rebates.

Volt also gets 50-60 miles electric range. And can do full speed on ice unlike the i3 Rex

It's actually (slightly) faster on it's ICE. It does feel slightly more sluggish because throttle response becomes more dependent on the ICE, but once the ICE kicks in with the batteries towards the 30-60 MPH it goes slightly faster

https://insideevs.com/bmw-i3-rex-top-speed-depleted-battery-...

BMW i3 max speed on it's ICE is 70mph. Which sucks if you’re going on a road trip. I've only used my volts ICE when going on long road trips.

The Chevy volt had no issues going 80-90 on it's ICE.

To me the major difference is that the i3 is only a commuter car. And a good second car. Whereas the Chevy volt can be your only car.

I'm talking about the Volt, it's faster on it's ICE from 0-60, but going by my gut it's slower from 0-30 then faster from 30-60 because of the throttle response (and definitely faster from 80-101, the ICE and battery both kick in at full power)

Is it possible to run on battery + ICE for a long range trip, or do you have to wait for the battery to deplete before the ICE kicks in?

I.e. only use the battery to get the last 10-20 kph of your speed.

You can put it in Mountain or Hold, Mountain waits till the battery hits ~25% and then tries to hold it.

Hold will (try to) hold the battery where it currently is.

Both essentially do what you describe, use ICE primarily and the battery as a secondary. The battery mostly ends up only being used under heavy acceleration at highway speeds (ie, to get your last 10-20 mph of your speed).

Which rebates?

Wife and I tried a Volt, but the rear leg room was horrid. I'm 6'5" and need to put the seat all the way back. Though for $21k by kids can suffer behind me.

Holding out for the Hyundai Ioniq plug-in hybrid. Looked at Prius Primes, but the Toyota dealers here in flyover country are all assholes (to deal with), and they won't stock any.

I have a Leaf, but my wife calls it a golf cart and refuses to drive it due to range anxiety. Thus she wants a plug in hybrid.

Federal rebate is 7k, here in CT there's a 3k state rebate, some places get to stack municipality and power company rebates over that, bringing the final prices to incredibly low numbers.

No state rebates here in KS, though the Leaf rebates were $10k from the local power company + $7,500 federal.

Does the new federal tax bill preserve the EV credit? Last I heard it was chopped.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-autos/republican-...

It's fine, I'd be very surprised if it was repealed, automakers would be left very unhappy since it's been shown time and time again, current EV sales are very reliant on those credits, and they're a powerful lobby.

It's been a while but it's federal and state rebates. Then dealer sticker + dealer list rebate. farmers guild rebate (500$ and it costs 50$ to register). Then we got 0 down 0% financing.

This was in Santa Clara, CA. At freemont Chevy. I believe they sell the most volts of any dealer in the world.

Is the Farmer's Guild Rebate still available?

The equation arguably is different with EVs but one concern I have with used luxury brands like BMW is that out of warranty dealer service can get really expensive in a hurry. Although I'm not sure at this point how good a handle anyone has on the long-term costs of EVs vs. ICEs across manufacturers.

>for 20k or less it's by far the best deal in EV's right now

I just bought a 2014 leaf with 36,000 miles for $9,000. But yes used battery electric cars are a great deal right now.

Make sure to trigger the warranty replacement of the battery if it degrades to 8 capacity bars or less.

https://www.reddit.com/r/leaf/comments/5s22yq/battery_capaci...

https://www.reddit.com/r/leaf/comments/48c37x/question_about...

It's a great deal because BMW has issued a stop sale and recall on all i3s https://blog.caranddriver.com/bmw-issues-stop-sale-order-and...

They failed a NHTSA crash test and don't yet have a fix.

The population affected by that recall is hilariously narrow in scope:

"5th-percentile women who are in the driver’s seat and not wearing a seatbelt (emphasis mine) [...] generally defined as weighing between 100 and 110 pounds and standing about five feet tall."

The used Toyota RAV-4 EV from 2012-2014 is the best used electric car out there. For <$20k, you get 100+ miles range, a Tesla drive train, faster than an i3 in both 0-60 (7.0 sec) and top speed 100mph, a usable rear seat and trunk, and it’s not ugly. It’s the best kept secret in EV.

I bought a used 2015 Leaf in 1/17 for $8,500 at 19k miles. I thought that was a good deal. I like the BMW, but the BMW heritage of expensive repairs is what steered me away. Hopefully all that will change with EV, though the i3 still has a gas motor. Any issues with yours?

I have a 2nd Generation Volt, which I chose as I did not like the compromises of the BMW iREX solution, namely being a highly restrictive fuel amount to meet CARB requirements.

One advantage of the i3 I did not account for was a recent trade in by a coworker on their new X3. While they were upside down because the trade in dropped a lot the BMW dealers were quietly accepting at some predefined value as trades regardless. Your mileage may vary.

I love the REX concept and think its the best solution until batteries become faster to charge and a weigh a lot less. Seriously, who can think a thousand pounds or close to it is a good solution for a car

And here with that username, I expected you to be a Mitsubishi person.

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