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Comment by kajecounterhack | Hacker News Reader

New prices are quite prohibitive but the state of things actually isn't the worst for used EVs if you can stomach low range. My family does a two-car approach:

1. Hybrid SUV for actually getting places and moving things

2. ~$4k a used 2013 Smart car. ~45 mile range is good enough for short commute, grocery runs, etc. Charge at home or at work (we have the uncommon situation of no charging at home since we live in a condo complex, and free charging at work).

$4k is like the price of a nice electric bike. We didn't do any maintenance to the car for 3 years (we probably should replace the brake pads). It's working just fine and is an incredible workhorse for the price.

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$4k for a 2013 smart? You got some amazing deal, they usually sell for twice that amount. Hard to find any decent one for less than $7-8k

I think the difference with cars is that manufacturers make many more of them. Building bikes is still a very manual process with a lot of human touch, but waaaaay more options available. You see something similar with mountain bikes vs. dirtbikes. How can I get a 300lb machine with full suspension and an entire combustion engine for $3k and an FS MTB, with a fraction of the parts costs the same or more? Well, Honda probably make 50k CRF250s a year or something, and Norco make maybe 1/20th the number for any particular product line?

For $7-8K you can get a Nissan Leaf in excellent condition with a 75-100mi range.

Might be because I live in silicon valley and lots of people have EVs. One tricky thing about the 2013 smart car is that I had to pick it up, which means I had to live at most ~30-40 miles away. And when I sell it, I'll have the same problem, someone within the same radius has to want it. I comparison shopped before buying this, and at the time it didn't seem like an insane deal or anything.

This is probably going to be the most common combination. EVs really shouldn't be cars, they can have so many form factors to fit every lifestyle. For long travel or nature, EVs are overkill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_electric_drive ?

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