I've long thought that plug-hybrid electric vehicles are the unsung heroes of green driving, at least in the interim between now and truly widespread EV adoption. Since I like used cars, this one is rather low on my list, but perhaps No. Carmakers are rejiggering their processes to check the new boxes, but in the meantime many desirable electric cars will effectively cost thousands more than they might later. The new rules scrutinize the origin of key materials, the price of the car and where it's assembled. The US federal tax incentives for buying a plug-in car recently changed and became a complicated eye of a needle, with an estimated 70% of new EVs failing to qualify fully or even partially over the next couple of years. That said, a solid-state battery revolution is still nebulous enough that I rank this concern fairly low, but I also don't want to be that last guy who bought a laptop running on nickel metal hydrides. These may be coming at scale by 2025 and could reduce the carbon footprint of an EV battery by nearly 40%, take an 80% charge in 15 minutes instead of 30 and have a longer cycle life of charges and discharges, giving cars equipped with them better long-term value. Both deficiencies can be earned back, but timing your purchase well can shorten both windows thanks to better market conditions and improved technology, like. You probably buy an EV to save money and the environment, but for the first year or two you may pollute and spend more, because you caused a huge battery and car to be built and transported, and because you spent a bunch of money to buy a car at historically high prices that you probably didn't need. Ideally charging should be the same as parking, just about anywhere you go, but we're a long way from that. I live in a single-family home, so charging would be easy, but I'm also cognizant of an increasing drumbeat behind daytime charging away from home, as advocated by a new Stanford study that says such charging behavior pays major dividends in terms of grid stability and cleanliness. EVs will get there, which is when I prefer to buy anything that depreciates. That describes smartphones, TVs, laptops and combustion-engine cars today, with products in each category doing about the same thing as the other guy and about as well. I've covered many tech revolutions and they all have a similar arc, starting with convulsively innovative products before morphing in a marvelous monotony of uniformly excellent offerings trying to make big news out of small improvements. But history tells me that two to three other major makers, existing or new, will emerge with similar or even greater success, and I want to see how they get there before I buy. There has to be more to the story than Tesla, but right now that one brand essentially is the US EV market and pretty much owns the excitement around it. This situation will correct itself over time and I don't worry about a used EV having some range loss see my piece from not too long ago about giving yourself a reality check on how much range you need - it's less than you think. Sorry, a first-gen frog-eyed Leaf just isn't on my list. I much prefer to buy late-model used cars, but they're also experiencing high cost and low supply, compounded by the fact that there are even fewer desirable used EVs in the pipeline. I don't relish getting at the back of a long line to pay top dollar for any commodity, which I suspect CNET's Farnoosh Torabi has my back on. This is the big one: It's an awful time to buy any car, thanks to record high transaction prices and record low choice on dealer lots.
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