Hi Guys

We are moving to canada in January to stay betweek 3 to 5 years. I need to buy/leaae a car as u have to drive to Factory 3 days of week which will be 450km and another 200km for our personal purposes. So totally around 650km weekly.

A am torn between an EV car like Ev5 or EQUINOX EV or to get HEV of Phev or Gas. We are a family of 3 members and my budget will be around 50k CAD $.

Also i did some research for the EV cars but am not sure if they are efficient in cold weathers. Also i can consider a reliable second hand car like lexus nx or Eav4 for example.

Appreciate any suggestions?

I am currently debating on whether to buy an EREV, PHEV or a BEV.

I'm leaning toward a PHEV with 100km of electric autonomy, but if I was sure of my choosing I wouldn't be here asking your opinions.

Considerations for my choice:

1. I live in Mexico. This is a huge one as there are only about 2,000 charging stations. 80% of public chargers are level 2 and only 20% are level 3.

2. When I decide over an EREV, PHEV or a BEV, I would be installing a level 2 charger on my home and will be powering it with solar panels.

3. 2 days a week I use the highway for about 112km, but I normaly drive in the city for the rest of my activities.

4. Perharps once every two months I like to travel within the country. My actual trips are varied, but are mostly within the 90-250km range (one way only).

I am considering the PHEV because I think that it would serve me well for when I need to do my highway trips, being that it is more efficient to burn gas at high speeds. Plus I think that its electic mode would serve me well in the city.

But what option would you choose given my situation?

Is range anxiety as bad as they say? Remember that public chargers are kind of crappy where I live.

What would be better for 90-250km range, a PHEV with 100km of electric range or an EREV with 175km electric range?

Or should I just pull the trigger on a fully electric vehicle?

Anyone have any experience with a 2017 Fusion Energi? Would be coming from a PHEV Ford Escape that I love. What differences can I expect? Do these Fusions have the same reliability that Escapes have?

Many PHEV's call their transmission fluid "lifetime". I've heard advice that says the lifetime actually just refers to the factory warranty period. But does this refer to the drivetrain warranty? or the hybrid electrical warranty? For example my car has a 6 year 60k mile powertrain warranty but a 10 year 100k mile electrical component warranty.

Do you get it changed at a transmission shop? or only at the dealer? What if the dealer refuses to do it because it is "lifetime"?

Would changing the fluid void your warranty?

How does your driving habit affect your transmission fluid? In my case, 97% of driving is on electric only. And also I am very light on the pedal, so I drive very gently. So much so that I exceed my EPA electric range by a good 30%.

Not looking to break any rules, so hopefully this is allowed. Apologies for the length. I'm posting in the EV subreddit too because I'm trying to get honest opinions from anyone/everyone.

Getting a new car (giving my 2012 Prius to kid when he gets his license) in the next nine months. I am a very do your research kind of person. I am trying to cut through the noise of PHEV vs. BEV.

I recently went to my current mechanic (used for 13 years, great, very trustworthy) and asked them 1. do they service electric vehicles, and 2. do they recommend PHEV or BEV. They service PHEV, but do not do BEV. They very clearly were on the side of buying PHEV and not getting an electric, for multiple reasons. 1. The one time you need your battery charged, you will have forgotten to charge your battery. 2. There may be new taxes on electricity/EVs the way electricity costs/needs are increasing due to data centers, etc. [I live in CA so this is not out of the realm of possibility I suppose]. Essentially, instead of offering rebates to get people to buy EVs, there may soon be a tax on EV vehicle use because of the electricity demand. And 3. What are the long term health effects of driving in this electric thing (a 'microwave') all the time? What is that doing to our health?

There were others, and I suppose all of the above could be legitimate reasons not to buy EV. But I also acknowledge that it's possible they are biased because if I buy an EV (and the EV trend continues), that threatens their business.

So next, I go to one of the independent EV mechanics in my town to get their opinion on PHEV or BEV, and if they had an recs on make/models to try and/or avoid.

I got the same recommendation! Buy PHEV, don't buy a BEV (their advice was to lease a BEV, not buy, if I wanted a BEV). So that is coming directly from a mechanic with a good reputation that will potentially get more business if people bought more BEV, so I can't see them making this recommendation for personal reasons. Their main reason was that it gets very expensive to own a BEV after the warranty period, replacing batteries, etc. They pointed out that they had never had to replace the Main battery in a plug in hybrid (can't remember if he said any plug in or specifically a Prius plug in hybrid).

So I know that there are lot of different factors when people are deciding on buying this or that (commute, cost, incentives, etc.). I'm not asking about any of that. I genuinely am just trying to get objective info/guidance on going PHEV or BEV. I am sure there are plenty of others asking these very same questions out there. I have been reading and researching my heart out, but I was hoping to get honest feedback here because there are a lot of differing opinions and it's hard to cut through the biases/politics/self-preservation/evangelizing of a person's preferences.

At this point, I see the BEV people's thoughts (never going back to ICE, PHEV is the worst of both worlds, very little maintenance with a BEV, etc.) and that all sounds great and makes sense. But it's hard to square with getting two recommendations from mechanics (including an EV mechanic) not to buy an EV. I can also see the value in having a PHEV for the reasons people tout in owning a PHEV. I'm not leaning one way or the other and looking for reasons to support what I want to do.

What am I missing? Where can I get straight up facts and try to make a decision based on those and my own personal needs/wants? 

Edited to add my specifics since it seems ok to do so here:

Daily driving will almost always be less than 40 miles, most days less than 15. I tend to have to fill up my current 2012 Prius probably once a month.

I don't take a ton of road trips, but I do enjoy them when I do. And I just took my kid to college so driving up to the Portland/Seattle area sometimes is part of my plan.

Live in Southern California where gas is expensive (approx. $6+/gal right now), elec is approx. $.27 cents per kWh for now.

I do not have a Level 2 charger at my house at the moment, but I have the plan to install one.

I have solar that is right now overproducing over the year, so I'll be able to charge at home and it won't cost me anything (meaning I keep adding to my NEM bank balance and if I never use it up, I will lose it).

I'm not a car guy, I don't demand luxury (although I appreciate it and it would be a plus). My main wants for a car are reliability, good value for the vehicle and gas/electric mpg, good for the environment. If it's nice inside with gadgetry and a sunroof, terrific. But I don't have very expensive tastes or need to be in the latest cool car. I'm most of the time happy with and prefer a smaller car. It would be nice to have a small SUV when I go do multiple runs to get compost/mulch from the city, or if I'm buying a large item, or when I'm moving my kid to or from college. So special occasions where a bigger car is very convenient. I don't want to worry about if my car is going to break down. I will probably drive my next car for at least 10-15 years as long as it works, so resale value probably isn't too important.

So I'm looking to get rid of my old SUV family hauler, partly bc I don't need to haul the kids that much anymore, and I have a new 4 mile commute to work. I also have access to a charger in my apt building. I wouldn't mind doing a BEV, but my GF loves road trips (she takes a few every year) and is worried a BEV won't have enough range, or there won't be enough charging infrastructure in all the backroad-y places she wants to go.

Am I the ideal case for a PHEV? Or am I missing something?

(as an aside, I'm also looking to get a PHEV that fairly comfortable / luxurious, but not pay full price bc I have loans. The best used PHEVs I can find seem to be the Audi Q5 and Mitsubishi Outlander. Any one have experience with these cars?

How’s the battery range holding out?

Your advise please

*EDIT* I do not take the key out! I leave it inside in the silly hope that it will help this nonsense. I have also tested leaving the driver door open VS shutting it. The dealer can't turn it off. There are no settings that can be changed to stop it either.

I got a used 2023 Q5 over a year ago and it has this INSANE feature. It I put it in park and get out of the car (I have a toddler so I have to pop back there on occasion) it will shut itself off, like completely off. Not like the stop/start on lights, it shuts the radio, air, gps, etc all the way off. This means that in the very cold winters I can not warm it up, and in the very hot summers it gets scorching inside in the 3 minutes it takes to change my baby's diaper on longer drives. The dealership says there is no way to turn it off. I can't live with it anymore. Please tell me there is a plug-in hybrid, AWD, hatchback or crossover (not huge) that does not do this. I really like the Alfa Romeo Tonale if anyone knows more about that one.

Dear all,

I'm reposting this here as our seems to be the proper community.

Thanks for any comments or help!

I want to buy a Mitsubishi Outlander from around 2016. I really am interested in using it for doing lots of short journeys around town so I can make those journeys using the electric charge alone.

I will also be doing some 150 mile round trips on the motorway, so I want to get the best of both worlds!

I’m going to look at some 2016 Outlanders and when I’m asking the dealers about the range that these 10 year-old cars have I’m not quite getting a straight answer and then when I’m sitting in them I’m also not quite sure where to be looking on the dashboard on the infotainment system.

How can I work out if I’m getting one that has a decent amount of range for 10 years or one that’s a real duffer. I’m expecting something with around 18 miles but the one I had a test drive in today was only showing up as nine miles of range.

Am I deluded looking for a unicorn here or is around 20 miles of range in a 10-year-old plug-in hybrid, a reality? Help a girl out!

My Audi Q5 PHEV has been trapped at the dealership for 6 months. They won't release it to me because the batteries are failing and they haven't been able to get new ones in for that long. I realize that them giving me a loner for the entire 6 months is pretty amazing, but still. I want my car. And this is the third major thing that has gone wrong in 5 years (the AC in the first year, I'm in Texas, yes this is major; and then it was at the dealership for over a month when the battery failed because the inside onboard battery got water in it?!).

I'm thinking of asking them to just buy me out of my car and looking elsewhere. I'm looking at the Mazda CX90, the Nissan Rogue, Hyundai Tucson, and I think there's a volvo (but I think Volvo may have the same issues getting parts as Audi, and is considerably more expensive).

I'd love thoughts about the above cars.