Shopping for an Electric Vehicle: What to Know Before You Go

Required reading before buying an EV

The car salesman walked me past a pack of shiny SUVs, through the back door of the dealership, where the Hyundai Kona, the store’s sole electric vehicle, was covered in a thin layer of dust. It affirmed what I’d been hearing about the reality of buying an electric car.

Recently, I was slightly embarrassed to find that a friend was displeased with her EV hybrid purchase, which, as her auto journalist friend, I'd helped to recommend. The Subaru Crosstrek plug-in hybrid was supposed to be the family car compromise, not quite gasoline-free, but partially powered by a battery, and she wasn't getting the fuel economy she'd hoped. The reason was simple: the dealer had told her the car only needed to be charged once a week to maximize emission-free electric miles. 

My first impression squares with recent findings from the Sierra Club about the state of EV shopping: Dealers and carmakers aren't doing a great job of communicating about the pros and cons of EV ownership, despite consumer's growing interest in them.

So I decided to put myself in my friend’s shoes and try shopping for an EV myself. I visited two car dealers in the tri-state New York area. Not every car company has an EV offering, so before I started, I had to figure out what options I had.

At home, I researched battery-powered crossover vehicles, the kind of not-sexy but practical vehicle most people in my life stage choose these days. Why a crossover? I do a fair amount of schlepping. I have two kids, a growing 11-year old who has a ton of baseball gear, and a four-year-old who uses a car seat. When we drive to activities, birthday parties, and playdates, I need a vehicle that has room enough for the kids, my husband, an occasional grandmother or kid’s friend. I need cargo room to stash a stroller, sports gear, and other odds and ends. 

But in the present, crossover EV options are still slim, as new models start to trickle in, and with the slowdown in auto production due to the Covid-19 epidemic, are likely to see further delay the rollout of these vehicles. I settled on the electrified Hyundai Kona (starting at $37,190) and Kia Niro ($38,500) as two viable options. I added the Audi e-tron ($74,800) and Jaguar iPace ($69,850) to my list of contenders but noted that these luxury makes would propel me into a whole other price category, closer to the Model X and new Porsche Taycan.

The next step was tracking down a dealer that had a vehicle I wanted on the lot. I scrolled past a clump of car dealer ads. Not everyone knows that with the exception of Tesla, dealers are independent of car companies. It’s an archaic sales engine that pits maker and seller at odds. Scores of laws limit the amount of oversight car companies have over their dealers, but car dealers are left to sell the vehicle the car companies ship to them and to navigate the trickier aspects of laws that vary from state to state. This division creates more confusion for unproven EVs, which car dealers do not yet know will be a hit with their customers. I found the first barrier – the number of EVs options in my New York state region is still pretty skimpy. I settled on the Westchester dealership that listed an available Hyundai Kona EV.

Over winter break, the kids, their grandmother, and I set out on a rainy day to go car shopping. Our first stop was the Hyundai dealer in Westchester County, which is how I ended up in the dusty Hyundai. Once inside, I climbed in the driver’s seat, while the salesman made his case. His biggest selling point was the federal and New York state tax rebate. He also told me the official range was 225 miles --- but that the charge on the screen indicated I would get 291 miles of battery. (Hyundai and the EPA claim the vehicle get 258 miles, introducing the first point of the average shopper’s confusion.) He assured me that I would only need to charge it once a week, which I imagine is how people think about getting gas. What he didn’t explain: range has much to do with how someone drives. He said I could use a regular plug at home that would take 12 hours to plug in. (Hyundai says it takes 9 hours to charge the 64-kilowatt-hour battery on a 240-volt charger, which I could have installed.)

I asked him about charging stations. He said every mall in the area has a charging station (Ouch, my experience tells me otherwise. I’ve found these stations to be already full, or out-of-service on several occasions). When I inquired about buying the vehicles, he recommended leasing instead. His rationale: “These cars could get even better.” What he didn’t say is that electric cars may depreciate in value faster than gasoline models, another reason I may want to lease to avoid losing money on the trade-in. He did not explain that in the case of leasing, the federal tax credit of lease vehicles goes to the dealer, and not to me. In theory, they would take this savings off of the leasing price. Since it was last year’s model he could sweeten my deal.  These vehicles, despite limited availability, didn’t appear to be flying off the lot. He said I could make an appointment to test drive. I took his business card and headed to the next stop.

Underwhelmed by lack of options at such a small dealership, I decided to dial it up and go to a fancier store. We headed to an Audi dealership in Greenwich, Connecticut. We parked in the lot and the whole family headed inside. Here a shiny black Audi e-tron was on prominent display. Behind it, an Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid, was on view, as a secondary option. The bump up into the luxe category made everything in this dealership feel more like a high-end boutique where the white space makes everything look attractive, and the room feels more inviting.

An Audi salesman swooped in and minutes later I found myself behind the wheel of an e-tron for a test drive. He told me they had a car seat we could use, but it failed to materialize, so I left my mom chasing my spirited daughter around the shiny store. (Sorry, Mom). On the test drive, the salesman, a chatty guy who had recently moved back to the East Coast from the Midwest, said he was somewhat new to the brand, and still learning about the e-tron, but assured me he’d recently gone to a training session. He focused on a similar sales spiel about the savings I would get after the taxes. (Connecticut has a rebate program akin to New York state.) I asked him how often I would need to charge the vehicle.  About once a week, he said, but added that it depended on how I drive, which I knew from experience was true. He also boasted that I would have no problem finding charging stations anywhere in the area. Yikes, here again, was an iffy promise given the lack of EV infrastructure in 2020. 

On the test drive, instead of exploring the topic of EV ownership, the salesman chatted about himself and asked probing questions. While I was driving he remarked in a complimentary way, “Wow it’s like you’ve done this before.” I stayed quiet in response, and he returned to chatter, and questions about my husband. When we returned, I left my number and said I would think about it. Two weeks later, I finally listened to my home answering machine and discovered his persistent efforts to sell me that e-tron. I can’t say he didn’t try.

While neither dealership experience was terrible, but their lack of experience with the vehicles made it hard for me to trust either salesmen’s advice. This lack of acumen isn’t entirely the dealer’s fault – they don’t have incredible incentive to push EVs on people, or the personal experience to support their efforts.

But car companies are doubling down on EVs, primed to become a driving force in their model lineups. Plug-in hybrid cars, like the Crosstrek, are a stepping-stone to the plethora of fully battery-powered EVs coming to the market in the next two years. But lack of infrastructure, education, and consumer demand add barriers to both EV and partial EV adoption. And this means the industry is in a quagmire. 

One thing that Tesla has over other automakers is that all it sells are electric vehicles, and so the showroom experience is straightforward. But Tesla doesn’t have something for every buyer. The Tesla Model 3 is not large enough to accommodate my family. The new SUV Tesla Model Y is only now starting to ship, and the bigger Model X is more vehicle than I want. But the Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf EVS, which have been on the market for several years, are also too small for my family’s needs, but soon these brands will have larger offerings like the ones most people seem to seek out.

Over the years, I’ve talked to Tesla, Chevy Bolt, and Nissan Leaf customers, and I have yet to meet one that tells me they are going back to pure gasoline. Widespread embracement may be on the horizon, but change takes time. The question is can the auto industry can hang on long enough to catch up?