This morning I bought a three-year-old used car with just over 5,000 miles on the odometer.
Net cost, all in, just under $15K. That’s ~$19K, out the door, at the dealer (including taxes, tags, and fees). Less a $4K Federal tax credit. For which I am depending on the dealer to file the critical paperwork with the IRS.
That’s a pretty good deal for any used car, these days.
The fact that it runs on electricity is a bonus.
The only thing missing is new car smell. And for that, if I really want it, I can just buy some.
Note: On that tax credit, you have to have sufficiently low income ($150K for married filing jointly). Not every used EV qualifies. Not every sale qualifies. Read the details before you even think of factoring that into your purchase decision.
How I ended up here, or, why a Bolt?
Last August, I started to get serious about getting a car. I’d been without a car for a year and a half. I don’t drive much, but borrowing my wife’s Prius Prime had gotten a little old (for her, for sure.)
That Prius Prime was my gateway drug for a full electric vehicle. Once you’ve gone electric, it’s hard to go back to old-fashioned gas-powered transport.
I detailed my search in a long series of posts here.
I started by checking out non-car alternatives, such as an electric motorcycle or e-bike. None of those was appealing as a car substitute. None was cost-effective as a way to avoid carbon emissions, given that the alternative transportation was a Prius Prime.
I moved on to bottom-fishing the cheapest used EVs. But the more I learned, the further up-market I went. In no small part because EVs just keep getting better. And because the earliest EVs — those with the lowest original range — become unreliable as they age.
I settled on a Nissan Leaf, but weeded out any leaf older than the 2018 model year. That was the year that Nissan finally gave up on its old battery chemistry. Pre-2018 Leafs are prone to much more rapid degradation of battery range than are 2018 and later Leafs.
But, as used EV prices were falling (mostly in the wake of the Tesla price cuts), I saw no harm in waiting. And by the time I was ready to take the plunge, the price of a used Chevy Bolt had dropped to be on par with the price of a used Nissan Leaf.
The last hurdle was getting over my fear of salt. In particular, I found that virtually all the late-model used Bolts and Leafs for sale in this area were salt-belt refugees. They were cars that were originally sold in cold-climate states (where they salt the roads), but ended up in the South to be sold as used cars.
The one I eventually bought was leased originally in Vermont. The original owner (lessor?) turned the car in at the end of the three-year lease. And that’s how a three-year old Bolt with 5K miles ended up for sale here in Virginia.
For the same up-front cost, the Chevrolet Bolt seemed like much the better car than the Nissan Leaf, for at least these reasons:
- More initial range (250 miles versus 150, for the base models).
- Far better battery temperature management. The Leaf, unique among EVs, has no active battery temperature management, which makes driving them in hot weather something of a chore.
- Standard fast-charging plug on the Bolt (J1772), versus the obsolete CHADeMO fast-charging plug on the Leaf.
On the down side, the Chevy Bolt has been subject to several recalls, most seriously, for the 2017-2019 battery packs. But if you check out the details, and check your VIN against the Federal government’s recall database, you can feel reasonably comfortable buying a used Bolt. Or, at least I could. Certainly for a 2020 Bolt, with a U.S.-made battery pack.
Edit 7/25/2024: I need to mention a big, but long-winded, caveat here: I can only charge my car to 80% of full capacity. For now. That doesn’t matter to me, but if I were planning on doing some road trips in this car, right now, that would matter.
The background, in brief, is that GM’s response to a battery recall in earlier years of the Bolt was to replace some (mostly Korean-made) batteries, and in addition temporarily limit charging, on all other Bolt battery packs, to 80% of maximum. That includes U.S.-made battery packs that went into 2020 and later model years. Once a pack logs enough trouble-free something (probably, full-charge-cycle-equivalents), that restriction will be lifted. The bad news is, a) I bought a really-low-mileage car, b) I don’ drive much, so c) I have no clue when I’ll pass that threshold and be able to charge to 100% of capacity. I just take it as a matter of faith that it will happen eventually. The good news is, I get along fine without the last 20% of battery capacity, possibly because I get about 5 miles per KWH, not the EPA-rated 3.3. AC-off, I get a nominal range in excess of 300 miles, charged to 80%. AC-on, 250. More than enough for anything I have in mind.
I doubt that I will ever take this Bolt on a long trip, but you never know. The J1772 and Tesla chargers are similar enough that you can use adapters to go from one to the other. But CHADeMO is very different, and (as of this writing) there is no commercially-available adapter that will let you DC-fast-charge a CHADeMO car from a J1772 or Tesla charger. There are plenty of public CHADeMO chargers out there now, but I doubt that will be the case in ten years.
So with the Bolt, I can maintain the fantasy that I might take it on a road trip. Whereas with a standard Leaf, the reality is that it’s an around-town car in any normal circumstances.
A few unexpected things
First, this is the second time that I worked with a used car salesman who was unaware of the $4,000 Federal tax rebate for purchase of a used, American-made EV. No surprise there, as the idea of a tax rebate on a used car is unusual, even if it is logical. In any case, this rebate was one of the several major buy-American components of legislation passed under Biden, back before the House lost its mind. (So, for example, my wife’s Prius Prime would not be eligible for any tax credit now, because it remains an assembled-in-Japan vehicle.)
This is important, as the IRS changed the rules on 1/1/2024, and used car dealers now have to report the information to the IRS within three days of the sale. So we’re already planning to pester my dealer (Kingstowne Motors) to make sure this gets done.
Second, the car has a comically long charge time, at 120 volts, with the charger set to a max 8-amp draw. As shown above, for a charge started on Monday morning. A charge time measured in fractions of a week.
Edit 7/25/2024: If I set the charge rate to 12 amps, it charges proportionately faster. At a charging rate of about (120v x 12A = ) 1.4 KW, with the mileage I get, I add about 6 to 7 miles of range, per hour. An overnight 120V charge easily handles my around-town driving.
But, as long as I’m only driving it around town, that just doesn’t matter. I’m not planning on (e.g.) adding a 240-volt circuit to my garage, just to speed charging. I am, however, going to house this in my detached garage, so that my wife’s Prius and this new Bolt are on separate circuits. Otherwise, if charged at the same time, on the same circuit, they’re almost guaranteed to flip a circuit breaker.
Third, part of the reason it doesn’t much matter is that I get much better than EPA rating in terms of miles per KWH. The EPA rates this for just over 3 miles per KWH. But I seem to be getting closer to 5. That’s pretty much in line with my wife’s Prius Prime. Driving gently, at low speed, gives you much more range than driving in the (bat-out-of-hell) style of the current EPA drive cycle.
Fourth, form-follows-function. This car fits right in with the rest of our fleet, consisting of a 2005 and a 2021 Prius. The reason is that all efficient cars now have a “fusiform” shape. The vehicle shape that people sneered at, when the second generation of Prius arrived on the U.S. scene, is now the standard for all efficient passenger cars. That funny, rounded, flowing “Prius” shape gives you the lowest coefficient of drag, consistent with a given amount of interior room.
You’d think we bought them to match. But in fact, we bought them because they are efficient cars.
Conclusion
I’m sure EVs are going to get better as time passes. But only in terms of the size, weight, and durability of the batteries. They aren’t going to get much more efficient, in terms of miles per KWH.
This one — a Bolt – was good enough, for me, for now.
Given how little I drive, this is likely to be the last car I’ll ever purchase. For that reason alone, I couldn’t see myself investing in outdated gas-powered technology. An old-fashion hybrid car just didn’t cut it.
And, as a person who has bought many used cars, I’d have to say that buying a used EV is just a whole lot easier than buying a used gas car. Basically, there’s only one expensive piece — the battery. Plus-or-minus the nuances, the state of health for that part is pretty easy to assess — how far will it go on a full charge?
And by law, that battery has to remain usable for 8 years/100K miles from original date of purchase. Bottom line, the car is more-or-less warrantied, by Chevy, to be drive-able through 2028.
In my life, I’ve bought some good used cars. And I’ve bought the occasional disaster. So I’m aware that every used car is a risk. In the grand scheme of things, this car, at this time, was a reasonably good bet.
That’s about all you can ask, in a used car.
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