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Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production (newatlas.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The Volt was really good for this - 50 miles electric and 430 miles gas on a 7 gallon tank.

Unfortunately, PHEVs fell out of fashion in 2018 and are only just coming back into style. I think the Prius is the only comparable car on the market that manages this. The Kia Niro is also looking reasonably good with a 34 mile EV range.

But if there was an economy car with ~150 miles range and inexpensive batteries, I’d probably buy it.

Both are in the $30-$40k range new. You can find a 2017 Chevy Volt for $16k (and I seriously can't recommend it enough).

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I have a non-plugin Prius, and it works really well as a commuter. I got it for $10k like 10 years ago, and it has needed very little maintenance and still gets 45-ish MPG (highway speeds here are 70mph, and I usually go a few mph over).

Ideally, I'd go pure electric for the next one so I'd never need to go to the gas station again. A PHEV means I still need to use some gas since I highly doubt I'd get 50 miles range on our high speed highways, especially if the car is older.

But yeah, seeing the prices going down is good news. The EV discount for used EVs is doing a lot of work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Ev discount for used ev's?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

US tax credit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

On buying used ones? Really? What if it's a private party sale?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Only from dealers, which sucks because dealers can just hike the price a bit to account for the credit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Darn. At least it's something, I guess.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yup. If it applied to private sales, I'd definitely get one. I just really hate dealing with dealers, so each of my last three cars have been from private parties. I tried dealers each time, and left with a bad impression.

Most of the EVs in local classifieds are from dealers, probably because of the tax credit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What's hard now is finding a private sale from the vehicles actual owner. Thanks to Facebook and lazy half assed pieces of crap, almost every cheap used car listed on Facebook marketplace is one being flipped instead of one being sold by a long term owner.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 6 months ago

Fortunately, my area has our own local classifieds that are used by a lot of locals, and owners very frequently sell their cars there. The problem is that, since the credits only apply to dealerships, they end up being about the same price or maybe more expensive than the dealers, which is bonkers.

So even if you find someone who is honest and the original owner, it'll probably be more expensive through them because the dealers get a tax cut (which is supposed to go to you...).