electric vehicle adoption

think-evs-are-too-expensive?-here-are-11-for-under-$40k.

Think EVs are too expensive? Here are 11 for under $40K.

Cars, cheap electric car, cheap EV, Electric vehicle, electric vehicle adoption, EV adoption / /

or buy used —

The average new car costs more than $47,000—here are 17 EVs for less than that.

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A piggy bank inside a

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

New cars have gotten pretty expensive, and it feels like electric cars are especially pricey. The average sale price of a new car has dropped a couple of thousand dollars since it peaked in early 2023, but at more than $47,400 in April, sticker shock is understandable, particularly as interest rates have doubled over the course of the past two years. Based on reader feedback, that impression is particularly pronounced when it comes to new electric vehicles. But EV prices have actually been falling, and inventory is growing. So we put together a list of all the new EVs on sale today for less than the average transaction price of a new car. You can buy 17 different EVs for less than the average price of a new car, and 11 are available for less than $40,000.

Nissan Leaf

The Leaf is the cheapest new EV on sale today.

Enlarge / The Leaf is the cheapest new EV on sale today.

Jonathan Gitlin

First on the list is the Nissan Leaf, which starts at just $28,140 for the version with a 40 kWh battery pack. Nissan was an early EV pioneer, and the current Leaf is the second generation to wear the name. But it hasn’t always been on the cutting edge, and some of the Leaf’s specs that felt a little outdated in 2017 may feel more so in 2024. The Leaf is eligible for a $3,750 IRS clean vehicle tax credit.

Mini SE

There's an old joke where I come from.

Enlarge / There’s an old joke where I come from. “How do you get to Wales in a Mini,” it asks, except instead of “to Wales” the country, the joke is “two whales,” and the answer is “one in the front, one in the back.” Such jokes are unlikely to be repeated about the new battery electric Mini Cooper SE, but if they are, the answer will probably be “slowly, because you have to stop and charge it a lot.”

Jonathan Gitlin

With new tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, no one is entirely sure when the next electric Mini Cooper will go on sale in the US. But right now, you can buy the current Mini Cooper SE for a starting price of $30,900. Although the suspension can feel stiffer than a supercar’s, if you live in a city and don’t need mega-miles of range, the Mini fits the bill quite effectively and is much more of a hoot to drive (and much cheaper) than the John Cooper Works GP mini.

Fiat 500e

Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car.

Enlarge / Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car.

Stephen Edelstein

The $32,500 electric Fiat 500e is one of the newest cars on our list; we only drove it for the first time in early April. It has more range than a Mini, and it charges faster, too.

Think EVs are too expensive? Here are 11 for under $40K. Read More »

hertz-is-selling-20,000-used-evs-due-to-high-repair-costs

Hertz is selling 20,000 used EVs due to high repair costs

Cars, electric vehicle adoption, Hertz / /

too expensive to fix —

The rental car company will replace them with gasoline-powered vehicles.

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A row of white Teslas by a Hertz sign

Hertz

If you’re looking for an electric car bargain and you’re braver than the average bear, you might want to check out Hertz, the car rental agency. After announcing big plans to purchase tens of thousands of EVs from Tesla and then Polestar, it’s now liquidating a third of that fleet, the company told investors.

After Hertz went bankrupt during the early days of the pandemic, its big EV ambitions began in 2021, when the company revealed it wanted more than 20 percent of its rental fleet to be electric by 2022. To that end, it placed an order for 100,000 Tesla Model 3 sedans, then followed up with an order for 65,000 Polestar 2s.

By early 2023, it was still far short of the ambitious goal, in large part due to Tesla’s inability to actually fill that order in time, and EVs still represent just 11 percent of the total Hertz rental fleet. In total, the Hertz EV fleet is around 60,000 vehicles. But it may not actually be that upset at falling short—it turns out that the electric rental cars haven’t been the panacea it needed.

At the end of Q3 2023, Hertz told investors that significant price cutting during the year had “resulted in lower EV residual values, increasing vehicle depreciation expense and negatively impacting salvage cost.” Additionally, its rental EVs were damaged or crashed more often, and the much higher cost of repairs for Tesla vehicles—on average about 20 percent higher than other EVs—has meant that Hertz’s Teslas earn it less money per vehicle than its other rentals.

Consequently, it’s selling off 20,000 EVs over the course of this year. Currently, the company has over 700 EVs for sale, including 35 Chevrolet Bolts, four Kia EV6s, a single BMW i3 and Nissan Leaf, and then 673 Teslas—552 Model 3s and another 121 Model Ys.

Some of the used EVs are rather affordable—the cheapest Model 3 is just $20,125. A long-range Model Y will cost a fair bit more than that, although even here, the most expensive one for sale by Hertz is just $38,116. As a reminder, there is now a tax credit of up to $4,000 available when buying a used EV that costs less than $25,000, assuming one meets the income caps.

But they are all ex-rental cars, and that means most of these cars have had relatively hard lives and now have plenty of miles on them—the cheaper Model 3s are all closing in on 100,000 miles. Not all of them, though—in New Orleans, there’s a Kia EV6 up for sale with just under 5,000 miles.

Hertz says depreciation of $245 million for its EV assets will show up in the Q4 2023 financial results. The company plans to use some of the proceeds of the sale to purchase more gasoline-powered rental cars.

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