I would like to buy a commute car eligible for carpool lane drive.
Distance from Home to Company: 62 miles
The company has free charge station.
Please help me choose a right car: Electric car or Plug-in Hybrid.
everybody on this forum loves the volt
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Yes, the Volt seems to lease well. Depending on the type of driving, the battery may get you all the way to your work (despite it’s 53 mile EPA rating). If you have Level 2 chargers at work, you should get a full charge for the ride home, otherwise you’ll be dipping into your gasoline reserve.
Personally, I want my next car to be a full BEV since intend to own it for quite some time. That way, the reduced complexity of not having ICE components should keep repair costs down a little. However, for a pure lease and return, the Volt is a great choice.
The 2018 LEAF is also an excellent choice and you’d make it home regardless of availability of charging at work. They also have had some great incentives lately if I recall.
If you are driving 124 miles a day 5 days a week then your annual mileage will probably not be compatible with a lease. Or it will cost you much more to drive those kind of miles.
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Agree with you, but would be really surprised if OP did not mean round trip.
I know a few people who clock 60+ miles each way for their work commute. Crazy.
is that life or an existence
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It is my real life that I need to drive more than 120 miles daily sadly.
I think Chevrolet Volt is a hybrid car. How are Chevrolet Bolt?
What’s the advantage and disadvantage of these two cars?
I live at Bay area. I want to get a red sticker to drive on carpool lane.
If you live near the highway with little traffic, that’s not all that crazy. My 16 mile commute one way takes an hour each way.
I don’t think you should lease.
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What @ursus says. 120 miles/day * 5 days * 49 weeks (assuming 3 weeks/yr off) is 29,400/yr just to commute to work. That’s not taking into consideration leisure miles. 1) you’ll be hard pressed to find a decent lease. 2) you’ll be out of bumper/bumper warranty for the majority of the lease.
I don’t follow Hyundai close, but they had an unlimited mile IONIQ lease last year. Idk if they still offer it. If you’re hellbent on leasing, this might be your only shot.
EDIT: apparently they still offer it.
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The Volt is a plug in hybrid, not just a hybrid. Big difference. It’ll run forever on gas if you are unable to charge it and get great mileage. If you can’t charge an EV at work, you’ll have big problem.
I had a 114 mile/day commute and leased two cars- one of them a Volt, and it’s fantastic. It costs maybe 66 cents for a full charge during off-peak hours, which is peanuts.
You could buy a used one (mine is the red one with black leather on Craigslist) and run the wheels off it. Maybe assume someone’s lease with enough room for your miles- maybe 35K/year?
An i3 is a cool car, but not great on the freeway.
With EVs, leasing is smart, as what’s available is always getting better. You could lease two…
Wow- that Ionic lease has your name all over it!
Could you give me more details about IONIQ not good on the freeway?
Let me throw another contender in the ring. Look into the Honda Clarity Electric. The range is limited but should work fine since you have charging at work (total 89 EPA range). The lease is $199/mo plus tax with $1500 down (probably about $2000 total). Since its full electric you’ll get the big rebate from California plus any bonus incentives you find/qualify for. Also, the lease includes 20,000 miles per year, which should solve/mitigate your mileage problem! Has nav, heated seats, carplay, leather, security suite, etc. It’s nicely equipped.
That’s all well and good, but he’s still looking at about 10k mileage overage per year. That’s 30k over the life, and assuming $0.25/mile penalty, he’s looking at a potential $7500 MINIMUM penalty just on mileage at term.
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Why you try to poo-poo my idea? Haha. J/K
Let’s compare:
Hyundai - $295 x 35 = $10,325 + $2,500 = $12,825
Honda - $199 x 35= $6,965 + 1,500 = $8,465
If you add the mileage penalty to total for the Honda becomes $15,965 which is about $3140 more than the Ioniq (assuming he actualy goes over 30K miles) but that is for the base Ioniq. If you compare the “Limited” Ioniq then its probably about the same. I don’t know what options the base or the Limited Ioniq have or if they are important to OP but let’s not throw out my contender just yet…
Heard that Lincoln is coming out next year with an unlimited lease in some markets. Anyone else heard?
Hyundai is in CA only. I’m in the East coast and do the same mileage
I just called a few of Hyundai Dealer. They don’t have any Ioniq electric. Two have ioniq plug-in hybrid.
EV and Plug-in hybrid are very popular in Bay area.