I never thought I’d buy another car. I’ve been biking to work for years; my wife often bikes to work too, and our son can walk to his job. Besides, our sturdy old Corolla may be 15 years old, but it has low mileage and is still going strong when we need it. (For reference, we’ve put about 20k miles on the Corolla over the last 5 years, and I’ve put a bit over 48k miles on my bikes since I started vanity tracking in 2012.)
But we’re getting older, and our new grand-puppy is now way too large and unruly to trailer behind a bike, and we wanted to take some longer trips with lots of gear, and…
Well, this summer we got a second car: A 2017 Ford plug-in hybrid. It’s basically a 40mpg hybrid with an extra 20 mile EV-only capability.
I’ve been surprised by three things about this car:
1. The short-range EV capability really matters. I’d love to have a Tesla, of course, or a full-electric Nissan Leaf or Chevy Bolt. But those are a little more expensive or a bit less spacious. And we still end up doing most of our driving within the 20 mile EV range. We’ve taken some longer trips to NYC and Virginia and around Maryland, so we’ve used the gas motor quite a bit on trips over 20 miles. But still, we’re averaging over 85 miles per actual gallon of gas used. As we’ve gotten up into our mid-50s, we don’t feel like taking as many short utility bike trips each day as we used to — it’s really nice to be able to make shorter car trips without spewing fumes. As a bike commuter, I wish all city driving were done on EV mode. The car allows you to use the gas-electric hybrid out on the highway and save the quiet, zero-emissions EV-only range for local streets where people are trying to live and breathe.
2. People don’t seem to know that short-range EV/hybrids are a thing. Everybody seems to know about full electric cars like Teslas, and we have tons of Prius hybrids in our neighborhood. But very few of my friends were aware of short-range plug-ins. Ours, which my wife calls “the Beluga,” charges on regular 110 volt outlet in about 6 hours. You don’t need a special high-voltage charging station. If you have an electric outlet at work, you could commute 20 miles in EV only mode, plug in during your workday, and be fully charged for the drive home. Charge overnight and repeat.
3. The car was surprisingly inexpensive. We paid $27k for it, including all the taxes and dealer extras and heated seats and navigation package etc. (OK, we probably paid too much, but we just decided we weren’t going to go through the haggle dance regardless.) We chose this particular car because it rode “big” and had plenty of acceleration and cargo space. We did have to pay for installing a weather-protected outdoor plug on the side of our house, within range of the 20-foot charging cable. And, at least until the Republicans kill it as part of their tax package (see line I. 2. c. here), there’s a $4,000 tax credit for 2017 purchases. The plug-in tax credit varies from EV to EV, but for now ours looks to qualify for our 2017 tax return.
Only downsides that I can see so far are the stock charging cable itself, which doesn’t look like it will last out in the elements more than a few years. And the EV-only range has declined a little as the weather has gotten cooler — we’ll see how the battery system holds up in really cold weather and over time. There’s supposedly an 8-year warranty on the hybrid parts, so hopefully Ford will still be around for eight years if there’s a problem.
But the bottom line is: If you’re like us and not quite ready financially for a full-range EV, but still need a large-ish car with a peppy ride that limits quite a bit of tailpipe pollution at least around town and isn’t too expensive, well, we’ve been pleased with the Beluga so far.
UPDATE — Thanks much for the rescue. Quick story about the sales guy at the dealership. He told us he had just sold the same model to a guy named Ben and his wife. Described them as a nice older couple, dressed casually, who wanted an efficient car with a long range so they could occasionally drive up and down the East Coast in retirement. However, when they got to the paperwork desk, the sales guy said he learned that Ben’s last name was Bernanke, as in the former head of the Federal Reserve. Not sure if the salesman just made the story up, but who knows? I look forward to meeting Dr. Bernanke at a conference or something and asking if he has a Ford hybrid. Either way, it was a creative sales pitch for the DC area.