I feel like somewhere there’s an invisible clock ticking down to the moment I buy a Kei car, tear out its guts, and cram an irresponsibly powerful electric motor in there.

Neutral:

To be clear, this is not actually a CUV with a Bolt drivetrain. It’s closer the Velite 6 EV and “based off learnings from the Chevrolet Bolt EV.” It has a smaller motor and the battery supplier is SAIC Era Power Battery System instead of LG like the Bolt.

If you can’t do what I have done, then you need to look at your life, not criticize mine.

On a level playing field, sedans will have ≈15% higher mpg than CUVs, which have ≈30% higher mpg than SUVs. To be fair, it’s a blurry line between SUV and CUV, or CUV and hatchback, so a lot just depends on definitions.

I’ve noticed that Millennials seem to save money compulsively, using bonuses to pay off debts, boost retirement accounts, or (like me) build a rainy-day nest egg.

This might be the most “let them eat cake” thing I’ve ever read.

Since I didn’t see anyone else post it yet:

Hah, no. The EREV/PHEV Clarity.

From an engineer’s perspective, this is not very clever. They combined an inrunner, outrunner, and a pancake motor. There’s a reason we don’t combine those.

Diesel ≠ Hybrid

It all depends on what you’re comparing it to. If the year is 2009, and you care enough about mileage to spend an extra ≈$10k on a 25% mpgc boost, you’re probably going to get a RAV4 and put a bed liner in it instead.

The thing we learned from the Tahoe _HYBRID!—HYBRID!^—HYBRID! was that even if it’s an improvement over the base model, a hybrid that gets poor mileage doesn’t sell.

I’m a fan of range extenders. An EREV still gets you to work after gasoline gets phased out.

My google-fu is weak. I must train harder.

3, 2, 1, let's van!

According to the US Department of Energy, in the US and Canada, there are...

The Leaf+ won’t unseat the Kia Niro or Hyundai Kona, let alone the Model 3.

The 150-mile standard model isn’t worthy of road tripping, but as a commuter, it’s an absolute steal right now. $28k dealer price -$7.5k federal -$7k CA rebate = $13.5k net.

It’s the same. Passive air cooling instead of liquid or forced-air cooling. Whether that means battery degradation is a real threat is still up for debate, though.