Opinions on the best value in a used EV

[Hersbird]

Ok cool. We do have 4 of those at the Walmart that is in the heart of the big shopping district across town. They are $.15/min under 75 kW. I would only think of using that if I was adding to my workday a shopping trip on the way home. I also am thinking harder about staying more like 10-15 miles out. I'd rather just get a smaller lot for my primary residence and save the money for a big, way off the grid recreational property way up in the mountains. To try and get a big, secluded place along with a house still close to town has gotten out of my league. You still can get a remote 20 acres up in the mountains for under $50k though to escape to.

[redpoint5]

I'm already envious. Montana is one of the few other places I'd want to live in the States. Was hoping to do a motorcycle/camping trip through one of these days.

My dream location is a large property on a hill 15 minutes from a sizable town.

[Hersbird]

I'd maybe like motorcycle camping but it would have to be on a dual sport not a road bike. Mix up the trip by renting forest service cabins and old lookout towers along the way from recreation.gov and also pick as many dirt miles as possible. My latest goal is to buy an inflatable kayak and float every major river from as close to it's source until it leaves our fine state. Start with some of the easy ones I could do in a day or two and finish with a months long trip down the Missouri from near Yellowstone park to North Dakota.
I love Oregon as well, spent a lot of days on the boarder outside of Brookings and all along the Smith River up to Grants Pass. Blazing a trail so to say with something now legal to grow there LOL.

[Hersbird]

New question. I see the Focus, Spark, and Tesla have always had liquid thermal management for the batteries anybody else? I think the Bolt, and new Hyundai does too but is there a list somewhere of the thermal management systems on all the EVs?

[redpoint5]

Basically all of them but Nissan have active thermal management, and use liquid cooling as far as I know.

The problem with Nissan is that they don't even force air to manage temperatures. Heck, my Prius has a fan that blows cabin air over the batteries.

Are you really ok with having a 40 mile range in the winter? I'd certainly get on a forum and ask about window defrosting, for instance, before pulling the trigger on a low range EV. Heck, I've seen complaints that the 250 mile range Bolt can't defrost the windows on very cold days, and the range drops to 150.

[samwichse]

I think the Fiat 500e and the VW eGolf do not.

[redpoint5]

There's always conflicting info. Egolf doesn't have liquid cooling, but it's unclear if they use a fan and air. That would be considered "active cooling", since moving air is an action. Even that isn't clear though. VW alludes to having active cooling, but other sites claim no active thermal management.

[Hersbird]

It would be garaged at home, I like how some seem to have "remote start" that would start the climate control while on the charger. So that 15-20 min drive (right now only about 10 mins) in the morning for me could be done in even the coldest weather without using any climate control. The drive home whould be the issue. After sitting all day there are days after work I have to brush snow, scrape ice, and it's already dark out. I would also run dedicated winter tires as well. I technically could also switch back to the Yukon on the worst days. I'm not going to do anything until late winter or next spring. Then I'll have my friend start watching the auctions. There have already been plenty of $4000-$4500 Fiats crossing the blocks in California. He usually just goes to Spokane, but he could buy one in Seattle for a few hundred more on my part. Waiting until next year might even get me a somewhat improved 2017 model (of the ones that improved, Ford, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan) for $10,000. I have to pay $500 over auction plus about $100 freight.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by samwichse

I think the Fiat 500e and the VW eGolf do not.

Everything I've read says the 500e has liquid thermal management. I've seen several mentions of the eGolf being air cooled.

Here's a list of the cheaper (<$15k) EVs and their battery thermal management (correct me if I'm wrong):
None:
Nissan Leaf

Air cooled:
VW eGolf
Kia Soul EV (2019 and older, 2020 changed to liquid)
Mitsubishi i-Miev

Liquid cooled:
Chevy Spark EV
Fiat 500e
Smart ED
BMW i3 (refrigerant)
Ford Focus Electric
Chevy Volt (could reasonably drive 40 miles EV besides winter)

[JSH]

I currently lease a 2016 Spark EV. The EPA range is 82 miles and I get 95 miles in the summer using A/C and 65 miles in the winter using heat. The defroster works fine and is quick to warm up and defrost but pulls a lot of power. (It is a 5kW resistance heater)

I've averaged 4.4 miles per kWh according to the car's gauge.

400 lb feet of torque is fun but the car has severe torque steer and will weave back and forth the full width of the lane our more accelerating at full power. There is no limited slip differential so it alternates spinning one wheel then the other. It will spin the wheels from 0-45 mph even with the performance all-season tires I have fitted. In rain it is hard not to get tire spin and the traction control stays on pretty much full time in the snow.

I've had it for 37 months / 25k miles. My lease is up at the end of September and I will not be purchasing the car. The primary reason is that they want too much ($9,900) and the Spark EV is a compliance car with no support from the manufacturer now that it is out of warranty. They will sell you a replacement battery - for $23,000.

There is a used car lot down the road from me that specialized in used Spark EVs. He said the wholesale market for them is so bad that Chevy will only auction Spark EVs in batches of 5 cars at a time.