My 12 year old Nissan Versa has been getting on in years, so it was time for a new car. Since our rooftop solar system is over-performing expectations and we’ve established a pretty significant power credit, and because there’s free charging at my office, we wanted to go full electric.
The electric vehicle with the best price for a 250+ mile range available in Arkansas is the Chevy Bolt EV. Alternatives would be the Hyundai Kona Electric or Kia e-Niro, but Hyundai and Kia refuse to sell or service electric vehicles in Arkansas. While a Tesla might be nice, they’re not a great value for the price, I can’t get it serviced locally, and there have been many headlines about questionable and inconsistent build quality.
For under $25K, I was able to get a 2020 Chevy Bolt EV LT with Driver Confidence I and II packages, and the Comfort and Convenience package, essentially the fully-loaded version of the standard trim.
It’s a quiet, comfortable, speedy little car. The instant acceleration is impressive, the storage space is solid, and it’s nice to have modern conveniences like Android Auto.
The dealer sold it to me with only 20% of a charge, but there was an Electrify America charging station 30 miles down the highway on my way home.