I have for many years been interested in getting an EV, but SWMBO (Amanda) towed and rode horses, plus she twisted my arm into getting small caravan . We towed the caravan and could tow one horse in a lightweight float, using a Subaru Forester Diesel for 12 years. in 2019 Amanda wanted to be able to tow 2 horses and hope to talk me into getting a bigger caravan, so in mid 2020 she twisted my other arm and we ended up with an Isuzu MUX. However for the last couple of years before she died Amanda could not drive or ride so the horse sat in a paddock burning money and I had to drive the MUX and tow the horse to vets and farriers etc every couple of months. My own vehicle is a 2008 Toyota Hiace diesel Van which does not get used much these days. It was extensively used to carry timber and timber milling gear, and stuff for the mens shed. and more recently by the rest of the family to cart "stuff" around and of course to carry the over 200 boxes and bags of stuff I have removed from our house since Amanda died.
Amanda passed away in October 2022 and things went pear shaped for me for a few month afterwards. The horse was retired as medically unfit to ride in Jan 2023, and 10 days later it died of a heart attack so then I had a chance to reconsider all the vehicles. So I sold the caravan, MUX and float, and started investigating EVs. Forty years ago I use to be interested in ICEs especially motor bikes, but lost interest in ICEs when it eventually dawned on me at how we were poisoning ourselves from their emission.
This is my story of how I ended up with an EV and make no claims about searching for an EV in a systematic or even rational manner that might be applicable to anyone else. Just like most car purchase these things are quite personal and I just wanted something comfortable, big enough to take the 2 dogs, with a reasonable range and nice to drive and under $100k. I'm not that interested in saving money by not using expensive hydrocarbon fuels, but more about making less pollution. My driving is 90% city driving and am not fussed about needing to stop on country drives to recharge as I usually always have my dogs with me and like to stop for the dogs every few hours anyway. One really big thing for me is I do not want to spend countless hours or days looking up manuals or the internet about how to do what etc. I may end up doing this but I dont want to be forced into it. This problem was solved pretty easily for me as 3 of my 9 siblings already have Teslas (all single motor Model 3s) and two brothers are engineers and all over their ins-and outs ie they will be my own invaluable personal Tech support.
Last Monday I went with my brother who has had his Tesla Model 3 for nearly 3 years and test drove a Model Y "performance" - a very, very impressive vehicle to drive, but it cost $109k so to stay under my firm $100k budget I set my mind on ordering a Model Y "Long Range" (~$91K). Expected delivery was 4-12 weeks. We also went to a nearby Volvo dealer and test drove a Volvo XC40, but expected delivery was 7-9 months if you ordered it now! It's not that much cheaper than the Teslas and it's really an ICE body with an electric motor in it so the engineering does not seem right to me.
The ordering/buying process for Teslas is done all on line with fixed prices and limited options, so I went home and filled in my details online for the "Long range" model and was just about to hit the "order now" button when and email came through from the Tesla Perth office that they had just received a shipment of the "Performance" vehicles available immediately for purchase, and were discounting them to $99K. I thought about it for about 5 minutes and then redid my order for the Performance.
So tomorrow I will be picking it up the new vehicle and then will report in on how it's going. From what I can see, even in this last week, is that EVs are still a long way from being for everyone. Leaving the important aspect of cost aside for the moment. Just the charging options/cables/sources etc are bewildering enough to me so how would someone with limited tech understanding go? Plus I have my own tech support on hand. It all reminds me of the early days of computing, a mind boggling array of cables, plugs and sockets, battery charging profiles, energy supplies charges etc - let alone getting around all the software options. It's supposed to slowly getting better but there is still some ways to go by the looks of things.
My 3 Tesla owning brothers are more excited than I am about this. One sister was really annoyed that I am also getting a white one (the brothers all have white ones) and that chit-chat at family gatherings will descend even further into EV geek territory. One of the sisters even suggested we "get our own room". I'll organise a line up and get a photo of them all at one of our next family gatherings.
One more thing - when I get the tow bar fitted to the new vehicle I will be eventually selling the Toyota Van. I already have a 5X8 single axle trailer. Tow Capacity on the Tesla is 1800kg which is plenty for what I do these days.