u/CaptainMKG

This may seem like the worst place to post this if I want the most objective answer lol but I did want to at least see what people who are in a similar situation as me are thinking.

I work from home, drive maybe 3 times a week at most, in Las Vegas. My apartment doesn’t have access to chargers but there is an Electrify America 5 minutes from me and it’s typically empty since it’s at a Smith’s parking lot.

If I was asking this a couple years ago when these cars were closer to $50k, the answer would be obvious. But now that they are easily found in my dealership lots for under $24k, I’ve been very tempted to trade in my Tucson for one.

So I guess the question is, how bad/stupid is it really to get an EV like this if you don’t have a home charger? I’m not necessarily looking for affirmation that it’s 100% totally fine, if anything another reality check would be good if it really does seem like a bad idea.

Edit: I should also state that I work from home so my daily commute is very low. I go out maybe twice a week so that also contributes to the low mileage. Of course this could be used as an argument to just keep the Tucson but I wanted to mention it anyway.

Coming from a 2019 Tucson but going to my dealership for services have tempted me to get an Ioniq since I see them all the time, and with leases ending, a lot of them are going for pretty decent prices. Since I’m aiming to buy an EV for sub-$30k, the Ioniq 5 and 6 have been my top choices.

However, I am more familiar with Teslas since I rent them every time I need a rental. I’ve grown to like them too but for my budget, it’s hard to find one that matches not only similar year to the Ioniqs but also lower mileage ($23k for a 2024 Ioniq SEL with 18k miles vs a 2021 Tesla Model 3 with 56k miles for example). The Ioniq 5, on the other hand, would be nice to keep the SUV size but I heard the 2024 and earlier models actually cut some features.

Other brands I’m not too sure with. I’m just not as familiar with EVs in general outside of renting some here and there. What would you say is the best bet for my situation?

Some things to consider:
- I live in an apartment, closer to an EA than a Supercharger (6 minutes vs 15 minutes away)
- From what I understand, heat matters a lot with range, and since I live in the Vegas heat, I would probably worry about range more
- I’ve also heard that Tesla insurance is worse than other EVs here
- No massive items that I need to haul. Just groceries and whatnot so trunk space is not as much of a worry but coming from an SUV, it would be nice to keep the overall interior space