Second Car

For the past six years, my only car has been a 2016 Tesla Model S. It is a very nice car, but since it is an older model, the battery range is not that great. I believe if I charge the car to 100%, the range would be about 220 miles. This is about half of the distance my Nissan Maxima can go on one tank. I have been looking for a new EV, but all of them suffer from the same short range/long charging issue. Since I have free supercharging on my Model S, it seems like a shame to give that up.

I test drove a Model Y Performance this morning at the Irvine Tesla showroom. It is definitely faster than my Model S, but it is not very comfortable. I know there is a trade-off between performance and comfort, but the ride seemed overly harsh. In addition, the speed difference is most noticeable from a standing start. My Model S is fast enough, and I am not going to drag race a bunch of teenagers in Irvine anyway.

So after further thought, I am including plug-in hybrids as part of my car search. You get the same performance and economy on short trips, and there is no range anxiety on long trips. The only issue is that plug-in hybrid models are not that numerous, especially in the luxury market segment. They are also as expensive as EVs.

For example, Lexus makes the NX with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain. I checked inventory for a few nearby dealers, and everything is over $60k. That is more expensive than the Model Y Performance.