Honda sells a lot of Prologue EV's, and Toyota sells a lot of bZ EV's. The two companies seem to have split brain about EV's. The exec's bash them, but then they add incentives to their EV's to ensure they sell well. If they don't like EV's, why do they add so many incentives to make them move well?
> If they don't like EV's, why do they add so many incentives to make them move well?
Because they produced them and need to sell them, and they aren't moving without the incentives - the same reason any auto-manufacturer adds incentives.
With the general incentives still available for EVs, plus some good deals Chevy is now running, and the already pretty low starting price for the Chevy Equinox EV I'm not surprised they are doing well. The base model FWD model, with an EPA rated range of 319 miles, is listed as $32k on Chevy's site, but after destination fees and such seems to be $35k at dealers so I'm going to use that.
Here are some of the incentives available to lower that:
• $7500 federal tax credit.
• $1250 if you own or lease a 2011 or later non-GM car.
• $1250 if you have a Costco Executive membership.
• $500 for being in at least one of these categories: Military, Healthcare professional, First responder, College student or recent graduate, and Educator.
Some of those categories include a lot of people.
The military one includes reservists, veterans, and retirees.
The healthcare one includes not just doctors and nurses, but also dentists, pharmacists, counselors, therapists, athletic trainers, medical and dental assistants, hospital employees, social workers, dietitians, and more.
The college one includes current college and graduate students or those two graduated from a two or four year college within the past two years.
The educator one just says you must be employed by a public school, private school, college, or university. It doesn't say it has to be a teaching job.
If you get all 4 of these discounts (tax credit, 2011+ non-GM car, Costco, and the $500) that would bring a base Equinox down to $24.5.
There are also some states that have that have EV rebates. Some of these are substantial. For example Illinois has a $4000 rebate.
Oregon has $2500 but also an additional $5000 for low income families. Low income means under 400% of the federal poverty level. That's $63k for a single person, $79k for two people, $107k for three, and $129k for four. The median household income in Oregon is $80k so I'd guess there are a lot of households that qualify for the $7500 EV rebate.
With just that an the federal tax credit that would make the base Equinox $20k in Oregon.
Even if you only get the federal tax credit that gets it do $27.5k. That's lower than most comparable ICE cars.
The base model is pretty good and that's what a lot of people buy, but it is kind of basic. Its cruise control for example is just basic cruise control: if below the set speed accelerate, if above the set speed let up on the gas but it will not brake.
Personally I consider adaptive cruise control a requirement. The cheapest Equinox with that is the base FWD model with the "active safety 2" ($545) and "comfort" ($1455) packages added (the first is the one with active cruise control but those two packages can only be bought together) which adds exactly $2000.
It's Hyundai/Kia, BYD if they're ever allowed to build in the US, and if Toyota or Honda or GM ever get serious about EVs.