EV Buying on the cheap, Take 3:

Edit Early'24: This actually went on longer than expected. Production continued for months after the announcement. We know two people who bought a Chevy EUV base model for mid-high $23K out the door from local dealers (the $7500 rebate is now at point-of-sale). Very cool and a pretty impressive vehicle for $23K. Granted there's not much stock left and you have to find a dealer who has actual scruples.

Edit Apr.2023: This is pretty much DEAD. Chevy Bolt stock (especially the cheaper ones) sold out by February in most areas. The remainders had price jacks like you wouldn't believe. As of April 17th the Federal Rebate dropped in half (due to the batteries being made in Korea.) but since you can't get one at a reasonable price anyway...
This lower rebate is also true of most cheaper Teslas, KIA/Hyundai and VW's. The ones under $50K still qualify for the Oregon rebate until Apr.30th. After that the fund runs out of money.

Edit Jan.2023: There's been some reaction to headlines of "GM raises Bolt price just in time for Fed credit!"
Remain calm. First, the increase is around $600, not the tsunami the lurid headlines would have you believe. Second, GM dealers have been sticking it to their customers by much more than that in most markets already. Good negotiating skills or contact with a car broker might be indicated. and Thirdly, we had posited the price for the EUV as mid-high $29K range and that still holds. Back to our regularly scheduled trainwreck:

Those who have been paying attention over time may have noticed some previous posts about buying an EV for substantially less than you might expect. Mostly about getting a new Nissan Leaf for $15,000 or $18,000 or whatever. This post is about an alternative. Similar price range, similar size and capabilities, MUCH better charging infrastructure and somewhat lower reliability. Granted that's comparing reliability to a vehicle (Leaf) that's been in continuous production for over ten years and has about as close to perfect reliability stats as any car ever.

2023 Chevy Bolt EUV w/$500 (silly) 'Appearance' package

As you might have guessed from the picture, we're talking about the Chevy Bolt EUV. The same one that got (mostly) excluded from discussion before due to not qualifying for the Federal tax credit because GM squandered all their credits on plug-in hybrids. There might, repeat MIGHT be a short window of opportunity wherein it surely does quality for the full tax credit: January - March 2023. We're not saying here that this WILL work, just that it seems probable that it will. A confluence of improbable events, and may the buyer beware ...and do their due diligence beforehand!
     The so called Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has in it some very complicated EV Rebate provisions, where most of the complexity involves rather transparent provisions designed to exclude China from the US auto market, without calling them out by name.  It re-instates the $7500 federal tax credit for EV's and then applies a variety of exclusions as to where the vehicle is assembled and where the parts come from, especially batteries and battery-making materials. The Bolt was originally assembled in the US with about 70% of the dollar-value of parts made by LG in S.Korea. LG still makes pretty much every important component in the car; Motor, Batteries, Electronics, Controllers, Charging, HVAC, Sensors - etc. However, much of that has been moved to production facilities in Michigan so the US-built content percentage is increasing rapidly.
This brings up to the complexity part. How does the EPA, Commerce Dept. Treasury Dept. and IRS all get together to certify where things were built and when? Granted only roughly 25% of the Bolt is made in a US owned factory with union labor, and that was the Biden administration's real goal, but that 25% is the ONLY US union labor going into any EV currently available. Tesla, Nissan, LG, Ford EV (Made in Mexico) are all non-union shops. Yes, it's going to be a regulatory mess, made more complicated by the 'oops' exclusion of our traditional trading partners like Korea, Japan and Germany. Here is Electrek's take on what or who qualifies. Almost required reading

Better in White or Silver? The $500 red lines are still silly.

As far as we can tell the Bolt has been more or less approved for the full rebate as of Jan.1st 2023. As much as anybody has been approved.  However some of the 'rule making' has been pushed out to March. That -might- mean that only partial rebate ($3750) applies after rule-making is completed. The $7500 appears to have pretty good odds but who knows. This ambiguity is even bigger for Hyundai and Kia and VW, whose mix of US built content is less clear and possibly lower. Ford (Mexico, except for important stuff like batteries and motors) also seems to be approved for right now. Even if they all get approved for 2023, the rules change in 2024 and the courts haven't weighed in yet.

The pricing on recent Bolt vehicles has been considerably reduced, at least in theory, to ~$26K for the base Bolt and high ~$29K range for the longer wider taller EUV version. Having seen both of them we can't imagine not getting the EUV version. There was nothing in the 'Premier' (add $4000+) package that we can imaging wanting (leather seats? Ewww) but given the higher profit margins, guess which one the dealers are ordering... Well plus all the other fancy floor mats and undercoating, er, profit making that they add, and don't forget 'additional dealer markup' by whatever name.

So what does this look like if you actually try to get one? Few Chevy dealers want "That EV Shit" sitting on their lots, especially since the likely profits from maintenance (traditionally a high percentage of the profit from car sales) is near zero for most EVs, so the dealer part of the equation could be by far the most difficult part.
Imagine, in your fondest dreams, that you manage to nail down a 2023 Bolt EUV for $29K or a bit above. Fed. credit $7500, State credit (here at least, YMMV) $2500. Yay! New car for under $20K!
Yes, that's ONE THIRD of a Tesla Model Y -after- rebates.

Just make sure you do your homework before contacting the dealer. And as in the past, we recommend going through your Credit Union or Costco discount portal (if applicable) and doing as much of the negotiations online and through email as possible. Get it in writing. Print it all out and take it with you so you have something to beat the dealer's poor hungry salesperson over the head with when they (or more likely their manager) try to change the deal. A high probability in our experience.
That said the last three cars we've gotten have been through the 'Internet Sales Manager' at the dealer who 'won' the selection process (two out of three of those have been in a different state than we live in) and we walked out the door at pretty much exactly the price pre-negotiated. The one case where they tried bait-and-switch we walked out, after loudly letting everyone in the dealer looking at cars know what slimeballs they were. Have a plan B. Granted this takes time, but in our case that time has paid off at a rate of around $300/hr. ...not too bad...
_____________

You'll note that there's little mention of the other EV players here. The Hyundai Ioniq5 and Kia EV6 are really nice cars, the VW ID4 is OK too, the Tesla Models 3 and Y are exceptional. They all have pricing that puts them at a realistic $40K and up (yes, yes: $38,995 + + ... whatever) Even assuming they qualify for all the rebates they still end up costing 50% more than the players we're talking about here. $30K+ is not a cheap EV regardless of how nice they are. It's a different market segment and if that's the segment you live in, well, you're probably not reading this to begin with ;-)
We also don't talk about the Ford Mustang EV. Similar $40K+ price and an 18 month lead-time to get one.

Q&A:

"You've been a Nissan shill for years, why are you now recommending Chevy?"
Nissans have been fine, especially for folks in our income bracket, where basically there wasn't anything else available. You'll note we bought a Mitsubishi iMiev first. Too bad they, like all of the other (non-Nissan) Japanese manufacturers have basically opted out of the EV market. We don't, historically, support jingoistic lying opportunists like GM, but they (via LG of Korea) now have a reasonable product at a reasonable price. Dealing with the Chevy/GM organization may still present challenges.

"I thought the Chevys were all being recalled for burning down people's houses?"
Well, not all of them, though I still wouldn't park anything with an NMC or NCA battery chemistry (see pervious posts) under my bedroom. Since it's mostly an LG content car and they plus GM seem to be doing a good job of 'making it right' that does not appear to be a big concern. Note that even at it's worst the Bolt (and or Tesla) fires have still been much less common than gas cars burning down.  Turns out gasoline is still highly flammable. Doesn't make for lurid media coverage though.
That said, even without the battery issues Bolts have had no better than 'average' Chevy quality, which isn't saying much. You should plan on one or two dealer visits for one thing or another. Probably nothing major nor unusual for the average car. We hear Mustang EV's are doing no better. Contrast this with the ZERO dealer visits we've had across three Nissan Leafs to date! (One visit for an optional software update)

"So the Bolt is better than the Leaf?"
Depends on what's important to you. The original Bolt seats were quite uncomfortable for some people, but that has improved. The charging port on the Bolt is considerably more available out 'in the wild' and it has longer (base product) range so it's arguably much better for longer trips. Some people hate GM. Some people hate Japanese cars or prefer 'American Made.'  Although how they square this with the 90%+ American made Nissan Leaf and the ~40% American made Bolt and ignore the Korean part is hard to imagine. 
The interior volume of the EUV is larger than the ($2000 cheaper) 'regular' Bolt. However even the bigger one is only just barely a match for the Leaf and maybe just slightly smaller cargo volume.
Having just been through a 2500 mile road trip in the Leaf (see immediately previous post) we can say that it's unlikely we'll buy another Leaf. Their failure to update the charging connector from CHAdeMO (Nisssan's 'standard') to CCS should be regarded as highly suspect going forward. If you're only buying for local travel this shouldn't matter and the Leaf remains an excellent and highly reliable low cost choice.
One thing that's not better is the charging speed. The Bolt has the CCS connector, of which you can find many more while out tripping. But it doesn't seem to make good use of the available charge rates, topping out at around 50KW, pretty much like a Leaf and so takes twice or three times as long to charge up at a public charger than some of it's competitors. Granted those other cars cost nearly twice as much.

Availability: We found literally hundreds of base model 2023 Chevrolet Bole EUV LT on CARS.COM for under $29K. No doubt some are bait-n-switch (lots of wiggle room in the wording) but the nearest one to us was 445 miles away. We've gone 200+ miles to pick up a car before, but that seems kinda long. Everyone closer has added a couple thousand additional markup or only carries the Premium version(s) for $4K-$7K more. They're looking out for their bottom line (translation: Screw You) so be prepared for some negotiations, or travel.
To be fair, there's only a few Nissan Leafs under $30K within 100 miles of us and those are the ones with 150 miles of driving range as opposed to the EUV's 200-230 (real world). As they say, YMMV.

One additional low income wrinkle:
Nissan (NMAC) has been very good about passing on the full tax credit for people who otherwise (low income) would not qualify for any tax credits ... like us.  We've posted about this before. Apparently GMAC has gotten better about this than they were back when we posted about that, but check Really Carefully before signing anything. There are snakes in the grass.

2500 mi. for free? Nope.

For those of you following along with the 'for free' trip reports: 900 mi.for free, and the somewhat related 50K mi. for free we have this latest missive regarding a little trip to SandyEggo. After careful planning and consideration (OK, 20 min. on PlugShare.com) Eugene to San Diego and back for free looked do-able.
          Just to get this out up front: EV 'Public Charging' vendors used during this trip and
          their relative success rates in %% and number of (charge attempts.)

Bars are success rate in percent.

So, the whole thing was somewhat spoiled by the less than stellar competence at charging vendor EVGO.
More on that later.

Making the trip for free-ish in a Nissan Leaf ePlus seemed feasible. Granted, the Nissan still sports the ancient and creaky CHAdeMO fast charging connector, which, while it was amazing in 2011 is now the rarest, slowest and most likely to be broken/blocked of the available fast charging types. Instead of the current CCS standard.  Translation: Don't buy a Leaf for distance travel. OTOH: Adds to the adventure! ...Well that and it's the dead of winter wherein EV's get crappy range and passes can be impassable.
We did mention adventure, right?
As core components in the plan, we had a new "First 30 days for free at EVCS" account set up by our traveling companion (I had already used my free 30 days in the last post of this type) which would meet around 50-60% of our charging requirements. The second major component was all the new free Caltrans charging stations that have been put onto rest-stops in California, which should handle most of the remaining 40-50%. Way to go CA!
In this instance they have made good use of the money dumped on them due to VW getting caught with it's hand in the cookie jar (see 'dieselgate'), which partially makes up for their poor performance during the rollout of the West Coast Electric Highway ten years ago.
Any remaining little charging should fit into the $200+ left in the 'free charging' account we got with EVGO when purchasing the car*

Executive summary: For persons with minimal attention span.
(No executives were executed during the execution of this exemplan ;-)
           2500 miles, 19 charge stops, total billing $91 or about 3.6 cents/mile. ~700KWh total.
                                                                 (Compare with Gas at $0.12-0.20/mile)

Day one, Start at 100% charge.   
First stop Grants Pass 120 mi Down to 26%   EVCS free 45kw, 1.2 hrs ~50 KW onboard. Lunch stop.
Cold and wet and headwinds and heaters do not make for great range numbers.

2nd stop Yreka Carl's Junior: 50 Mi (Siskiyou passes) Down to 50%
EVGO clusterfuck. EVGO is supposedly a completely cross-account billing partner with ChargePoint. Except NOT!
   Failure #1: EVGO RFID Card. We checked this with EVGO support before leaving. Yep it's the right one!
So of course it doesn't work. Chargepoint later helpfully points out that it's not a ChargePoint card. Thanks for that, I must have been blind. It does work on actual EVGO stations as you'll see later.
   Failure #2: the EVGO app won't complete registration with an existing account because the phone# provided is 'already in use' despite that exact phone number showing up correctly in their web based account management screen. ...only fails with the app. Yeah, that app, the one you need to use to get the charger going. Extensive attempts at phone and email support, reinstall app. clear out cache/data, reinstall again. No joy, but lots of frustration. The people I'm dealing with are really nice, they just can't fix it. They spent a couple calls, several emails and did finally get this fixed so the app would actually load, about TEN DAYS after we started. Even then we had no luck getting it to actually work. I think 'abject failure' was mentioned earlier.
   Failure #3: The phone support person suggests using their web portal, since all that information is correct.  It's almost impossible to operate on the phone screen due to a number of bad design decisions. Small very light green text on a bright white background? For use outside? Really? And then once you get it deciphered the advertising they have added on top MUST have it's screen realestate, covering up important parts of the form.
So of course it doesn't work. "Failed to Initialize"   More than once. Nobody knows why.
We're too far from the next viable charger so;
   Finally we drag out the ChargePoint app and it't starts the charger right up and bills up $13.75 for the charge. Yay!  ...except we have money already on account at EVGO to the tune of $236. ...that apparently we can't use.      45kw peak, 0.75 hrs ~28 KW onboard

    3rd Stop: EVGO Orland exit 900 Newville Rd.  155 miles and about 9% left, gotta charge!
So, it's EVGO. "The appearance of actual charging!" ...ya know, without any actual charging.
    Failure #4 & #5 More than half the chargers here are non-functional to begin-with. The two forlorn examples remaining wake right up, screens respond, the RFID card works the account authenticates, the charger initializes and starts charge ... and complete failure. "Error Start Signal" (from the car) so of course it's the car's fault. Previous reports from this location so indicate (according to Plugshare posts).  Thus we don't even bother calling, after all we still have eleven miles of range left and the next charger is only 7 miles down the road.
What could go wrong?
    Nothing went wrong, technically this is the 4th stop, but we're counting it as #3.2  and despite being in the northbound rest stop (when we're traveling south) the Free CalTrans charger there works like a champ. Well,  after we help move the guy who has thrown-up all over the inside of his vehicle and parked at the only EV stall, the farthest one along. He was really nice, except for the smell.
    So, CalTrans: 162 miles actually (remember it's downhill from the passes). from 9% to 60% in less than an hour. Pretty good for free. We're doing this CalTrans thing again! Free is nice and it works despite having the same exact connector assembly, screen and software as the EVGO stuff that just failed spectacularly, granted it's the previous software version that hasn't been 'improved' to make CCS (non Nissan LEAF) connections faster.

So we get back on the freeway and arrive at the night's stop at Fairfield Inn in Sacramento. This place was chosen in part because they have charging from EVCS, therefore free to us, plus the rooms are nice (except the noisy heatpump) and the price is reasonable.
The battery had a hard day and takes two hours to go from 4% to 95%. The EVCS chargers are not fast, even with a battery that's not over-warmed-up. Still what do we care, overnight stop.

Next day:

With near 100% full and warmer temps. we looked at maybe trying to make it all the way to Caltrans at Kettleman City. Could -almost- do it but 212 is a lot of highway miles to be assuming about.
Fortunately there was a good short half way solution.
Westleys Rest Stop, 113 miles, CalTrans Free EV charging. We took it from 50% to 68% in about 20 min. The interesting part (to us) is that it didn't show up on the PlugShare or Caltanns maps nor was there a sign. We just stopped for the restroom and there it was. The original plan was to hit the northbound rest stop there since is IS on the map. Note that a number of the CalTrans charging network are not on the map, and some that are, are NOT  reporting their in-use/functional status.
      Failure #6: NOT EVGO!  Yay?  Kettleman City CalTrans Maint. Depot
CalTrans EV chargers here, two units both with the same problem. The touchscreens wouldn't register 'touches' and since you have to push some virtual buttons to get the charge to start...
To add insult to injury the phone number prominently displayed for help plays a nice "This number is not yet in service" jingle for you. ...this was supposed to be a free charging stop so it was scheduled for a bigger charge. Oops.   [Edit: Comments left on Plugshare later indicate that the responses might just be slow. Apparently if you wait about two min. after plugging in, the indicator, for one of the two chargers, -might- turn green and allow you to hit the Start button. We were just impatient?]

We went down the street to the Electrify America EV Charging stations to rub elbows with the well heeled EV folks. Several $80K+ vehicles there. We bought just enough to ensure passage to the Tejon Pass Rest Stop CalTrans EV station about 110 miles south. $18.06 for roughly 42Kw while we walked to a restaurant. 

Tejon Pass EV Chargers, Caltrans, Free
Two out of the four were working which was good because only one was in use. The car really needed it after crawling 4200 feet elevation up the Grapevine. 15% to 80% in 45 min.
...which was plenty since LA is all down hill from there.

It's fun to have the very responsive acceleration of the EV during the cut-and-thrust of near rush-hour LA traffic. Still took almost three hours to make it to Anaheim.
Oddly enough the nearest EV charging to the Disney complex is an EVCS 4-stall at a medical center. Since we had to run across LA to the Burbank airport twice in rush-hour traffic (actually six times total for the trip)  Two of the chargers there worked great. Plugshare says one is intermittent and one non-functional (about par-for-the-course) so we didn't try those. We charged there something like five-six times. Worked great although the location seems somewhat sketchy. Walking distance to a store and a couple eateries. Our first time ever at El Pollo Loco. Woo!

Rolling over 1000 miles and 20 Hrs at the same time.

In theory, a full charge in Anaheim should be enough to make it 95 mi. to San Diego and back, right? Well, with a little local fussing about things looked a little tight so we stopped on the way back at the San Clemente city hall to give EVGO yet another chance to fail, which they did! Fail that is. RFID: Fail. EVGO App: Fail. Chargepoint App: Success! ...but we're $18 poorer.

This was enough to make it through LA and out to the Tejon Pass free CalTrans location. Still worked great although one of the four chargers was down. We had a 5 min. wait.  It was about 1:25 to go from 9% to 85%. We brought lunch with us just for this.

Little stop at the Same set of CalTrans rest-stops/chargers as we had going south. Free is good. and that took us all the way to Sacramento and the same Fairfield Inn/EVCS chargers. Both Marriott properties here have EVCS chargers and the all (8) seemed to be working. I wish that wasn't amazing.

Off we go in the morning and we pretty much used the same chargers going northward. Free at the rest stop, then another rest-stop and then over the pass (with lots of snow and ice!) and ChargePoint at Grants Pass. Should have gotten more than 80% charge level there since it was a downpour, blowing and 38.deg. We had a possible issue with getting home given the conditions, and opted to stop at the EVCS station at 7-Feathers Casino. (Note that the charger is actually on the other side of the freeway)
Here we were surprised to find that the 'Free!'  month that EVCS gives you for starting an account only really works for the first 200KWh you use during that month. Because of timing we actually got more like 230 KWh before getting the warning (both eMail -and- text) and getting dumped into  a 'bonus rate' of $0.29/KWh. which is still better than their regular rate of $50/Month -or- $0.49/KWh. ...so they did fine. In fact, EVCS was the star of the trip.

What did we learn on this trip? Pretty much same as we knew before:

Reliable long distance EV travel, ...should be done in a Tesla.

If not Tesla, then it will take somewhat more bother and time. In this case 2-3 hours extra over 12 days, but we just pulled out a book and read to fill the time, so no great loss. The heat and/or AC continue to work while you're charging if you do it right.

EVCS has REALLY upped their game. Taking over the remainders of the WCEH (see above) from Webato/AeroVironment ('AV' major defense contractor) who had really only set up the initial charging network along i5 and the coast in WA and OR (and bits of CA) to get a bunch of federal contract dollars, and EVCS have turned it into something that mostly works. AV had left an 'EV Desert' from Ashland to nearly Sacamento, making it almost impossible to make it down into CA without a 300 mi.range EV. EVCS and CalTrans have filled that gap at last. Eight years later. Yay-ish.

One could argue that this level of planning should not be necessary, and for Tesla owners it is not. The "Have Not's" have, as usual, a more difficult time of it, and trying to do it for free just adds to the complexity. We would probably have made it on zero dollars had EVGO's advertised cross-billing thing with ChargePoint actually worked (or if Anything EVGO had worked at all) although we'd still be facing that $18 at ElectrifyAmerica. Darn.
Close, but no cigar

There's a good Youtube about this.

Q&A

"Hey with my gas guzzler I'd have made half as many stops and been quick doing it!"

No you wouldn't. Between your tiny bladder and unwillingness to have your gas gauge go lower than one quarter tank you'd have been off the road almost the same number of times. Given meal breaks (when we were charging) and the somewhat longer stops we had sometimes, I doubt you'd have gained more than an hour or two overall. And, you'd have paid around $400 for that time. Go away.

"Is it REALLY this much bother traveling with an EV?"

No. You just buy a Tesla.

"But Elon is ICKY!"

Elon is not Tesla. It's mostly owned by and run by other folks. You just don't hear about that because,  well, Media.

And remember here we're talking here about our use of just about the worst long distance travel EV. Even then it's still very do-able. Just about any CCS charging port equipped car would have an easier time of it. Nissan won't convert the Leaf to CCS because it would cost money (and they're assholes, er, corporate personages. Same thing.)

"Hey, the numbers don't add up!"
We did start off with 100% charge, which should I guess show up as 60KWh  "Home $6 (1)" the rest is just rounding errors.

*Nissan had a deal with EVGO a couple years back wherein they provided the first $300 of charging on your new EVGO account for 'free' and given that it's over 100 miles to the nearest EVGO charging station, that hasn't seen much use except during trips to PDX where we've managed to run up a bill of a bit over sixty dollars during a four year period. We have, by the way, never gotten their app or RFID card to start a charging session at a ChargePoint charging station, something they continue to advertise.  Although to be fair, it might have worked once on the phone with their support folks after standing in the rain while on hold for awhile. Yes, hardly a ringing endorsement.  We have heard from people for whom EVGO has worked just fine. Our experience is simply different.