Accidentally Electric

My first electric vehicle

In early 2024 I decided we needed another car. We had too many drivers and not enough cars. Although I work from home and don’t frequently need a car, I was often left home without a car and it would sometimes make me feel like I was under house arrest! The times when I did need a car required a fair amount of car shuffling with me having to drop others off and perhaps pick them up later.

So I figured getting an inexpensive used car would be the way to go. After the used car price wars of 2021-2023, it seemed like used car prices were coming back down to more reasonable levels and that I would be able to find something worthwhile.

Since this was going to be my car, I had some latitude, although I wasn’t looking for anything too crazy. Generally speaking, I like small cars so I had a few on my radar, most notably the Audi A3.

I had previously leased a 1998 Audi A4 back when I was young and single and it had been my favorite car ever. The A3 is about the size my A4 was back then and I really liked the look of the previous generation A3 (2015-2020). Prices seemed pretty reasonable at less than $15K as well, so I started doing some searching and research.

In the end, as most people told me upfront, buying a used Audi is not a great idea. They may be great cars when new, but they tend to require a lot of maintenance on their complex engines and as they age, often require expensive repairs.

After searching for a few weeks, I noticed some electric cars were starting to appear on my search results for the years and price ranges I was looking at. This surprised me a bit as I expected electric cars to still be rather expensive.

Two that initially came up were the BMW i3 and the Nissan Leaf.

I did some research on both of them and decided against the i3 because it is rear-wheel drive, which is not great for New England winters. Snow tires would be a must, but the i3 used unusual tires and there was only one expensive option for snow tires. I decided the i3 was just a bit too eccentric for me.

The Nissan Leaf looked promising at first, but I really did not like its design much. The model I found was also a base S model with very few features and relatively short range.

At this point I had pretty much decided that an electric car would not be in my future and was ready to purchase a Mazda 3 (a great, almost Audi-lite vehicle with much better reliability). But after chatting with my brother-in-law in Florida, who has owned a Tesla 3 and now a Tesla Y, the Hyundai Ioniq name came up.

I initially dismissed it as being too new and far too expensive, which was true for both the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6. But when I did some searching another model came up: the original Hyundai Ioniq electric.

I had not heard of this car. It turns out it was only sold in a few states (plus Canada and Europe), so I had never actually seen one in Maine (which actually was a state where it was sold).

The Ioniq electric is a small car, about the size of the Toyota Corolla, which was my previous car. Plus, the Ioniq is a hatchback. Those were both good points in its favor.

My Hyundai Ioniq electric, shortly after purchase

The Ioniq electric was released in 2017 with a very small 28kWh battery, good for about 124 miles of range. In 2020 it was updated to a 38kWh battery, good for about 170 miles of range, but it was unfortunately discontinued after the 2021 model year to make way for the newer (and more expensive) Ioniq models. The model I found was a 2021 Ioniq SE with 36000 miles and it was just a few miles away from me at the local Hyundai dealer. Although the 170 mile range estimate was not as high as newer electric vehicles, it sounded perfect for a 3rd car, especially since the longest round-trip driving range I expected to need was about 100 miles or so.

Another great thing about this Ioniq is that the price had been falling. The 2021 model that I found had already been marked down $4000 from its original price.

Being sold by the dealer proved to be a blessing because the car was certified pre-owned (CPO) and had been carefully inspected. And being a Hyundai, it still had many years left on its various warranties (shout-out to the 10-year warranty on the battery in Maine). With additional discounts and a possible tax credit next year, the Ioniq ended up being an absolute steal for a 2021 car.

I’ve now had the Ioniq for about two months and have learned a lot in just this short time. I actually find it strange to drive one of our other gas vehicles (GVs¹) now.

Although getting an EV at this time proved to be a bit of a happy accident, it also was not a complete surprise. I’ve always thought that my next new car would be an EV, but just figured that was still a few years away. I’m pleased I was able to find a used EV that will help me test out the EV world sooner than I expected.

In subsequent posts, I’ll be writing about the Ioniq itself, charging, efficiency, the truth about range, EV terminology, comparisons to GVs, battery health, new EV models and much more. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything!

1. I realize that ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) is the common term used to refer to gas-powered cars, I prefer GV as it matches nicely with EV and doesn’t sound as condescending as ICE.