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Mark Llobrera

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Going Electric: Chevrolet Bolt

A red hatchback plugged into a level 2 EV charger.

Since 2008 my family and I have been a single-car household. We went through a series of sedans, then bought a minivan in 2018 when the kids’ ballet and soccer carpools turned into multi-kid drives. My eldest is now at an age where they can get their driver’s license, so last fall we started thinking about getting a second, smaller car. The idea was to find something low-cost, efficient, and reliable. I started by looking at hatchbacks and small sedans, like the Honda Fit and Mazda 3.

In the meantime my brother had been exploring fully-electric vehicles and got a Chevy Equinox EV, and while doing research he encouraged me to look at used EVs. There aren’t many smaller EVs on the market — you can thank the USA’s thirst for ever-bigger SUVs for that. That meant looking at older models like the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Bolt, and the original Hyundai Ioniq sedan.1

Used EV prices ended up being in the same ballpark as conventional gasoline cars, so we started focusing on EVs and in January we found a 2020 Bolt with fewer than 25,000 miles on it. We had our electrician hook up a level 2 charger in our driveway,2 and we joined the ranks of EV drivers.

A few notes/observations after 6+ months of use:

The biggest change for me is future-looking. The EV industry is facing legislative headwinds for the next several years, but I don’t think we’re going back to gas vehicles. I’m pretty sure my next vehicle would be an electric.


  1. All of these models have been discontinued, although the Leaf and Bolt are coming back, and Hyundai has turned the Ioniq into a fuller lineup. ↩︎

  2. A Grizzl-E Ultimate 48A model. I figured the Canadians would know something about building a weatherproof charger. ↩︎

  3. We follow the recommendation to only charge the batter to 80% to prolong lifespan. ↩︎