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www.ElectrifyAtlanta.com

Electric Vehicle information for Atlanta and Georgia

EV basics fact sheet and EV market guide

This Electric Vehicles fact sheet (PDF) serves as an intro to EVs. The first page summarizes the cars available on the market now, and the second page goes through the basics of electric vehicles. If you do just one thing while visiting this website, do this: grab this PDF and take a long look at it later.  It’s two pages, designed to be printed out double-sided and handed out.

But you can get this information from national news sources, right? Why refer to this list from some guy on the internet? Here’s why:

  • Only some of the EVs announced and discussed in the national media are actually available nationwide. Many of the electric vehicles on the market are “compliance cars”, built by the big manufacturers but only offered for sale in California, or in “CARB” states that signed up to California’s emissions regulations. Georgia is most definitely not one of those states. And don’t think that you can just buy a particular car in California and then drive or transport it back; the dealers here in Georgia may not be certified to work on it and you might not be able to get service when it breaks. This fact sheet only shows cars that are actually available in Georgia — don’t waste your time looking at others.
  • DC Fast Charging power matters. High DCFC power makes roadtrips work, but most news outlets reporting on EVs take the manufacturers at face value and simply repeat their charging statements. But those do not state the peak DCFC power (in kilowatts or “kW”), and those qualitative statements are impossible to compare with other cars. In the chart here, we list the actual peak DCFC power, either divulged by the manufacturers in the EV’s specs, or determined later by owner experience (or charging companies). See the roadtrip page and DCFC tech page for more about all this.
  • EVs are shown in price order after tax credit. Don’t just look at the MSRP! The federal tax credit makes a big difference, especially at the cheaper end of the market. If the words “tax credit” make you cringe, note that you won’t have to file paperwork or anything — the dealer takes care of that. See the tax credits page for much more.

This fact sheet is quite dense since it is summarizes of a lot of information onto one sheet of paper. Some of the shorthand used in the sheet:

  • Number ranges — when you see a range of numbers, e.g. for the MSRP, this is reflecting that there are multiple trim levels in a model line. For example, two different battery options might offer two different electric range numbers, or a sporty version of the EV might offer higher power.
  • 0-60 MPH time — we don’t expect everyone to be doing jackrabbit starts all the time! Rather, this number is included as a proxy for the power of the car, for how quick and fun it feels in general. The drivetrain horsepower number is not useful because it could be offset by higher weight (e.g. in a truck).
  • Tax credits — only the net result of any tax credits is shown in this sheet. See the EV tax credits page here for thorough explanation of the new federal tax credits and links to more resources. Note that the prices shown here are for outright purchase of the car — leasing may still get you the full tax credit on a car that otherwise seems to not qualify for it! Seriously, leasing is your new friend. See the leasing page here for a longer explanation.

January 2025 update note

There are lots of changes this time, especially since the 2025 requirements for the federal tax credit kicked in, and kicked out several cars:

  • the Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen ID.4 and Rivian R1T/R1S models all lost the tax credit
  • in better news, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 have gained the tax credit, being built in the US now (in Georgia!); note also that the Ioniq 5 is now the first non-Tesla EV on the market to offer the NACS plug, allowing direct access to Tesla’s incredible “supercharging” network of DCFC sites
  • new arrivals: the Mini Countryman compact SUV and the Volkswagen ID.Buzz minivan
  • the Chevy Bolt has now been discontinued and removed from chart (it’ll be back next year)
  • in the PHEV chart (other side of fact sheet), nearly all of the PHEV models have now lost the tax credit; only the Chrysler Pacifica minivan retains it

As usual, there have been some price adjustments by the manufacturers, especially by Tesla but also Chevy and Ford; note again that the two Korean models noted above a much more affordable now, with them getting the tax credit. Definitely check the carmaker websites for latest pricing because this chart may be outdated, especially for Tesla who adjust their prices quite frequently in response to market conditions and supply chain issues.

Japanese carmakers Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura have been heavily promoting their newest electric models, but they are still “phoning it in” — those models are difficult to get and support in Georgia, and generally compare poorly to the competition. This applies to the Subaru Solterra as well, which is a rebadged Toyota BZ4X. The Honda Prologue is getting a lot of attention, but they are likely to only seriously support it in California and other “CARB states” (see discussion at top). We recommend continuing to avoid the makes and models listed in the “fine print” at the bottom of the chart.

There is now a QR code on the sheet to make it easier to get to this website.

General comments on purchasing, leasing and buying used

For a full decade we had been discouraging the purchase of any new EV — we recommended that you only leased new EVs. This was because EV technology was rapidly improving, including the range (in miles) and the charging speed (in kW), and you didn’t want to be stuck with a suddenly inferior car that was also plummeting in resale value. However, starting at around 2019-2020, EV technology reached a point where we think it’s now OK to buy outright instead of lease — the technology continues to improve, but it has slowed down from the torrid pace of the 2010s. New models now typically offer at least 250 miles of range and at least 100 kW of DC Fast Charging power. Those two minimum numbers mean the car is good enough for pain-free roadtrips, and you’ll be much less likely to regret the purchase years from now. That said, you may have your own reasons for wanting to lease (or try out a “lease takeover”!), in which case you should check out the leasing / lease takeover page on this website for more guidance specific to EVs.

Pretty much all carmakers are now exploiting the lease loophole that gets you the benefit of the full $7500 tax credit, even if their EVs might otherwise not qualify for it when purchasing. So even if a car does not seem to qualify for the tax credit, you should look seriously at leasing because the carmaker is probably throwing in $7500 off on that. You can always buy the car at the end of lease (or not even wait until the end and do the buyout right away) and you’ll have still effectively gotten $7500 off on the car. See the lease page for more.

Some of the car pages on this website (linked on the right side) have detailed information about finding a great value in a used EV. When evaluating a specific car that’s listed for sale, it can be difficult figuring out exactly which options the car is equipped with. The seller may have provided insufficient photos, or some features can only be discerned from photos if you know exactly what to look for. The “used advice” information on the car pages is to help you research used cars, literally a specific used car with a specific VIN. See the used information on the Nissan Leaf page, the BMW i3 page, the Chevy Volt page and the Tesla page.