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.
Only some of the cars written up in the national press are actually available in Georgia. 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 sign 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.
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:
April 2024 update note
After January’s update, this is a smaller one, timed to coincide with Earth Day and generally heightened interest in EVs, and our support of EV outreach events that happen this month as part of Drive Electric Earth Month.
As usual, the prices and tax credit eligibility of several cars have changed. Notably, the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen ID.4 have both restored their eligibility, thus substantially reducing the net cost for those two EV models. Ford has adjusted the prices of their two electric models down a bit; only the F-150 truck qualifies for the tax credit. Tesla continues to adjust their pricing quite frequently, and as of this update has aggressively lowered the prices of their two more affordable models such that they now beat most of the competition on price alone. Definitely check the carmaker websites for latest pricing because this chart may be outdated, especially for Ford and Tesla.
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.
The Tesla Cybertruck and the Chevy Blazer EV have both started deliveries but only in minuscule quantities for now. The Volvo EX30 and EX90 models are arriving soon and a lot of people are excited about them.
Conversely, 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. We recommend continuing to avoid these makes and models.
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.
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.