List of 8 Electric Cars to Avoid Buying is Mostly Stupid

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I was on Google News and I saw a headline “8 Electric Cars to Avoid Buying.” I couldn’t help myself, of course. I shouldn’t have clicked it, but I had to. I don’t recommend reading it separate from this article, but here’s the link if you want to. Apparently, it was first published on a website called GOBankingRates.com, but I saw it on yahoo!finance as a republished article.

The electric cars the article picks out are the following:

1. Mazda MX-30
2. Tesla Model X
3. Chevrolet Bolt
4. Ford Mustang Mach-E
5. Nissan LEAF
6. Porsche Taycan
7. Hyundai Kona Electric
8. Ford Focus Electric

First of all, if you’re going to make a list of some electric cars to not buy, why not also include a list of electric cars to buy? Why just be a hater? But also, what the heck list is this? And the rationales for including some of these vehicles are super odd, or one could say idiotic.

In the case of #1, the Mazda MX-30, I’m with the writer 100%. The car has far too little range (around 100 miles), and the fact that it has only been for sale in California further tells us that it’s just a lame compliance car. It’s now being discontinued. One has to wonder why it ever even touched the market.

In the case of #2, the rationale is stupid. I know several Model X owners who love their Xs — and really, why not? The X is a versatile, amazing, luxurious electric SUV with the acceleration of a sports car. It’s just out of most people’s budgets, or else it would sell in much higher volumes. According to the yahoo!finance article, though, “Reliability issues have plagued the X since 2017, said HotCars.com, leaving many owners let down. TopSpeed cited the model’s frustrating and malfunctioning ‘falcon-wing’ doors and the tendency for its windshield to crack easily, but even more pressing seems to be a fast-draining battery and overall charging difficulties.” I know several Model X owners. I haven’t heard about problems with the slick falcon-wing doors or the large glass windshield, or notable issues with the battery and charging. In fact, I have mostly heard that the owners and their kids love them. The X, despite its high price tag, remains one of the more popular electric vehicles in the US. Should a few people’s issues with the Model X prevent you from getting one? That’s just stupid.

In the case of the #3 Chevy Bolt, it’s a similar story but on the other end of the market. A couple of issues that popped up for some people mean you shouldn’t get a Bolt, the best selling non-Tesla EV on the US market and one of the best value-for-money offerings across the market — if not the best. Trying to chase people away from this semi-affordable EV with good range that owners love because of a few fears that have basically gone away or never made much sense anyway is illogical and a total killjoy. We have multiple writers with this electric car, and they love it and are happy they got it. Case closed; game over.

The #4 Ford Mustang Mach-E is another one of the 5 most popular electric vehicles in the US that this article says to avoid. Owners love it. I love it. And it’s popping up on the road more and more — I see it on almost every drive now. I’m yet to hear an owner complain about the car. But this is what the article says: “When it comes to the electric version of the all-time classic Mustang, HotCars.com said it is best to steer clear of the 2021 and 2022 models. While Consumer Reports gave the Mach-E a (reader supplied) 35 out of 100 reliability rating, the SUV still received high grades from expert sites like Edmunds and Car and Driver. So what’s the major risk with the E-Stang? A tendency for models to shut down from the battery overheating, as well starting issues, per TopSpeed.” There’s no context for the frequency of such issues. There’s no commentary on how much Mustang Mach-E owners love their vehicles. Earlier this year, the Mustang Mach-E ranked 3rd in EV satisfaction among EV owners. Last year, 90% of Mustang Mach-E owners said they’d recommend the vehicle to others and 87% said they’d buy it again — which put it 3rd among all vehicles (not just EVs), tied with the Tesla Model Y and Kia Telluride. Clearly, it’s a vehicle buyers are very happy with. Yet some dude on yahoo (and GoBankingRates.com) says you should avoid it?

The #5 LEAF is one that makes sense to me, just because there are much better options on the market in the same price range and category.

The #6 Porsche Taycan is another idiotic addition to this list. The Taycan is a stunning vehicle with some excellent characteristics and performance. It’s Porsche’s best car at the moment. Porsche’s. It’s also a large portion of Porsche’s sales now. So, why should someone avoid buying it? “Despite being dubbed ‘probably the most complete EV on the planet,’ by Top Gear in 2022, Consumer Reports found that the Porsche’s Taycan still stops short of matching the overall benchmarks set by Tesla in the luxury EV arena. If you want premium Taycan performance then you’ll have to shell out on a more expensive trim, but even then you’ll still need to be on the lookout for recall issues regarding seat harnesses and power losses.” Seriously? Seriously? I’m not even going to waste digital ink on this — the Taycan is an amazing EV, and if you’ve got the money for one, you should know how much of a joke this blogger’s two-sentence opinion is worth.

I should just drop it now, but I have to note how much #8 surprised me. The Ford Focus Electric? It hasn’t been produced for more than 5 years! It was never popular in the first place, which means there are very few on the used car market. Why is a low-volume car from 5+ years ago even being mentioned?!?! If it was April 1, I’d think this was a joke article. Instead, it’s not close to April 1 and this article was featured on yahoo!finance and highlighted prominently by Google News. There are more than 200 comments on the article, and I assume most of them must be saying how stupid the list was.