Why Prius ?

Ever since I bought my first Prius in 2001, I was hoping my next vehicle would be an electric car.  Then I got 2006 Prius, which lasted until now, so I got a 2026 Prius.

What happened?

Well I did put a deposit on a Tesla Model 3 back in my working days when I made enough money to pay for one.  But then when they actually came, I found 3 major issues for me:

1.  It was nearly 10 inches wider than my Prius, which was already difficult to get into my narrow garage.  (I've recently heard that Teslas might be able to do this automatically, maybe it could squeeze through narrower openings than I can.)  And then there's getting around the car once it is in.  The 2026 Prius is about 3 inches wider than the 2006, which is just about the limit in my garage.

2.  No standard instruments in front of the driver.  I considered this a modernist fascist design flaw.

3.  Too high back window (that's a bit of a problem with the 2026 Prius too).

So I canceled my deposit.  Then I retired early, and wasn't putting too many miles on my old car anyway.

But, what about now???

Well, the standard Prius LE (the lowest trim level) is already stretching my income to the limit.  I could barely think about a Plug In Prius, let alone a Tesla model 3.

I'm now into affordable cars, and the Model 3.  I see two EV's I could have bought:

1.  Nissan Leaf

2.  Fiat EV

But above all, I wanted a reliable car like my last Prius.  I was very used to the size, format, and luxury features of a standard Prius too, including especially automatic climate control, and the size of the hatchback loading area (which is little different on the 2006).

EV's simply haven't become widely available enough, cheap enough, to make the exact model I need at the price I need.

And, there's actually a good reason for this.  There simply isn't enough lithium to make all vehicles EV yet.  Only a small fraction.  (And lithium mining is horrible, toxic and all that, though lithium is fairly ubiquitous.)

Given that there isn't really enough lithium to make EV's for everyone, what should be done?

Well, plug in hybrids would be one thing.  And nearly all cars should be hybrids simply to save gas.

Sadly, plug in hybrids aren't as reliable as the non plug in types (yet).  And the larger batteries are far more expensive to replace (come 15 years or so, and I hope I get more than that).

Smaller EV's with smaller batteries would be another thing.

Limiting EV to cases where it could do the most good.  That would not apply to me because I hardly do any driving anymore.

So it ultimately made the most sense for me to simply have a regular non-plug-in for long term lowest mechanical costs, though perhaps somewhat more fuel cost, but that simply wasn't much a factor for me.