I doubt my circumstance applies to many, but for me (looking at trading my 2017 Prius 2 for a 2022 SV plus). My reasoning is this...
I'd like to go full EV, particularly as I can offset charging with my own solar.
Being retired, and that I can usually plan my 2-3 times a week to town (averaging 25 miles each trip) while keeping an eye on the local weather forecast. Done a lot of miles in the past, I can usually pick and choose now
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I expect I'd be paying near MSRP, but my Prius is only now approaching 18,000 miles on the odometer and is in excellent condition. New cars are scarce, but so are good well kept and lightly used trades, which the dealer really wants right now.
The Tech Package...I spent 25 plus years as an Engineering Tech, how could I not
. And it is a step-up the late 217 Prius TSS-P system.
The larger battery pack, while I don't need the range, would have a much longer cycle life since I'll trickle charge only and drive like I'd like to live to see another day...no high pack discharge rate (unless I'd see something very big closing at my six o'clock with the driver only paying attention to their Phone, I see that all the time...). Using a conservative range guestimate of 200 miles my trips would only use about 1/8th of the capacity, so i can keep the Lithiums in their happy zone, not too much charge and not too much discharge. Would also help over the years as the battery does lose capacity.
As for another reason to choose the Leaf, a Chevy Bolt is a dicey proposition at best even if they resume production, and a Telsa Model 3 would now run you basically $50K and even then be well into next year to get. That the Leaf uses air cooling instead of the preferred liquid cooling most use for the battery, shouldn't pose a problem since where I live usually doesn't get into the 100+ range and my trips are short anyway. I like to keep tabs on the cars systems anyway and would use a Leaf Spy and monitor everything that I could and stay well out of trouble. I use a pair of Scan Gauges on my current Prius to keep tabs on things.
Haven't made a final decision to purchase yet, so any comments on my logic are welcome...
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