After we return our 2017 Leaf at the end of the lease, we were down to 1 car, a 2019 Leaf SV plus. At first, we decided to stay with 1 car. We purchased an electric cargo bike so I can take my 6 year old with me where ever I go. My 6 year old can ride his own bike, but when you are in a hurry to go somewhere, it is much easier if he is on the same bike with you. I live in a town with lots of hills, my commute to work is a category 4 climb if you watch Tour de France. So we bought a Tern GSD cargo bike with a mid-drive motor. We absolutely love it. It is fantastic, you get to be outside, fresh air, close to nature and uses much less energy than our Nissan Leaf. With dual battery, the bike has a range of around 100 miles, longer than a 24 kWh Leaf. When I am on the flat, I try to turn off the electric motor and use my own power. We even rode in the rain and it was not as bad as we thought. I highly recommend checking out an e-bike if you live in a city with safe places to ride them.
Now moving back onto the car. My wife got a job that is quite a ways from our home, so we are putting a lot of miles on our 2019 Leaf, more than the lease allow. We have to buy another car to compensate for the miles. My wife wants a dash board display, so Tesla Models 3 and Y are out of questions. The RAV4 PHEV is a great choice, but they are so expensive right now. Most dealer around here adds additional $10,000 to the sticker price. The LG batteries has been catching on fire, so cars with LG battery are out of question. We look into the VW ID4, but not sure how good are the driver assist functions and they are not available yet. Ideally, we would like to buy the Nissan Ariya, especially with the ProPilot 2. But it won't come out until October of this year (according to a Nissan dealer).
We end up buying a 2021 Pacifica Hybrid Limited. We have little kids and we can use the space. It drives really nice and we don't have to pick our adventure based on the location of a DC fast charger. For about $33K after all of the incentives and rebates, we got a car with 3 row seating, leather seat, 10.1 inch Display with build in navigation, a huge tri-panel panoramic sunroof that basically cover the entire roof of the car (and it has powered sunshade for when the sun is too bright), ventilated/heated front seats, LED headlight, adaptive cruise-control, blind spot and rear cross warning, pedestrian/cyclist emergency braking, rain sensitive wipers, 360 cameras, parallel and perpendicular park assist, wireless phone charging and wireless Apple CarPlay. I know it is not a true EV, but 32 miles electric range is still very useful.
I know our purchase choices may be quite different from everyone, but it works for us. And my current favorite ride is actually the bike, I get spend time with my son, we ride through bike trails with Coastal Redwood trees or ride along the ocean front hoping to see a humpback or grey whale. During this special time, it doesn't get better than this.
