Stop! Take a Look Back! EV Progress Is Extraordinary!

When You Look At The Dramatic Progress With EVs Over the Past 10 Years, Imagine the Next 10!

Our 2012 Nissan Leaf with 50 miles of functional range

We bought our first EV about five years ago. It was a used 2012 Nissan Leaf with a somewhat degraded battery, leaving it with only 50 miles of range. Our 2017 Chevy Bolt, with its recently upgraded battery, can be stretched to 300 miles of back-road or around-town driving. Even with the six times larger battery, we can fast charge the Bolt as quickly as we could the Leaf!

The progress we’ve experienced over five model years is remarkable.

Tesla technology was leaps and bounds better than the 2012 Leaf, but early Teslas cost about three times as much. The price premium was easy to justify but not any easier to afford.

2023 Chevy Bolt courtesy of GM

A 2023 Chevy Bolt is unremarkably better than the 2017, but it is remarkably cheaper. At a time when prices have jumped significantly, Bolt prices have dropped nearly $10,000 from their 2017 introductory prices. And the Bolt is eligible for a $7,500 income tax credit! With that factored in, the $25,600 MSRP yields a net cost of just $18,100.

Let’s compare some of the current Bolt specs to the state-of-the-art vehicles today.

The 2023 Lucid Air is officially a large car. Still, it gets better mileage than our little Bolt! Equipped for maximum range, it can go 516 miles on a full charge. That one will set you back a pretty penny, about $170,000. If you settle for a range of 407 miles, you can get a Lucid Air for under $80k. It’s also much faster than the Bolt, even in the long-range or economy models.

2022 Lucid Air courtesy of Lucid

The Lucid Air is also reportedly the fastest-charging EV, measured in miles added per minute. At the peak charging rate of 20 miles per minute, you could add 100 miles every five minutes of charging. But with a range of 400 to 500 miles, you’d rarely need to fast charge on a road trip—and never to a full charge. Your charging could almost always be done overnight at slower, more battery-friendly speeds.

Tesla Model X courtesy of Tesla

For years, the biggest, most rugged EV on the road was the sleek and luxurious Tesla Model X. GM changed the game with the introduction of the Hummer EV in 2020. Ford followed quickly with the F150 Lightning. Rivian then introduced the R1T and the R1S. Chevy will start selling Silverado EVs later this year. I may be missing some!

GMC Hummer EV courtesy of GM

With over 30 models to choose from in the U.S., there is an EV for virtually every consumer purpose.

Tesla semi courtesy of Tesla

There are also commercial EVs on the road. Tesla introduced its semi-truck. Rivian is selling EV delivery vehicles that are already in service.

Rivian Delivery Trucks for Amazon courtesy of Rivian

We’re still in the early days of electric vehicles. We don’t know that the pace of innovation in EVs will be constant, but we know it will continue. Imagine how affordable the Lucid Air level of technology will be in five or ten years. Envision the state of the art in five or ten years.

To say we’re excited about this future is an understatement. We can hardly wait!