I am so happy I found this thread! I am really excited to buy one of these - I'm like a child, totally obsessed. We're a little north of Seattle and I was all ready to go and buy one when I heard that WA state was going to offer another $2,500 off on the 6.4% sales tax, so combining that with the federal tax break will give me $10K off of whatever price they will charge me to buy it. I have only gone to 1 dealership so far since I have to wait until 8/1 for the tax break to kick in. I did not test drive, but I did sit in one for a minute to check out the trim and it looked fine to me. The seat seemed very comfortable and I have always considered comfort to be pretty important, especially when going for long drives. Didn't see the cool holographic door thing - a lot of the interior seems to be that piano finish like a computer might have, so hopefully it won't show all my grubby paw prints after a day.
I will be able to retire in 1 year and we want an EV to do some light road tripping. We have a place in E. WA, about 300 miles away. It is an interesting drive, you travel over the Cascades and there are several other smaller grades such as when you cross the Columbia River. About half of the drive will be through the desert with temps reaching 100 degrees in the summer. With the nifty link the OP provided it mapped a nice route for me which was what I'd already anticipated - a charge mid-way will get me there and then I can recharge fully at my destination. We would then like to use the vehicle to do day trips to dozens of bucket list destinations in Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. I was even wondering if I could tow a 1,500 lb. pop up trailer with it, but perhaps that's best left to an ICE? In any case, I am hopeful this will be the last car I ever buy and that my beneficiaries will be able to drive it to 500,000 miles or more.
For now, I am heads down trying to learn all these EV things. How to charge it for optimum battery life, where's the juice along I-90, ChaDEMO, J1772, CCS SAE, it's mind boggling. At first I was leaning towards the 2019 Nissan Leaf Plus because, after all, Nissan has been at it a little longer than Kia. And when my daughter bought a Kia in the 90's they were really just crap cars, so there was a stigma in my mind against Kia & Hyundai. Now as I read more about the batteries though it seems that having an active cooling system (and warming in the winter) is a pretty important feature, especially in the way I intend to use the car. Plus the Niro EV looks cool. It's more like a "regular car" save for the funky blue trim pieces. And it has a great warranty and it has slightly better range, so I'm pretty serious now about getting a Niro, or possibly the Soul or a Kona Electric. Only seeing very positive reviews on the Niro and although it costs about $2,500 to $3,000 more than a Leaf Plus, I'm willing to go a little higher to get what I want/need.
The main thing now will be trying to weigh which dealership I should go to? Since we're living in the shadow of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google tech companies, pricing is unlikely to be negotiable. I see about $1,500 difference between my hometown dealership who is higher than some that are down south so hoping that I can use that to negotiate because I liked the fellow I talked to at the dealership that I visited. I am wondering if Kia will have any special deals when 8/1 rolls around or if competition will be tight as others decide to make the plunge? I would like to get some additional dealer discounts or else 0% financing for 48 months to sweeten the deal.
One thing that has crossed my mind though is that with active cooling and 12V batteries and regenerative braking, that an EV won't be totally maintenance free. Does anyone have any idea how often you would need to have coolant changes and the like? Aside from that though, there should not be much to maintain, right?
