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[2 of 3]

So GM is going to be selling an electric vehicle with a 200-mile range for around 30 grand(after rebates), possibly by the end of this year. 200 miles is pretty good for most people(9  hr charge). Not a bad looking car really(most wind-tunnel designed cars look the same). Be the range and price something you'd be interested in?

[Mervap]

Range is impressive....maybe I'm an old codger, though. I think $30,000 is way too much to spend on a car.

[kylenz]

That comes to $45,000 New Zealand dollars - that's almost twice as much as what I paid for my spanking new 2015 Mazda 2 Limited and people thought I was mad splashing out as much as I did there! Without the rebates (and they add all sorts of ridiculous duty and import taxes on anything here in NZ) it comes to $56,000 NZD. It truly is out of the hands of most ordinary people pricewise. Most people I know are running a car worth a couple of thousand, tops.

While the range is impressive, I still don't think it is quite enough for some of the long road trips I sometimes need to take. But it is heartening that it was said that it could charge to 80% within an hour. Provided there was a charging station of some sort at the halfway point of your trip, that would be great - but unlikely.

When I was looking at cars to buy and ended up with my Mazda which I'm very pleased with, I was very interested in the Holden Volt and there was a 2014 model in NZ with very low km selling for around $60,000 NZD which was still very expensive. But I liked how it would kick along at decent speeds in electric mode before the gas more kicked in once you're on the highway. This new model, the Bolt, steps up the game and goes 100% electric. I was also seriously looking at the Nissan Leaf as an electric option and it was actually quite affordable - but the range was very poor - around 100km. It would be okay if you only needed it to get you to work and then you could recharge it in your garage once you get home - but you would need a second vehicle for the longer trips out of town - hence again making it pointless getting one.

I would love to own a fully-electric car one day. My Mazda was so fuel-efficient over the past year it has only cost me $500NZD at the pump whereas everyone else in their 2-litre saloons have been spending about 2 and a half grand in gas every year - one certainly feels a smug satisfaction only ever needing to fill up with gas maybe once a month rather than every week.

My dream would be to own a Tesla car - and a Powerwall for good measure! 

[2 of 3]

Yeah, it's kind of great that the Big Guys are turning this direction. They have to start somewhere. I myself drive a Prius V. Great little car though  it is pretty gutless. Still, if you drive it right, you can squeeze 55 mpg out of it. The V model is HUGE too. I find the extra room is totally worth the drop in MPG from the regular Prius. If the price of gas goes up, I think the BOLT may be worth the money in the long run.Depending on how high your electric bill goes up I mean.  Bring on the Powerwall!!! 

[kylenz]

I was so close to buying a PRIUS!!!  I was nearly going to buy one locally - a beautiful red one. But the Mazda is cool, and it also has the holographic speedo which the Prius has on the windscreen - putting up speed and also the turn-by-turn nav unit symbols up there too, and the Mazda also has the automatic 'magic wipers' and also the auto-dip headlights (sensing oncoming vehicles and dipping them within a fraction of a second) which is quite amazing to see in action - in the end the Mazda had too many great features and only is slightly more gutsier on fuel than the Prius. I love how the engine completely cuts out dead quiet at traffic lights then kicks into action the moment the foot goes back on the accelerator. This is how it saves petrol costs. Skyactiv technology, they call it.

I was so keen on getting the brand new Prius C, but again the Mazda won out in terms of sheer range of features for a similar price as the Prius. I also wasn't keen on the blind spot in the rear window with the bar running horizontally between the boot area and the rear window. I think that would really annoy me. The Honda Insight also has this design feature, and the Honda dealership rep was trying to talk me into buying one, saying "you will get used to it" - but no I think it would be a huge annoyance from the get-go. Visibility is very important to me.