We're replacing our Mazda5 and Cherokee and planned on a new Tiguan, but ultimately decided to go electric (or plug-in hybrid). It's going to be our primary car (A3 convertible will be the fun car!) and worst case scenario is we'd rent something bigger for the one or two times a year when we go on longer trips if need be.
My wife and I started looking around and oddly enough, the front-runner so far is the C-Max Energi. The range is just enough for her daily commute and the interior space is enough for a family of 4, but the cargo area is almost as useless as the Cherokee! She needs to carry around a PA speaker that takes up the entire C-Max cargo area with the seats up. We thought it drove quite well, quiet and comfortable enough, but since it's on its way out, there's no adaptive cruise, lane keep assist or any other features other than parking sensors and a backup camera.
Volt: useless backseat, and terribly designed rear cargo area with a high liftover, and sunken floor. Having a flat, removable panel would help otherwise she'd break her back lifting the PA in and out of it. I wanted to like this one since the EV range would more or less allow us to rarely use the gas engine, but the packaging is just terrible. The slope of the roof really cuts down on head room in the back and I guarantee my spacial-awareness challenged kids would concuss themselves daily getting in and out of it. We planned to drive it, but while the sales person was getting a plate, we changed our mind since it's just too small inside.
Pruis: not as bad as the Volt, but the Prime isn't available in Ontario yet and my wife can't get past the gimmicky interior. We didn't drive it either.
Bolt: We checked it out at the autoshow, but we couldn't find one near us to drive. Seems to have enough space for 95% of our driving needs. I remember the back seat feeling roomy and the cargo floor is lower than the Volt and I remember it had a false floor panel. Sales guy said it's about a 9 month wait.
We're probably going to check out the Plug and Drive EV discovery centre since they have most models but I was surprised to see how hard it is just to find one considering the hype. We're also considering the eGolf, A3 e-tron, Focus EV and Ioniq but all have multiple month wait times and you more or less have to order them and commit to buying without driving them.
I ran into a couple of people in a parking lot who have the Ioniq EV and it seems to be packaged much better than the Volt. Roofline isn't as swoopy and the cargo area is big enough, without having too high of a liftover. They said they're getting 250 KM on a charge, had a helluva time getting their rebate back, and don't have a 220V charger yet, but otherwise they love it because it feels like a normal car. They said the wait is about 3 - 4 months.
When I look at our actual spend on the Cherokee (payments, gas, maintenance) it doesn't completely rule out a Tesla but I'm not convinced I want a second mortgage, although our point of getting an EV isn't entirely rooted in 'saving money on gas'
Overall, with all the hype around EV's, I was disappointed with the current state of EV's here. I know the race is on for the glut of SUV EV's that are coming, but I'm guessing it'll easily be a couple of years before they're widely available.
