In much less extremely awful news than my last post, we’re trying to buy a car. I say trying, because you wouldn’t think it would be that hard. But we want an EV (obvs), specifically, we’d really like a Kia Niro EV. But since they’re not out yet, and the Trumpian is trying to remove the $7500 federal tax credit for EVs, because the world isn’t ending quickly enough for him, we’re trying to rush through this process.
Worse, because Hyundai and Kia appear to have either massively underestimated how many cars they would sell in Europe, or not cared enough to buy enough batteries, both the cars we want are in ridiculously (laughably) short supply (now in Europe and from the get-go in the US).
As in dealers are talking about getting one, or maybe two. And Hyundai will apparently not be shipping the cars to non Zero Emission Mandate states, of which we are one. And where they are shipping the cars, also seem to mainly be shipping the higher profit mid-and-high end of the range cars, not the cheap and chipper version of the cars that we want.
All of which ends with ‘we may have to go to California to get the damn car’, which is ridiculous.
I’m also told that dealers in CA may be less than happy to sell us a Kona. Because why? Because they don’t get all the kickbacks they need in that state if they sell to an out-of-stater. Which makes me more irritated.
We might end up getting a Bolt if we can’t get this organised by the end of the month. Bird in the hand being worth several theoretical birds that may or may not be in bushes. But it really doesn’t meet our camping needs very well, and I’d like the faster charging, better range and base-spec-safety-features of the Kona or Niro than the Bolt. Also – black interior will probably not suffer as much as the black/white Bolt interior.
But hey. Beggars / choosers.
I spend a lot of time at the moment e-mailing dealers and asking about cars. It’s made more difficult because they’re two states away. The OR dealers will sell us a car – but they only have the mid-and-high end ones. The CA dealers are…unhelpful, for the most part. And the double difficulty is that we would have to fly down for several days and choosing when to do that, if we decide we will, is… tricky.
In the vacuum of information being provided by Kia USA, dealers are filling the void. One dealer told me today that they should have cars early next week. Another said not until May, someone on Twitter said they’re local dealer says only ‘showroom cars’ are coming at the moment. One dealer said they’ve only got an allocation of one at the moment, another said they’re expecting many cars to come in.
It’s driving me absolutely batty, and making me want to scream. Also, I’m wilful and difficult, and someone telling me I can’t have something I want makes me want it more.
