I've been looking at electric bikes for awhile and lately at electric scooters. Not the tiny wheeled stand up kind but similar to Vespa style motor scooters. For about $4500 or less you can get a scooter that'll do 50 mph or more. This makes a lot of sense in an urban/suburban area, especially in the Sun Belt where you won't be limited as much by cold weather. I used to commute on several motor scooters up to 250cc. If the advantages of a Tesla, few moving parts, minimal maintenance, very low cost to operate, translates well to much more affordable scooters then I can see buying one. When the batteries crap out they're much cheaper to replace than a full EV battery pack. Of course there are advantages of having a full size car enveloping you but for me the low initial cost and ongoing costs make a scooter a much more attractive alternative. This is if I were living in a house and needed low cost local transportation. For what I'm planning to do the climate control and electric generation and weather protection of a Prius makes more sense but I'll have to spend more than $20k more upfront with ongoing costs. Problematic on a limited budget.
By the way saw a couple of videos on the 2022 Bolt last night where owners were going over a number of problems. My retired friend who just bought one may not be so happy soon. If your heart is set on an EV car it does look like right now Tesla is the only model worth considering from a reliability standpoint and even they have issues. I just can't see a better alternative to the Prius. The 2023 Prius is supposed to have a much nicer exterior after a number of years of funky looks that a lot of owners weren't thrilled with. And Toyota is giving the 2023 a lithium battery after using a nickel based battery all these years. Hope that works out as I am going to buy new.
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