Technology

To be honest, coming from a near-launch Tesla Model 3 into the current EV market... most alternatives available in the US suck for various reasons.

I had a Polestar 3, which was great, until the AC was inconsistent on the Driver side. Only had it for 45 days before it was in for Service at Volvo 150 miles away... And has been there since last April. Still paying on it every month and having to maintain insurance... I'm still trying to get it returned as a lemon via lawyers now nearly 9 months later. In the interim I went through several Volvo, Kia, Mercedes, and Hyundai EV rentals, and talking to a coworker who has an EV Mustang. All of them felt like EV afterthoughts made just so they could say they have EV options.

The American brands almost exclusively use the same base vehicles and even interiors as their non-EV options and thus there are arbitrary things that just don't need to be there and make it feel like they're just making a car to say they have one (which is exactly what they're doing).

For instance, my biggest pet peeve is having a Start/Stop button as if the thing still had an engine. There's no need to have it since the cars are on all the time anyway. Its just an unnecessary step both when getting in and leaving the car. And it artificially prevents you from interacting with the vehicle like rolling down windows or the roof cover while it's "off". It's small, but just shows it wasn't designed to be an EV, they just took the same shit from before and dropped an EV powertrain in and called it a day.

Several brands also use the same outsourced platform like GM's Ultima platform. So every one of those vehicles feels the same regardless of the brand it's under, or the slightly different exteriors. The interiors are nearly identical and use GM parts regardless of brand. The Honda Prologue that I got after my Model 3 while waiting to see about new offerings in a few years, doesn't feel like a Honda at all. It drives and feels like a Chevy Blazer. Because it is.

The only EVs I've driven that actually felt like they took advantage of being an EV were from EV companies, no legacy automakers. Tesla, Polestar, Lucid, Rivian. Everyone else the vehicle felt like an afterthought, especially after driving a Tesla for nearly 5 years, and those were often at 1.5-2x the cost for fewer bells and whistles. My current Prologue purchased before the EV credits went away was almost the same cost as my Model 3 back in 2018, and it's nowhere near the same quality or capability. And that's saying something if you know Tesla quality.