The guilt, buy another ICE vehicle or move to EV

[Car Jack]

From the OP's first post, I have a bunch of thoughts.

First, the kid seats are forcing you to push your seats way forward.  Ok, so perhaps a re-do on the car seats is in order.  Take a tape measure.  You're looking for seats that don't push forward so much.  Spend the $100 per seat.  Is that enough?  If not, I would consider removing or modifying the seat back in the car.  There's 2 or 3 inches in padding back there that's directly pushing the car seat forward.  What I would do is go to our local pull-a-part junkyard where all seats are $50.  Take home a back seat.  Remove your back seat and store it for the future when you do sell your car.  Not go crazy with a sharp object on the back padding.  The goal is to get the child seat back to be against the hard back of the seat top.  If you combine this with say new seats that are 2 inches less forward, that's 4 inches.

If you don't want to DIY your way out of this, the choice between ICE and EV (and don't forget hybrid) have a bunch of considerations.  For me, it's cost.  An EV for me costs both more to buy and more per mile.  I'm an engineer and I do the math.  I live in Eastern Massachusetts where Eversource (my electric provider) is raising rates 60% to what I believe will be mid 40 cent per kWh range.  I've done the math with this and current gas prices, considering my present Subaru Crosstrek Manual at 35 mpg to a Tesla Model 3 single motor and the Tesla costs nearly 30% more per mile to drive.  And of course that model 3 would cost more than double what my Crosstrek cost me new in 2019.

The other consideration is effect on the environment.  All studies I've seen say that it is worse for an EV than for a typical ICE car.  Also, the effect on the environment is about equal.  Of course, this is different depending on where you live and get the electric from.  If you've got solar panels on your roof, both cost and effect are much lower.  For me, getting electricity is all natural gas based as that's what the vast majority of generation is made from in New England.  Places like the mid west and mid south have vast coal fired plants still.  It's why some people kid Tesla owners with the question "How do you like your coal powered car?".  I do agree that an EV is more efficient than an ICE engine. 

Convenience is another consideration.  If you charge in your garage all the time, you'll be fine and likely never see issues.  If you need to charge and chargers are full or broken, it's a problem.  I stopped at Subway in Auburn, MA last week.  On the way, up the street, there are the Tesla superchargers.  This was on a Sunday about 2pm.  All spots were filled with a couple cars waiting to move to a charger.  I have to think that when the number of EVs doubles, either there's going to have to be a lot more chargers or it's going to be a huge hassle to go beyond the range of the vehicle and charge at home.  Tesla has the best network.  I did drive an Audi e Tron GT which I liked a lot.  We talked about the charging network which the sales person was very informed about and his opinion was that it was total crap.  Between high cost, few chargers and high failure rates, it was suggested that this be a charge-from-home-only car.

I did my own driving of many EVs along with doing the cost analysis and real world analysis and at least for me, it makes no sense whatsoever.  I'd love the acceleration of an EV but the cost is prohibitive.  For those of you with 4 cent a kWh electric, sure, you'll save a ton of money charging at home.  But I can literally save money firing up my Generac 5500 generator to charge an EV.  Sorta silly.  Do the math.

And finally, I know that the Prius is very narrow but has very large amount of legroom both front and back.  This could suit you well from an interior layout perspective along with an MPG perspective.

[JLee]

From the OP's first post, I have a bunch of thoughts.

First, the kid seats are forcing you to push your seats way forward.  Ok, so perhaps a re-do on the car seats is in order.  Take a tape measure.  You're looking for seats that don't push forward so much.  Spend the $100 per seat.  Is that enough?  If not, I would consider removing or modifying the seat back in the car.  There's 2 or 3 inches in padding back there that's directly pushing the car seat forward.  What I would do is go to our local pull-a-part junkyard where all seats are $50.  Take home a back seat.  Remove your back seat and store it for the future when you do sell your car.  Not go crazy with a sharp object on the back padding.  The goal is to get the child seat back to be against the hard back of the seat top.  If you combine this with say new seats that are 2 inches less forward, that's 4 inches.

If you don't want to DIY your way out of this, the choice between ICE and EV (and don't forget hybrid) have a bunch of considerations.  For me, it's cost.  An EV for me costs both more to buy and more per mile.  I'm an engineer and I do the math.  I live in Eastern Massachusetts where Eversource (my electric provider) is raising rates 60% to what I believe will be mid 40 cent per kWh range.  I've done the math with this and current gas prices, considering my present Subaru Crosstrek Manual at 35 mpg to a Tesla Model 3 single motor and the Tesla costs nearly 30% more per mile to drive.  And of course that model 3 would cost more than double what my Crosstrek cost me new in 2019.

The other consideration is effect on the environment.  All studies I've seen say that it is worse for an EV than for a typical ICE car.  Also, the effect on the environment is about equal. Of course, this is different depending on where you live and get the electric from.  If you've got solar panels on your roof, both cost and effect are much lower.  For me, getting electricity is all natural gas based as that's what the vast majority of generation is made from in New England.  Places like the mid west and mid south have vast coal fired plants still.  It's why some people kid Tesla owners with the question "How do you like your coal powered car?".  I do agree that an EV is more efficient than an ICE engine. 

Convenience is another consideration.  If you charge in your garage all the time, you'll be fine and likely never see issues.  If you need to charge and chargers are full or broken, it's a problem.  I stopped at Subway in Auburn, MA last week.  On the way, up the street, there are the Tesla superchargers.  This was on a Sunday about 2pm.  All spots were filled with a couple cars waiting to move to a charger.  I have to think that when the number of EVs doubles, either there's going to have to be a lot more chargers or it's going to be a huge hassle to go beyond the range of the vehicle and charge at home.  Tesla has the best network.  I did drive an Audi e Tron GT which I liked a lot.  We talked about the charging network which the sales person was very informed about and his opinion was that it was total crap.  Between high cost, few chargers and high failure rates, it was suggested that this be a charge-from-home-only car.

I did my own driving of many EVs along with doing the cost analysis and real world analysis and at least for me, it makes no sense whatsoever.  I'd love the acceleration of an EV but the cost is prohibitive.  For those of you with 4 cent a kWh electric, sure, you'll save a ton of money charging at home.  But I can literally save money firing up my Generac 5500 generator to charge an EV.  Sorta silly.  Do the math.

And finally, I know that the Prius is very narrow but has very large amount of legroom both front and back.  This could suit you well from an interior layout perspective along with an MPG perspective.

Source?  This comes up time and time again to be repeatedly disproven.

That electricity cost is wild - more expensive than Hawaii.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/

[GilesMM]

Source?  This comes up time and time again to be repeatedly disproven.

That electricity cost is wild - more expensive than Hawaii.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/

Eastern MA is about $0.17/kWh

https://www.eversource.com/content/ema-c/business/account-billing/manage-bill/about-your-bill/rates-tariffs/basic-service

[Syonyk]

My Volt could tow a trailer (300lb) with a single ATV (500lb) without breaking a sweat. Larger side-by-sides can be towed, but I recommend reducing top speed and constant vigilance about braking distance. Anything you can do to keep the height lower than the car height will help, too.

That sounds about right.  I've got a hitch on my 2012 and I've towed both 1000 lbs (on 19" trailer wheels) and 2000 lbs (on Harbor Freight pizza cutters) with it.  The 1000 lb trailer isn't a big deal - I know it's back there, but barely.  The 2000 lbs... I notice.  A lot.  I try not to tow that one longer than needed and I keep the speeds down.

Thanks for the info. I should also add that I'm 6'6" so car buying is somewhat of a process of sitting in various vehicles to find what works. We aren't in the market for vehicle at the moment (cancer, long story), but I think I'm going to keep an eye on the PHEV market. Have you run into any issues with fuel sitting too long if you're almost exclusively using the battery range for very long periods?

I think at 6'6, you'd fit in a Volt, but not with someone behind you - at least in the 1st gen.  Not sure about the 2nd gen, they're bigger.  The seat slides back fairly far, and there's at least some headroom above for me (I'm 6'0").

As for gas, the car takes care of it - much to the annoyance of some people.  On the 1st gen (not sure about the 2nd, I think it's similar), if you haven't used the engine in 6 weeks, it will run it for a bit when you go somewhere to keep everything moving and the oil sloshed around.  The gas tank is sealed-sealed (pressurized at temperature), and if the average age of the gas in the tank exceeds a year, the car will start running around on the engine until you've added enough fuel to bring the average age down.  In our use, I've only seen the first case during the pandemic, and the second case hasn't ever been a thing.  We go through some fuel in ours, mostly on longer trips.  But even then, a long day in town will have the last dozen miles on gas coming home or something.

Short answer with the Volt is "Don't worry about it, GM did a really good job engineering it."  The 1st gen especially feels like a bit of an engineer's special, in a good way.  They seemed to have the direction of "Make it really good, make sure it doesn't break, and make sure it drives exactly like a normal car."  They've done a wonderful job of that.  The 2nd gen refines that a bit, I think it's less overkill, but they've changed a few things around to make it "yet more better."  The engine is bigger, so it won't run out of steam at high altitude like the 1st gen (doing high mountain passes, you can tell the engine is sucking wind, and not making much power once the battery pack is flat), it will run on regular octane vs premium, and it adds a direct drive option to the transmission/motor/generator box to allow for more efficient highway cruising on the gas motor.  Among other things.