[iambateman]

The R2 was the first time I seriously thought about spending up on a vehicle.

It looks good.

But $45k++ is just wild to me. It seems like the market is undervaluing used EV’s, so hopefully the depreciation curve will bring these down to $30k in a couple years for us old-school folks who prefer not to have a $1000/mo car loan.

[somerandomqaguy]

I'm a little confused why you think that's wild; It's pricing is inline with other BEV's in the Canadian market at least; it's comparing with the Model Y, the Equinox, the Blazer, the Mach e, the Ioniq 5, the EV6, the BZ4, and the Aryia.

Typically speaking you're going to spend $10,000 to $13,000 more then an equivalent gas car for a BEV vs a comparable gas car in Canada.

[darth_avocado]

> But $45k++ is just wild to me

It’s just surprising to me that this is surprising to anyone in 2026. New cars are no longer $20-30k in the US and haven’t been since 2021. Average transaction price is now $50k+, so if companies like Rivian that skip the dealership model charge $45k, it really isn’t that expensive. The only new cars under $30k are sedans and hatchbacks. And most of them start at almost $27-30k for base price not including all the bs dealership fees.

[riku_iki]

> New cars are no longer $20-30k in the US and haven’t been since 2021.

there are plenty cars in this subrange, its just Americans prefer to spend more on extra features.

[darth_avocado]

You ignored the second half of the statement:

> The only new cars under $30k are sedans and hatchbacks. And most of them start at almost $27-30k for base price not including all the bs dealership fees.

[riku_iki]

that statement is factually wrong too

[consumer451]

New base Nissan Leaf is ~30k after delivery fee, and looks pretty darn great.

[darth_avocado]

I’m not sure if you’re agreeing to what I said or if this is meant as a counterpoint. But that’s kind of proving my point, new cars are pretty expensive these days. If you’re getting a base Nissan Leaf for $30k, SUVs costing $45k don’t sound that unreasonable.

[riku_iki]

they from whatever reason made it much shorter and smaller than previous gen..

[thefourthchime]

The 45k is a myth for now. The vehicles that have been reviewed so far are going to be $60k+ performance models. We'll see if they actually get down to 45k.

From the analysis I've seen with that drag coefficient, the 45k vehicle is going to have to have a range of 220 to 260 miles. Hardly something that will fly off the shelves.

[toomuchtodo]

Average price of a new vehicle in the US is $50,000. This is priced appropriately considering total cost of ownership delta against a combustion vehicle. Rivian needs more volume for prices to decline from manufacturing efficiency at scale.

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/19/cars-prices-inflation-suvs

[seemaze]

A cursory search of the web shows that TCO for EVs in the US is higher than ICE for all but high mileage commuters. Wish it wasn't the case, but insurance alone is a 30% premium.

[goosejuice]

Model 3 TCO is very competitive for all sedans. But yes, there are a lot of luxury EVs and EVs with questionable reliability.

https://www.self.inc/info/expensive-cars-to-run/

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-maintenance/the-cos...

[robotresearcher]

Insurance is a bear for Teslas. They cost a lot to repair.

The Model 3 Highland is super fun to drive. Maybe other EVs have this too. It's a very different experience to a similarly priced ICE car, and worth factoring in to the value proposition.

I specify Highland because the previous version was rattly and noisy enough to seriously detract from the zippy driving experience. Highland is nice.

[goosejuice]

These TCO reports include maintenance. The first one includes insurance. Insurance can be cheap. It varies wildly.

[stusmall]

NYT recently did a fantastic calculator. It isn't simple flat one or the other is cheaper. It takes into account buy vs lease, milage, local energy cost, length of ownership etc

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/upshot/ev-vs-gas-ca...

[toomuchtodo]

https://www.atlasevhub.com/weekly-digest/new-2025-update-on-...

[mortos]

> While drafting the fact sheet, we checked two headline policy ideas that the One Big, Beautiful, Bill introduced: the early sunset of the consumer EV credit and a new $250 annual EV fee. While the annual fee was dropped from the final legislation, the $7,500 consumer credit now ends September 30th.

> For the Equinox EV, these changes would cut its seven-year savings over the gasoline Equinox from about $9,000 to under $200. The Model Y also showed savings compared to its gasoline comparison under that less favorable scenario for EVs.

That link also factors in fuel savings which depends on where you live. I'd personally never save on an EV if it costs more upfront.

[nradov]

Are you sure about that? The cost of repairing even minor collision damage on a Rivian is ridiculous.

[hnburnsy]

Yup, R1S dented rear quarter, $55000 to repair, insurance totaled it out...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Rivian/comments/1r19jxb/vivian_is_o...

[socialcommenter]

How are insurers making any money insuring these things nowadays? 30% higher premiums are being mentioned elsewhere in the comments; that doesn't sound like enough!

[cucumber3732842]

>How are insurers making any money insuring these things nowadays?

Because insurance is fundamentally a "skim some" model.

They have a massive pool of money. Sure the pool is bleeding all the time because they're paying out, but it's also being replenished by premiums paid in. They invest this "constant" pool of money and the return on this covers overhead plus profit.

So when we're all getting screwed on our premiums because fenders cost tens of thousands and Karens file claims for parking scratches they're making more money, because the same ROI on a bigger pool of money is a bigger number.

[Aurornis]

There are multiple other people in the comments saying they had quarter panels repaired for $15K. Which is still a lot, but it’s not $55K.

There’s definitely more to that story.

[socialcommenter]

I'd love to see the itemized bill.

[Someone1234]

People keep repeating this uncritically. There is a car-debt crisis, and wages haven't kept up with house/car costs.

We have one person saying "well in Californian wages..." and another saying essentially that 50K isn't a lot of money when the average SALARY is $66K/year.

[freetime2]

I also believe this $50,000 stat is the mean car price which is likely to be pushed up by luxury car sales that cost 2-4x what a typical car costs, whereas a median price would give a better indication of what most people are actually spending. I did a quick Google search and wasn't able to find any data on median price, though.

[darth_avocado]

$50000 stat is the mean transaction price, which includes the dealership stuff that gets added on. While it’s true that it is an average, companies are increasingly not making cheaper models. Sub $30k new cars are almost a myth at this point. You get sedans and hatchback models that start in the high 20s as the base price but we all know you’re not walking out of that dealership with a base model or just paying the advertised rate. SUVs on the other hand, which most people prefer these days are closer to $40k.

[JumpCrisscross]

> There is a car-debt crisis

To what degree is this caused by car prices versus Americans' compulsion to keep buying new cars? Anecdotally, the folks I know struggling with car payments are almost exclusively in the latter bucket. But I'm open to having my mind changed with data.

[Lammy]

If people didn't buy new cars there would never be used cars.

[dullcrisp]

Tell that to Cuba.

[binary132]

Not entirely true; there are at least the lease, rental, and commercial fleet markets supplying predictable inventory of used cars to the public market.

[bdangubic]

I have 2014 Tesla S which which I recently had drive unit and battery replaced ($20k total). my friends all think I am nuts, but they all have $1k+ payments (some for 72m) while I haven’t had a car payment since 2017 and won’t have another one till 2036 :)

[Aurornis]

If your friends dumped $20K into paying off those loans they’d be a lot closer to paid off or maybe paid off completely, though. And that’s on a newer, lower mileage car.

I’m all for maintaining vehicles and keeping them on the road, but I don’t think you’re in a place to criticize your friends with $1K car payments after putting almost 2 years worth of those payments into a car that’s over a decade old.

[bdangubic]

I put in two years worth of payments for 18 years driving the car (9 since my last payment and 9 more after the maintenance) :)

[cosmicgadget]

What are you thinking about getting next?

[bdangubic]

nothing till 2035 and even then I might just replace the battery again. people look at EVs as like some disposable thing, when battery deteriorates you chuck it (shows in the pricing of 'used' EVs, my friend bought a 3-year old eTron that was originally purchased for $93k for $35k - 19k miles on it). my tesla is rock n roll now and will be good for the next decade

[LeafItAlone]

Who paid the $20k?

[bdangubic]

I did :)

[hnburnsy]

How many miles?

[bdangubic]

67k

[jerlam]

I wonder how much of this ridiculous car money was previously buy-a-house money. If you don't think you'll ever buy a house, you might as well spend it on a car.

[dlcarrier]

Small, efficient gasoline vehicles are prohibited by CAFE standards in the US, but EVs are exempt. Generally new EV manufacturers have been starting with high-end vehicles, and working their way into mid-range, with hopes on eventual low-range vehicles.

Because EVs are exempt from CAFE standards, it does open up a niche at the very low end, and Slate and Telo are starting up production in that market, so one of their vehicles might appeal to you.

[cchance]

ya same, i can't see spending as much as i did on my first tesla 5+ years ago, the depreciations just too steep, hopefully that holds for rivian too and i'll pick one up in a couple years the R2 is really nice.

That said, china BEV's are 1/2 the cost even accounting for import costs to the USA lol so sort of points toward a issue with US companies at the moment

[pixelatedindex]

Do they depreciate any worse than their gas counterparts? You’re also saving money on gas and maintenance - that’s gotta count for something, no?

[pertymcpert]

In California with PG&E which most people have, no you don't save much. It's different if you can charge for free at work.

And yes EVs depreciated worse than any other vehicle.

[dragonwriter]

> In California with PG&E which most people have,

Most people in California don’t have PG&E. Most of the land area in the northern 2/3 of the State or so is covered by PG&E, but people and land area aren't the same thing. Southern California Edison alone serves almost as many people as PG&E, and other smaller utilities, including public utilities like LADWP, SMUD, Silicon Valley Power, etc., serve another big chunk of the population.

[mortos]

SCE will screw you nearly as hard. We are on a tiered usage which is the cheapest they offer and it's $0.32/kWh and even at that rate the EV isn't much cheaper than the non-hybrid I replaced. I'd need to switch to a ToU plan which would increase my other electricity costs.

Also for depreciation:

2020 Mazda 3 - sold $18k at dealer, originally $28k, 64% retained

2022 Kia EV6 - bought $25k, originally $55k-$7.5k federal, 53% retained

[pertymcpert]

My mistake, thanks.

[greesil]

You can get a used EV for pretty cheap these days