Welcome and congratulations. Stupid question, if she has such a short commute why not have you drive the EV? How far is it? Seems from an economics standpoint she likely burns little fuel with a 3 mile daily roundtrip.
Big problem is trying to take back a new car from your wife...
multi-faceted.. One is the physical parking space in the garage she has to park at. Several times she's has to climb in through the back hatch of the RAV due to dbags in their bro-dozers parking so close together.
Then there's cool-down and warmup.. the car has barely reached operating temp, if at all. and the heat / AC is not providing intended comfort with the short drive.
Another is that the commute is so short and over tertiary streets that the RAV - which is capable of over 30MPGs on the highway - is barely averaging 15mpg currently. My commute at 9 miles at least gets me onto a free-flowing highway in the AM and smoother running secondary streets for the drive home.
Yeah, I don't recommend a gasser for short commutes. That 1.5 mile commute is best done on foot, bicycle, or segway, though perhaps there's no sidewalk or bike path.
yeah, she works for a nearby university which is oddly anti-bicycle or scooter/motorcycle. We also live in St. Louis, Mizzery, so there's like *maybe* 2 months out of the year where a walk or bicycle commute would be somewhat pleasant. She has some mobility issues, so a walk to the actual office would be about 2.5 miles and take about 2+ hrs at her zombie walking pace. the 1.5 miles is to the parking garage, which you then take a shuttle bus from to the main campus. It's a complete cluster frack there with parking.
And this is an office setting where you have to arrive presentable.. not as a stinky, sweat-soaked mess.
and again.. St. Louis.. so trying to take the bus (ha!) would mean nearly just as much walking and and still take hours out of your day just to go those 2 miles. You'd be better off just walking straight there.
Which also has security concerns in our area as well..
Anyway... the Bolt will easily accommodate all her commuting and after-work errand needs on a single charge. Even with winter range loss.
(the university only provides a few 120v household outlets and limits parking at "EV" spots to only 4 hours! so she'd have to leave the office, ride the shuttle, move the car, ride the shuttle back.. and deal with the portable EVSE.. ) and with the mobile app she can pre-condition the car in the summer while on the shuttle to the garage.
Maybe in another 5 years I'll get the Bolt hand-me-down, and EV technology will allow us to get one with a longer range for easier road trip usage..
