I had a VW diesel that I knew VW was going to buy back from me. To replace that car, I bought a 2016 Chevy Volt on a 20% off sale. This is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, about 60 miles range in the summer, but a gas engine if you need to go farther. I go to and from work, less than 30 miles round trip, over roads where the max speed is probably 30 mph. I did not get gap insurance due to the 20% off sale and I thought it highly unlikely I would get in an accident that would total the car.
I did not drive the Volt, though, instead driving the VW until I sold the VW back to VW. I had 2,740 miles on the Volt when I got rear-ended (no one hurt in either car):
Doesn't look too bad, right? It's totaled. Why? Because the repair shop says the electric cars are too complex to fix and the insurance agencies would rather total them. So, instead of fixing the car, the insurance company paid me $27,000 (which is about $5,000 less than what I owe). MORAL: Buy gap insurance for electric cars/PHEVs.
As an aside, I have one data point from when I drove the Volt, in the winter before getting hit. My electric costs were $50/month and I also bought gas (because the engine comes on when it's cold out), for $15. So, that one data point was $65/month for this car, which is about what my VW was costing me. Now, the Volt was 100% electric when I drove it a few weeks in the summer, so this would change, and the VW would only last about 2 weeks on one tank, so every so often there would be three tanks of gas in a month. But the difference between a gas car and an electric isn't much where I live. I now own a Honda Civic, but don't have any idea what monthly gas costs will be.
