The Cheapest New EV For Sale Today Can Cost Less Than $10,000—Here's How
You’ll need to put in work, qualify for some incentives, and live in one particular state. Oh, and hope you like the Chevy Bolt.
Switching to an EV isn't for everyone, but for some folks it makes a lot of sense to ditch dino juice for electrons. The problem is, generally speaking, EVs are still on the expensive side (well, so are gas models of late, but still). Even when considering federal incentives such as tax credits, there is the added costs of installing a charging system at home, if you own a home and can do so.
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With all of that in mind, the cheaper an EV's initial purchase price is, the more appeal it has for would-be customers. How does less than 10 grand sound? If you don’t need a particularly huge car, then you might be able to pick up a 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV for roughly $8,700 or the slightly taller, SUV-ish Bolt EUV for about $10,300, according to a report from CarScoops.
Before you start jumping up and down, excited that you'll soon be trading in your gas-powered vehicle for a shiny new electric Chevy and possibly pocketing money in the process, you'll need to meet a very specific set of criteria to get a Bolt for that price. Specifically, you’ll need to be a “low-income” resident of certain regions of California. You guessed it, this discount is part of a state government program called “Clean Cars 4 All.” You’ll also need to “retire” an internal combustion engine (ICE) car that was built in 2005 or earlier.
Let’s get into the math, per CarScoops. When you retire an eligible ICE vehicle, you can get a max rebate of $9,500. Then you throw in the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, which still applies, even on top of the California rebate. Finally, the Bureau of Automotive Repair’s Consumer Assistance Program provides up to $1,500 in California for vehicle retirement. That brings the grand total to $18,500 in discounts.
Subtract those incentives from the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt’s starting price of $27,165, and that takes it down to $8,665. The Bolt EUV's effective price descends to $10,295 after the discounts. And then you do have to figure in that old gas car you'll retire. That said, remember that Chevrolet already ended production on the Bolt EV, and tons of them are still sitting on dealer lots, so you may be able to get one for even less. As in any case, it's best to shop around for the best deal.
The Bolt EV is a fun-to-drive, practical EV with impressive range, so getting one for $8,665 while offloading an old ICE car is a deal that’s hard to beat. If you qualify, of course.
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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