Gadgetory

not long ago if you owned an electric vehicle you are probably retired lived in Florida not anymore I'm Brian Cooley with the top five electric vehicles that are ready for primetime these are v's from major makers that are all sold in the US honestly that mostly means California where the new law requires car makers sell a certain number of V's but that said these are all well sorted and poised for mainstream success or at least a good shot at it no golf carts here and the prices I quote are will destination charged but before federal and state tax credits because we're not a tax website we're gonna rank these guys by their range on a charge and their miles per gallon equivalent that's kind of the MPG rating for an electric car will also tell you where they fit on the price scale let's go number five the Toyota rav4 electric range 103 miles Ege seventy six prices a little over 50 grand bass this is the new rav4 electric not to be confused with that cut AB warmed-over one that they did original it's the only crossover on our list by the way and it's a real fresh entrant on the market it impresses us as the only non Tesla product that has a Tesla powertrain nice pedigree handles well and that range of three digits over 100 miles is the only time you're gonna see that until we get all the way to number one especially impressive considering this is also the tallest thing on our list number four the Fiat 500e range of 87 miles mpge 116 prices a little over 32 grand now this recent entrant comes in with edge you saw great numbers on Range mpge and price a nice trifecta it's more refined better handling and more fun to drive than a standard Fiat 500 charge time is just four hours or so if you've got a 240 outlet but I slot the Fiat at number four because on a 110 outlet the charge time is glacial 24 hours for a full battery charge you'll have taken the bus to a four-door Nissan dealer and bought something else by then it's also a little too small for most Americans to take seriously the same still goes for the Fiat brand at this point number three the Ford Focus electric range 76 miles mpge 105 prices out just under 40 now pushing 40 grand makes you say for our focus but the car looks great it's tacked up as Ford's off an arm and leverages the underpinning of what is already a great conventional compact car plus it's got a very sporty demeanor along with its green one and they can do a real fast charge full charge in three hours and change on a 240 outlet which can mean hours less on the team than its competitors the chief one being number two the Nissan Leaf range 73 miles MPGe 115 now pricing at under 30 grand that's part of why swapped out the leaf and the focus on this list since the last time we did it because of a massive price cut that now makes the leaf the cheapest evey that seats five now the leaf still looks like Barney it's biased toward a smooth ride more than a sporting one and it charges more slowly on 240 than that Focus but the new lower price lower cost to charge and run and at least the availability of a 480 volt charge if you can find one are all compelling to this market before I get to number one I can tell you it will not be the Chevy Volt or the Fisker Karma as important of electrified cars as they are they aren't strictly electric cars they are range extenders that's a separate list once there are five to compare oh and the next time we do this rundown the pending Chevy spark evey may bump somebody off of it our number-one electric car hands down is the Tesla Model S range 208 miles MPG e89 base-price though a little over 70 grand now it's the first ev2 in car of the year it's also like the highest rated car Consumer Reports has ever looked at it looks hot goes like hell has great range and you can even option that range up to 265 miles it's 17 inch central cabin screen rewrites the rules of cabin tech on the other hand the former base model which got about a hundred and something miles of range was just killed off so now you start at over 70 grand and if you want the 265 mile range it started a little over 80 grand and up still this car doesn't just accomplish an electric conversion it converted the market to be ready for an electric car that really aspires we cover electric and electrified car innovations all the time that's CNET on cars.com i'm brian coulis thanks for watching you