The LA Times guide to buying an electric car now

LOS ANGELES — Should you buy an electric car? If so, what kind? Pure electric? Plug-in hybrid? New? Used?

As autos writer for The Times, I'm often asked for advice on electric car buying — most recently on a drive on Interstate 5 from Los Angeles to Berkeley, where I live. I was charging up a new blue Kia EV6 outside the Harris Ranch restaurant when a woman with a young child approached.

What car is that, she wanted to know. She said she was thinking about a new EV. Should she buy one? After telling her what I did for a living, I came back with a question as my standard response: "Why do you want to buy an electric car?" She answered the way almost everyone does: "To help the environment."

"If doing your part to save the Earth is really your top priority," I told her, "you should keep driving the gasoline car you already own until it's ready for the junkyard. Then you should buy an electric car."

Here's the reason: If your gasoline car is in decent running condition, you're going to sell it or trade it in. The person who buys it will keep