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Love them or hate them, it seems, despite the other great alternatives, electric cars are the future. The rise in the industry in the last ten years has been immense, and almost every manufacturer is now providing a hybrid or fully electric option for their customers.
For car enthusiasts, electric cars have rung the bell for the beginning of the end, which combined with crossovers have seen the discontinuation of several decade-long models. What makes matters worse is that unlike sustainably fueled cars or hydrogen-powered vehicles, electric cars make no noise at all and are not great in the long run.
In this article, we’ve compiled the most boring electric cars ever put into production, and while it was difficult choosing just 10, the cars on this list make a perfect late-night read for dozing off to. So sit back, relax, and prepare to yawn.
10 2011 Nissan Leaf
Nissan had made some incredibly exciting cars in the past, but now they seem to go out of their way to make incredibly boring ones. With a face that not even a mother would love and a battery range that wouldn’t even last 80 miles when new, the 2011 Nissan Leaf is just a car that makes you feel a little bit sad inside.
The Leaf is actually meant to be stylized as ‘LEAF’, probably to stop you from falling asleep when trying to read about it. The Leaf was one of the first properly successful mainstream electric cars, but that’s about where the fun facts end for the model. The model was good for just 73 miles before needing to be charged according to the EPA, and with a charging speed of just 5 miles of range per hour, paint drys quicker and is more exciting too.
9 2017 Chevrolet Bolt
It’s quite amazing really just how much of a disaster the original Bolt was. From losses of thousands per car for Chevrolet to a battery that couldn’t be charged to full capacity for risk that it might set itself on fire, the only exciting thing about the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt was the chaos of its production.
There’s not much to say about the design of the Bolt, as it seems that anyone making a family car these days just picks up a premade stencil and draws their badge on it. But in terms of sales issues, there’s more to discuss than GM would like, with a UBS tear-down in 2017 reporting an estimated loss of $7418 on a base spec or $5520 on a higher spec model. Additionally, when 50,932 2017–2019 bolts had to be recalled due to potential battery fire risks, the Bolt was only advised to be charged to no higher than 90%. You’d forgive them for these issues if they were making some ground-breaking new electric vehicle, but the Bolt is as plain as it comes, with absolutely nothing notable at all.
8 2013 Renault Fluence ZE
Feeling sleepy yet? Well, the next stop are the French, and more specifically Renault, who haven’t really made anything of interest since the crazy but brilliant V6 Clio way back in 2005. The 2013 Renault Fluence ZE was never going to be that much better than the standard Fluence, but somehow, they made it worse.
The ‘revolutionary’ idea behind the ZE was to make the batteries as accessible as that in your TV remote or Xbox Controller, meaning a fully charged one could be swapped in for a dead one. Of course, this could only be done at a specific battery swapping station and not your own house or garage (because where would be the money in that). Needless to say that the ZE was a massive flop, with the highest worldwide sales year being just 2086 units. There was just nothing exciting about the ZE, and you couldn’t even buy it in the US even if you wanted to, making it one of the most boring Renualts of recent years.
7 2014 BMW i3
When the two models were first shown off, there was a great amount of excitement surrounding the i8, that was not really the case with its younger brother, and after its release, the 2014 BMW i3 was very quickly forgotten.
Despite being called the i3, the electric compact car couldn’t have looked further from a standard BMW 3 Series if it tried and instead fell into the design that it seems all smaller electric cars fall into: a hatchback without character. Sure it’s got a few more bits of different colored plastic than others but, in reality, it’s just a 1 Series that’s been hitting the gym. The i3 will go down in history as that car that you go “Remember that thing,” but only because of how unspectacular it is.
6 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Before Mitsubishi were murdering the legendary Eclipse and turning it into a crossover, they were building, the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Based on the similarly horrible Japanese Kei car the Mitsubishi i, the i-MiEV was brought to the US in 2012 and has been plaguing the roads of America ever since.
It may look like a very happy car, but that smile is definitely a fake one, the i-MiEV features an incredibly bare-bones interior and underwhelming battery life, which, when combined with no interesting features to speak of, makes the model the perfect yawning material, and one to avoid at all costs.
5 2012 Ford Focus Electric
There’s really not much to say about one of the dullest EVs ever made, it’s literally just a bog-standard Focus with a battery chucked in… that’s it. It also costs more than both the standard Focus and the Leaf, meaning that there was pretty much no market for it. Even the name was uninspiring, simply, the Ford Focus Electric.
You can imagine that the colors available for the Focus Electric were probably gray, light gray, and maybe beige to help match the model’s personality – or lack thereof. It did manage a slightly better range than most others on this list; however, with the official figure being 115 miles. But the Ford Electric does manage to achieve a blistering top speed of 84 mph, meaning that at least you know that no one would ever steal yours as a getaway car. Silver linings and all that eh?
4 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV
The Chevrolet Bolt EUV is Chevrolet’s answer to a demand that does not exist, the world needed no more massive electric boats disguised as cars for “all the family.” The 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV clearly took that last phrase a little too literally and designed something big enough to have Thanksgiving in.
Not only is the Bolt EUV electric, but it’s a crossover too, meaning that just when you thought the Bolt couldn’t get any worse, it did. The Bolt “Electric Utility Vehicle” does come with a couple of additions as well as the weight gain: having a new ‘Super Cruise’ advanced driver-assistance system and a panoramic sunroof, which just makes the starting price of $27,200 worth it.
3 2017 Tesla Model X
The Tesla Model X seems to be the new midlife crisis car, except unlike a dad buying a Boxster or a Cayenne, the Model X is just incredibly dull. Sure it has gullwing doors, but then so too did the Bricklin SV-1, and no one is in a hurry to buy one of them.
The thing about lots of Teslas is at least they stand out and look a little different from everything else on the road, but, because of its size and already outdated and boring design, the Model X blends into a crowd like it’s in car-shaped camouflage. Of course, it does have its little party features to show your mates that are exciting the first time you try them, but for everyday driving, you’re just sitting in a minimalist, silent, big box. There are possibly a couple of you who may have a Model X and disagree and that’s absolutely ok, but ask yourself this, was the Model X really your first choice?
2 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric
It’s always baffling when companies that are currently making some of the most exciting and out-there cars on the market at the moment also make things like this. Obviously, there’s the reason that they still need large sales totals, but if Hyundai just put the N Vision 74 into production, surely they could bin off the Kona Electric once and for all.
It’s not even that the Kona Electric is boring by general standards, it’s just, compared to everything else that Hyundai has going on right now, the model is a bit of a let-down. The design of the new second-generation model looks a little better though, so we’ll have to wait and see.
1 2020 Smart EQ Fortwo
Imagine this: you’re a proud owner of an E-Class or C-Class Mercedes-Benz, one day something goes wrong, and it has to be sent back to Merc for some repairs. They offer you a hire car replacement for a few days while it’s in the garage, and they give you this – imagine your disappointment.
Unfortunately, because Smart is owned by Mercedes, this is the reality, and the Smart EQ Fortwo is forced upon unwilling victims that hit their heads every time they enter it. At least it’s offered in a convertible, making it very easy to jump out of if your work colleagues spot you driving one. It’s quite unclear as to whom the EQ Fortwo is actually marketed towards, especially with electric models costing around $25,000.
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