Just wanted to add a "me too" vote: 2013 Nissan Leaf bought used for $8900, 10 of 12 bars of battery remaining, roughly a 25 mile commute ~3 days per week. Miles of range: ~82@city, ~60@highway and ~45@freeway, minus 10 miles if using heater or air conditioner. It's effectively a supercar doing 0-40 mph in about 2-3 seconds, and there's nothing quite as satisfying as leaving expensive sports cars in the dust at a green light. Yes they roar past me at 40, but they paid 10 times more than I did hahaha.

I don't believe in artificial limits for electric vehicles. There's no reason why they can't use a stronger motor, perhaps with extra aluminum wires (to address resource limits around copper and rare earth metals) that engage at high amperages so maybe efficiency drops from 95% to 85% while you floor it. There's no reason why an ultracapacitor couldn't provide twice the amperage for a few seconds of acceleration. $1000 for twice the performance would be worth it IMHO.

So I see these boutique electric vehicles as kind of a gimmick.