We had been waiting for a while just because there was no reason to replace our car-payment-free household with a car payment before one of the vehicles crapped out…
…But to be honest we’d wanted an EV for almost a decade at this point.
I test drove my first EV back in maybe 2015… but couldn’t justify the price tag at the time to buy a new one, so we went with a cheap used car with high MPG and relatively low mileage overall.
It’s just now that for the first time, it makes sense - not just from a “gas is expensive” standpoint, but from a “this might be cheaper than maintaining an older car (100k+ miles, 15+ years old)…” and also a “gas might not just be expensive but unavailable at some point given the supply shock currently wreaking havoc in other places besides the US” standpoint…
We like to plan for contingencies whenever it makes sense to do so.
We just bought our first ever EV - a used 2021 model with <50k miles for less than half the price of a brand new model… and it’s amazing.
Already calculated that just in the few times we’ve charged it since buying - with gas being almost $4/gal… we have spent <$5 in electricity with just a little 120v (thanks @jjj4211) wall adapter (level 1) at only 70% efficiency to add roughly 250 miles of range.
That equates to roughly $40 in gas… even with the high-MPG car.
On top of that, being able to start it in a parking lot or even an indoor garage to cool it down in the summer or warm it in the winter before having to get in or worry about filling an enclosed space with carbon monoxide, a quieter drive, and just more modern conveniences and safety features thanks to it just being a decade newer than our last vehicle made it seem like a somewhat sensible purchase for us, if not perhaps a little “overly pro-active.”
But charging at home is a game changer compared to gas, cost and convenience both. If you can’t charge at home though, it’s rough as the commercial charging stations are pretty pricey, before Iran or was generally more expensive to fast charge than gas per mile. Home charging for me is like getting 1.25 a gallon gas. Except without the oil changes, the belts…
We had been waiting for a while just because there was no reason to replace our car-payment-free household with a car payment before one of the vehicles crapped out…
…But to be honest we’d wanted an EV for almost a decade at this point.
I test drove my first EV back in maybe 2015… but couldn’t justify the price tag at the time to buy a new one, so we went with a cheap used car with high MPG and relatively low mileage overall.
It’s just now that for the first time, it makes sense - not just from a “gas is expensive” standpoint, but from a “this might be cheaper than maintaining an older car (100k+ miles, 15+ years old)…” and also a “gas might not just be expensive but unavailable at some point given the supply shock currently wreaking havoc in other places besides the US” standpoint…
We like to plan for contingencies whenever it makes sense to do so.
We just bought our first ever EV - a used 2021 model with <50k miles for less than half the price of a brand new model… and it’s amazing.
Already calculated that just in the few times we’ve charged it since buying - with gas being almost $4/gal… we have spent <$5 in electricity with just a little 120v (thanks @jjj4211) wall adapter (level 1) at only 70% efficiency to add roughly 250 miles of range.
That equates to roughly $40 in gas… even with the high-MPG car.
On top of that, being able to start it in a parking lot or even an indoor garage to cool it down in the summer or warm it in the winter before having to get in or worry about filling an enclosed space with carbon monoxide, a quieter drive, and just more modern conveniences and safety features thanks to it just being a decade newer than our last vehicle made it seem like a somewhat sensible purchase for us, if not perhaps a little “overly pro-active.”
Just a small correction, 120v.
But charging at home is a game changer compared to gas, cost and convenience both. If you can’t charge at home though, it’s rough as the commercial charging stations are pretty pricey, before Iran or was generally more expensive to fast charge than gas per mile. Home charging for me is like getting 1.25 a gallon gas. Except without the oil changes, the belts…