Top 3 things you should know before purchasing an Electric Vehicle
I often commute by bike (well, when there was commuting) but my husband and I both have jobs that require cars so we’ve transitioned to EVs. We’re now in year 3 of having two EVs and what’s the outcome? Our fuel costs have been slashed by 40-80% respectively and our maintenance costs are way down too. And the best part… they are way more fun to drive!
Despite the long list of benefits, we did make a few blunders along the way that I hope you can avoid if you need to buy a car in the future.
The first charging blunder is that we didn’t plan for two EVs. I bought mine first and hired an electrician to run the wiring for charging. Of course in our 100-year-old home, our electrical panel is the furthest-most point from our driveway. What I didn’t anticipate was that my amazing husband would switch to an EV two years later. That meant another electrician and 7 holes punched in our basement ceiling to run the wiring needed for his car. If I’d planned ahead for charging two cars at the outset, I’d have saved a lot of money on electrical work.
And there was a second charging blunder too. My charger has a long cord and my husband’s is shorter, but guess whose charger is closer to the cars? Mine with the long cord of course, so watch out for that too.
And the third blunder I made, the type of EV I bought, relates to why we needed two chargers instead of one. I bought my EV in 2017, and while I’d really wanted to buy a Chevy Bolt (an all-electric vehicle) there wasn’t enough supply so I bought a Chevy Volt (a plug-in electric/gas hybrid). It seemed like a great first EV because it has 80km of electric range before gas kicks in to go another 500km. My thinking was that I mostly drive in the city so 80km was plenty, and when I occasionally went out of town I’d just use a bit of gas. Turns out that was wrong.
Plug-in hybrid electric/gas cars are tempting but the emission reductions are disappointing.
My plug-in hybrid EV wasn’t a good choice in terms of reducing emissions. Yes I drive emission-free in the city all the time, but anytime I go out of town, I drive way more kilometers than I did in the city, so the car isn’t nearly as clean overall as I had hoped. If everyone follows this hybrid route, we’re essentially putting off electrification of our transportation for another 20 years.
Car companies like the hybrid EVs because they’re easier to sell and they still need lots of expensive maintenance like a gas car. Those are exactly the reasons not to buy one! I wish I’d taken the plunge and done all-electric the first time. It also would have saved us money on the electrical work. My car charges at a regular 120V outlet but when my husband bought his car it made sense to run a 240V line. If I’d run a 240V line when I bought my car, we could have just upgraded to a two-headed charger when the second EV arrived. And it turns out, charging on a long distance trip is super easy, we just needed an open mind to learn something new (like the early gas drivers did!)
With a Thule box on top our little family car can transport SUV-sized cargo.
An exciting outcome of buying EVs is that our neighbours have now done it too. We have 4 immediate neighbours which makes us a climate-conscious pocket of 6 EVs in close proximity. Our collective emission reductions are impressive, about 25 tonnes annually. So fun to drive and contagious too.
Good luck with yours!