EVs are quiet, don’t smell of oil, fuel, or grease, and don’t need much maintenance. Some, despite being priced reasonably, perform like sports cars. So, should you be driving one home this year?
EVs have evolved beautifully in a short time. They’re now available at multiple price points, go about 250 miles on a single charge, and can charge up to 80% in 30 minutes with a fast charger. That should take care of range anxiety for most people. Today, there are more public charging stations available than ever, and the infrastructure around that is still growing. In addition to that, most EV owners install reasonably-priced home chargers that make living with their EV easy.
Home Charging
In the early days, setting up a home charger was tedious, expensive, and incompatible with a lot of cars. Those days are gone. Home charging stations today can be plugged into existing outlets and work with all EVs and cost only a few hundred dollars. You even get price breaks like a $300 rebate in some states. The federal government is also offering a tax credit of up to $1,000 to install a home charging station. All you have to do then is install a home charger, plug it in and set it to charge when prices are lowest at night, and you’re ready to roll in the morning. It’ll cost less than your air conditioner costs to run. There are even portable chargers that you can take with you.
Cost
An EV battery costs less per mile when you compare it with gasoline. Despite varying rates, you’ll spend only about half of what you do per year on gas. The average fuel cost for an EV is $485 per year, whereas that for a gas-powered car is $1,117. EVs require less servicing thanks to their low-maintenance electric motors. EV owners will save an average of $4,600 in maintenance costs throughout the vehicle’s life. And now there are more affordable EVs than there ever were.
Eventually, you realize that over three years, the total ownership costs of an electric and gas car (including everything) are nearly the same. But EVs don’t have the hassle of emissions and maintenance costs.
