Plug-in electric vehicles are now viable for most lifestyles and budgets. With 60 models now commercially available and over 20 new models coming in 2021, over one million Americans have switched to driving electric.
“I switched a couple of years ago to a fully electric Hyundai Ioniq. It’s a quiet, glide ride like all electric cars. I’m never going back to gas again; you could say I’ve passed gas,” said Condor John Hankins, whose wife Suz got rid of “Janis” a Mercedes Benz diesel and now has a hybrid Toyota.
In addition to new and improved models, “this year will include at least four full size pickups. Many of us are waiting with excitement to get in our EV truck and explore new places,” said Kent Bullard, our chapter’s Transportation Chair and a member of the EV Advocates of Ventura County.
“Range anxiety” has become a thing of the past as both new longer-range vehicles and many more charging locations have come on line. If you are a two-car family, one could be fully electric for short trips and commutes, the other a hybrid for long trips. The Hyundai mentioned above has a 140-mile range and is perfectly sufficient for tri-county trips while the hybrid is logging in at a 172-miles-per gallon equivalent. Fast chargers are popping up like poppies after a rain, as more hotels, shopping centers, parking lots and destinations are providing charging stations; some of which are free to use.
“At public charging stations in the city of Ventura, it costs a dollar per hour which puts a 25-mile range into my electric car,” Hankins said.
This is backed up by numbers; fueling a car with electricity costs roughly the same as if gas were $1/gallon, thanks to EV’s performance efficiency and the lower cost of electricity. Electricity prices are also far more stable than gasoline prices, allowing drivers to avoid the risk of future price spikes.
But most EV drivers charge their vehicles at home, with many also having solar for self-generation to further reduce costs. EVs never require a trip to the gas station and your hands will never smell like toxic petrochemicals. EVs have far fewer moving parts than gasoline cars. There’s no engine, transmission, spark plugs, valves, fuel tank, tailpipe, distributor, starter, clutch, muffler, or catalytic converter. There are a lot fewer things to break down or service, so there are no oil changes and maintenance costs are much lower.
Plug-in vehicles offer a quiet, smooth and powerful ride. An electric motor provides full torque from a standstill and completely changes the experience of getting onto a fast-moving highway.
Despite continued improvement, too many people in the U.S. live where the air is unhealthy for them to breathe. EVs have no tailpipe and therefore no emissions – imagine how clean the air could be around you with everyone driving an EV!
EVs powered by the grid currently produce 54 percent less (lifetime) carbon pollution than gasoline cars, which could grow to 71 percent by 2050 as our power supply gets cleaner. Even better, installing solar panels on your roof drops your car’s carbon pollution close to zero. Wouldn’t you rather get your fuel from your roof than ship it on tankers from halfway around the world?
Our addiction to imported oil has huge national security implications. The U.S. spends nearly a half billion dollars on foreign oil every day, mostly for transportation. Every time you fill up your car, you’re sending a check to foreign countries to pay for their oil.
By the way, a new California executive order requires that "by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be zero-emission vehicles." Existing vehicles that run on fossil fuel would be allowed to keep operating.
Find out more, browse the electric cars (and hybrids) now available here:
www.PlugInAmerica.org