It’s My EV-iversary!

Today marks exactly one year since I “went electric” by getting an Electric Vehicle. My journey was from no car to car and it has been great! No regrets in going electric. There have been some learning moments (we don’t have a garage or driveway!), and longer trips require a bit of extra planning, but it is more fun, quiet, and enjoyable than other cars I’ve driven the last decade. The only sad part is I’ll have to give it back soon since the lease is up in 7 months!

As a brief rundown of some statistics about my year:

• Just shy of 13,000 miles
• Driving that far required about 3.2 MWh of energy
• Which means I cycled the battery over 50 times in the year
• Filling up the “tank” (battery) cost as little as $6 (actually free a couple times) and as much as $38, though the service I use to charge most often costs about $18 for a full charge (200–240 mile range)

Electric vehicles benefit from lower number of parts, so less repair and maintenance (no oil changes!). The regenerative braking, which captures energy while you slow down to recharge the battery, also means breaks last nearly forever. And honestly, a highlight has been never having to stop at a gas station…especially now that the price of gas has hit $5/gallon!

Recently, I took a Lyft ride. It was the first gas-powered car I had been in in a long time. It sounded terrible! All the extra noises of belts, gears, and extra squeaks I don’t know where they emanated from. Worried perhaps this was an old vehicle, I asked the driver about the car…it was less than a year old! I have gotten very used to the quiet of the electric ride.

Driving electric is the future we need to get to as quickly as possible. Driving by burning fossil fuels wastes over 90% of the energy in the fuel to move you…and it generates toxic pollution. Electric vehicles have no emissions and can be powered by clean energy sources (moving to renewables on the grid is already happening rapidly!). It’s an important step in the Electrification of Everything, the fastest possible way to decarbonizing and averting the worst impacts of climate change.

Have you gone electric with your ride? Have questions about it? Would love to hear your feedback and support those who are electric-curious to make the leap!