Four hundred thousand six hundred and one. That is the current mileage on my Toyota Sienna minivan, and it is still chugging along. Amazingly, this vehicle is from the last century (1999) and like all of our cars, we bought it second-hand in 2014. Five years later, although it has been reliable, I know that its time is running out and so have been researching what our next vehicle should be. And I have come to a clear conclusion – it has to be an EV.
1. Maintenance
The first reason is, as you may have gathered, we like maintenance free, reliable vehicles. When compared to gas cars, or ICE cars (internal combustion engine), EVs are much more reliable. Why? Because they have fewer parts to break. They do not have a massive engine with hundreds of moving parts, each one which can break, each one that needs fluids. An EV does not need an oil change and needs far less maintenance than an ICE car.
2. Charging & Range
Second, it’s easy to charge your vehicle at home. A regular gas vehicle needs to be driven to a gas station to get fuel. But if you spend eight hours a night sleeping in a bed, in a house, with electricity, then your EV can charge overnight at home. When you get up in the morning, you’re ready to go.
People have raised questions about so called, “range anxiety” but most people spend most of their time driving in the city, relatively close to their home. For the average commute, an EV will get you where you need to go and back on a daily basis. As more electric charging stations pop up in cities, EV users can top up their cars whenever they park their car.
3. Value
Third, there are reasonably priced EVs. In our situation, we will probably buy a second hand EV, and there are cars for around $10,000. That is fantastic, as like us, you may not want to get a huge loan for a car, so it’s great that there are vehicles at a low price. We’re looking at a Ford Focus EV, which costs about $8,000 in Ontario.
4. Incentives & Rebates
Fourth, there are government incentives towards the purchase of an electric vehicle. If we had bought one a few years ago, we could have taken advantage of the $14,000 rebate offered in Ontario. Unfortunately, in Ontario now we can only apply for the federal credit, but every little bit helps.
5. Emissions
Fifth, pollution stinks. Literally. So the fact that I could “idle” without spewing pollutants into the air, is one of the very attractive perks of EVs. Because, you know, climate change. Electric vehicles can help to move us away from our dependence on fossil fuels and that’s a good thing for all of us, especially those of us who like fresh air.
6. Savings
Finally, the cost savings of electricity vs gas are very convincing, even with the recent drop in gas prices. The costs at the pump are just compounding, so lowering that amount significantly makes a lot of financial sense.
For these reasons, buying an EV for our next vehicle makes a lot of sense. No emissions, government credits, low prices, easy to charge, low electricity costs and low maintenance costs; I’m convinced and excited.
If you don’t already own an EV, will you buy one as your next car? Let me know if the comments below.
