Many people are jumping on the EV bandwagon these days, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Cox Automotive reports that the average price of new EVs has come down significantly in recent months.
In September 2023, it dropped by $14,300 compared to a year prior. As a result, a new EV might cost you just $2,800 more, on average, than the cost of buying a new car.
Of course, putting auto insurance in place might cost more for an EV than a gas-powered car due to the higher vehicle price and the components involved. And while you can anticipate savings on gas with an EV, you might also encounter other costs like a battery replacement that cancel those savings out. So all told, an EV could leave you paying more for a car at the end of the day.
But the higher cost isn’t the main reason I’m not considering an EV right now. Rather, the reason boils down to logistics.
The infrastructure just isn’t there yet
Recently, a friend and I took a day trip in her EV to a town we’d been wanting to explore. We spent a good part of the afternoon window-shopping and having a bite to eat.
When we were getting ready to grab some dessert and wind down before heading home, we drove around looking for a charging station — something the town boasted it had for free. But when we got to the area of those stations, we found that there were only four in total, and that they were already occupied.
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Thankfully, my friend’s car had enough charge to get us home without too much stress. But this experience just underscores the reason why I’m not ready for an EV. Based on what I’ve seen, there’s just not enough availability of EV charging stations to make this type of vehicle convenient for me.
When I need gas for my car, I drive to one of many stations in town to fill up. And even when I’m far from home, there are usually plenty of fuel stations to choose from.
With an EV, you might have to go significantly out of your way to find a charging station. In some cases, even if there’s a charging station to be found, it doesn’t mean it’s available.
Filling a car with gas can take just five to 10 minutes, depending on the size of your tank. And usually, you fill up and you’re on your way. But charging an EV’s battery could easily take 30 minutes or more, which explains why it can be so difficult to find an available charging station outside of your own home. That’s an inconvenience I’m not willing to grapple with all the time.
I may consider an EV once the infrastructure improves
Filling up my car can be a pain. So trust me when I say that I like the idea of not having to do it every week. It seems like it would be much more convenient to just charge my car overnight at home and avoid those weekly fill-ups.
But once you drive your EV a decent distance, you have to deal with charging your car. The same holds true if you’ve traveled out of town with your car. And because I’ve seen EV owners struggle in that regard, I know the time isn’t right for me to go the EV route just yet.
However, if the infrastructure improves, I’d certainly consider buying an EV in the future. And who knows? By then, the cost of buying one may end up being comparable to a gas-powered car, or even cheaper, depending on how things shake out.
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