If you have an EV it is very helpful to have an easy access to level 2 charging at home or work or nearby to someplace you spend a lot of time. But if you want to travel a long distance, you will need access to fast chargers. If you have a Tesla, that is not usually a problem since they have a network of chargers across the country. In theory they will be open to all soon and some of them are usable for non-Teslas now. Me, I won't buy one due to the actions of their CEO but that is another story.

There are several aps you can get on your cellphone that really help. My favorite is ABRP. It quickly gave me a dozen stations that I could use to get to visit my in-laws in southern Ohio. Electrify America has a broad network of reliable stations and you can get information about all of them on their ap. EVgo has a lot of charging stations although they are not the most reliable. Still, their ap is another way of checking what is available.

We are not yet at the point where recharging an EV is as easy as getting gas but it is no longer impossible to go long distances, it just takes planning

Having driven a fully electric vehicle for about a year now and having put a lot of research and thought into the purchase before that), here are a few thoughts I have:

1) EVs are far more energy efficient than gas cars.  We are all familiar with the MPG figure that is displayed on a car's window sticker.  Here are the MPG figures for some common cars: 2024 Toyota Prius (front-wheel drive model), at 57 MPG; 2024 Ford F-150 (6-cylinder turbo), 20 MPG;  2024 Subaru Outback (4-cylinder), 28 MPG.   Here are the equivalent EPA figures from some common EVs: 2024 Tesla Model 3 (long range all-wheel drive), 130 MPGe; 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning, 68 MPGe; 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 all-wheel drive), 99 MPGe.   

2) What is MPGe?  Fully electric vehicles don't use gasoline, so its energy is not directly related to gallons of gas.  But a gallon of gas is known to have 33.7 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, which allows a mathematical conversion to "miles per gallon equivalent" which then allows a useful comparison between an EV and a non-EV.  If you're curious, the EPA starts with a different figure, kilowatt-hours (kWh) per 100 miles which then can be translated into MPGe. For example, the Tesla Model 3 is rated at 26 kWh per 100 miles; divide 33.7 kWh by 26 miles and then multiply by 100 = 130 MPGe. 

3) Although Massachusetts electricity rates are among the highest in the country, the overall cost to fuel an EV is likely to be less than a comparably equipped gas vehicle.  Taking the above figures, the Tesla Model 3 which in all-wheel drive form puts out nearly 400 horsepower is still almost 2.3 times more efficient than a front-wheel drive Prius.  So even if electricity is expensive compared to other regions, the inherent efficiency of the electric drive train can more than offset high utility prices.

4) Electric vehicles' sticker prices are higher than similarly-equipped gas cars, but right now many dealers and manufacturers are offering large discounts on in-stock EVs.  I've used the website www.theevfinder.com to comparison shop all dealers in New England selling a specific model.  Sorting by the features you want, you can quickly identify which dealers have your exact vehicle and how many such vehicles are in stock.  For instance, there are still 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5s on dealer lots with some dealers advertising over $10,000 of dealer discounts.  Dealers are also offering some aggresive lease deals if that's your preferred route.   Also note that the $7500 federal tax credit applies to only a limited set of qualifying vehicles; however, dealers can apply that $7500 as part of the lease, resulting in lease deals for about $300 per month in total cost. 

We started out leasing a KIA Niro EV in 2020.  We loved it so much that when the lease ended we bought a 2023 Kia EV6 RWD Wind.  Sue likes the smooth, quiet ride (but she won't let me put it in Sport mode when she's in the car).  The only challenge with this EV is that it's deceptively fast, so I have to pay attention to the speedometer.

We installed a Level 2 charger in our garage, which handles most of our charging needs.  Trips to VT, upstate NY and PA are easily managed with public charging stations.  Using Electrify America's DC fast chargers, we can go from 20% to 85% in ~20 minutes.

It’s good for the planet, it’s great fun to drive, and it’s beautiful! I love that it’s extremely responsive, smooth-running, and quiet. It has a full-size trunk and it’s roomier than my old Mercury Milan hybrid because its big battery runs along the underside of the car. I plug it into my home charger at night and I’ve stopped planning when and where to buy gas. 

We got one of the only ones they made of these beauties! I've always driven Subarus, so we were on a waitlist and I think they stopped making these. We get about 17 miles to the charge, but we also installed a home charger so we're able to do a lot of local trips on electric. And our electricity is renewable.

Plug-in-hybrids (PHEV) can be a useful first step in electric vehicle ownership.  I hope my example will help convince someone who is not quite sold on a fully-electric vehicle right now but is open to the idea and willing to give a PHEV a try.  

I bought my PHEV new in August 2020. It has a 10 kilowatt hour battery and EPA rating of 28 miles of all-electric range; in gas-only mode it is EPA rated at 39 mpg combined city/highway.  I typically drive all electric around town and use gasoline only when I need to maintain speed on certain uphill roads, when I am driving on highways, and on road trips. 

I typically set the car's timer to charge between 2am and 4am.  Overnight charging accomplishes two goals that are important to me: 1) electric grid demand is typically at its overnight low at that time which means the grid is likely emitting a below-average amount of pollution (the grid is typically dirtiest at the evening peak, usually between 5pm and 7pm); and 2) charging overnight in the garage is more convenient than going to the gas station every few weeks.  

In 2023, I drove my PHEV about 13,000 miles and consumed about 75 gallons of gasoline.  Applying the EPA rating of 39 mpg across 75 gallons of gas, I estimate about 3000 miles driven on gas and so estimate 10,000 miles driven on electricity, much of which was the result of overnight charging.  I estimate that by driving 10,000 miles on electricity, I displaced 250 gallons of gasoline consumption with electricity obtained from the grid at its (relative) cleanest and cheapest point (if you want to nitpick, the grid is having increasingly frequent days when rooftop solar causes the midday low in demand to be cleaner and cheaper than the overnight low, so charging from about 10am to 2pm on a sunny day may be even more advantageous-‘Duck curve’ days becoming more frequent as solar power spreads - ISO Newswire)

I think of my situation like this: I've got an electric vehicle about 75% of the time, and a hybrid 25% of the time.  Because I can charge in my garage and because I might have only one or two long road trips per year, I don't have any of the "range anxiety" that seems to be the most-commonly mentioned reason why people won't consider owning an electric vehicle.  By having a car that can plug in and trying to charge whenver I can, I am now very familiar with the charging stations located convenient to my day-to-day travel, and with using phone apps (I recommend plugshare) to find chargers.  Because of this familarity, my eventual switchover to fully-electric driving will be very easy (and increasingly easier as more chargers get built).