A decade+ of real-world experience with electric vehicles—what surprised us, what changed, and why I wouldn’t go back.
Getting Started
Around 2013, when it was time to replace my car, my husband suggested something I hadn’t even considered: going fully electric. I remember being surprised—I didn’t expect him to be the one encouraging the leap.
Up to that point, I had been driving hybrids, having owned three Toyota Prius models (or Prii, if you prefer), starting with the first generation, so I was already comfortable with the idea of driving something a little different. Still, moving to a fully electric vehicle felt like a bigger step—something we might try and see how it goes.
What drew us in was a mix of curiosity about the technology, a willingness to try something new, and a desire to make what we believed was a more environmentally conscious choice. We wondered whether it would simply be an experiment. Instead, it marked the beginning of a much larger shift in how we think about driving and what we expect from a car.
Fast forward more than a decade—and six electric vehicles later, from a Ford Focus Electric, VW e-Golf, and Nissan Leaf to two Hyundai Konas and now a Tesla Model Y—EV ownership has simply become part of everyday life in our house.
What Surprised Me Most About EV Ownership
Several things surprised me about owning an electric vehicle. One was how little maintenance EVs require compared to gas-powered cars—although my husband, an auto technician, was not surprised. Without oil changes and with fewer routine service needs, the experience felt noticeably simpler than what I was used to. Another unexpected benefit has been brake life. Because EVs use regenerative braking, we’ve found that brakes last much longer and require far fewer replacements than on gas vehicles.
The driving experience itself was also a surprise—it’s genuinely fun. EVs are quiet, smooth, and responsive in a way that’s hard to fully appreciate until you drive one.
But the biggest surprise was how much time I saved by not needing to go to the gas station. That alone has been one of the most noticeable quality-of-life improvements—and it’s something I don’t miss at all.
The Learning Curve: Range Anxiety and Charging
Like many new EV drivers, we experienced range anxiety at first. In practice, though, it was far less significant than we expected. Over more than twelve years of EV ownership, we’ve only truly felt it twice—once early on, before we fully understood our driving patterns and charging options, and once when we got a little cocky and decided to see just how far we could push it… which, unsurprisingly, led to a bit of self-inflicted range anxiety while scrambling to find a charger.
Planning longer trips in an electric vehicle did take some adjustment. It required thinking ahead in ways we hadn’t needed to before, but there are now several EV charging apps that make it much easier to map out charging stops and travel routes.
What Has Changed Over Time
One of the advantages of owning multiple electric vehicles over time is seeing just how quickly the technology has evolved. Charging infrastructure has expanded and is much easier to navigate today. Public charging stations are more widely available, and reliability has improved.
Battery range has also increased dramatically. Our first EV had a range of about seventy-five miles, while our current vehicle approaches three hundred miles on a full charge.
There are also far more choices available now across styles, price points, and features, making EV ownership accessible to many more drivers than when we started.
What I Recommend Before Buying an EV
For anyone considering switching to an electric vehicle, a few things stand out from our experience. My commute is less than twenty miles roundtrip, so we were able to charge at home using a standard 110-volt outlet. We did not install a Level 2 home charger until our most recent EV, but doing so has made ownership even more convenient. The Level 2 charger has the capacity to charge roughly ten times faster than a standard outlet, which makes a noticeable difference—especially when you need to recharge more quickly between drives.
It also helps to think realistically about how you actually drive day to day, since most routine driving falls comfortably within EV range. And you don’t have to commit all at once—we didn’t fully transition away from gas-powered cars until about six years ago, once we had enough experience to feel confident.
It’s also worth looking at the cost of driving more closely. Based on our experience, we estimate getting about 25.3 miles per dollar spent on charging, compared to about 8.8 miles per dollar for a comparable gas SUV when gas is $3 per gallon. With gas closer to $4 per gallon, that drops to roughly 6 miles per dollar. While exact numbers vary, the difference in cost per mile has been significant.
Why I Wouldn’t Go Back to Gas Cars
I don’t want to go back.
What once felt like a leap—even an experiment—has become second nature. Owning six electric vehicles doesn’t make us experts, but it does give us a perspective shaped by real-world EV ownership. For our lifestyle, switching to electric cars has been one of the simplest and most impactful changes we’ve made.
I hope electric vehicles continue to become more widely adopted, and that sharing what we’ve learned helps others decide whether EV ownership might work for them too.
