Apr 14, 2021 3 min read

I saw a commercial the other day from a luxury carmaker touting its new electric sedan. Electric cars seem to be popping up everywhere now, and even auto racing has an all-electric circuit, which blows my mind. I can’t imagine going to a racetrack, hearing the announcer say, “Drivers, start your engines,” and then hearing … nothing. No roar of the engines? That must be interesting!

That car ad got me thinking that after decades of being told electric vehicles (EVs) are the future – they’re finally here. I often see Teslas cruising beside me on the interstate, and those charging stations are springing up all over the place. My car is only 3 years old. I bought it when it was a year old with only 1,500 miles on it and I plan on driving it for the better part of the next decade. It dawned on me that by that time, the next car I buy may very well be electric.

As for those charging stations at grocery stores, malls and along the turnpike, I’m guessing there must be enough EVs now to warrant someone building them. My two biggest questions are how long does the charge last and how much does it cost to charge? A quick online search shows it is less expensive to charge an EV compared to filling up your gas tank. Those public charging spots apparently either take credit cards or you enroll in some sort of subscription-like payment program. One example I found said if you drive 540 miles per month, it would cost around $21.60 each month to charge your EV (using the average U.S. household cost of 12 cents per kWh). I drive around three times that much for work, so I’m guessing my charges would add up to around $65 per month. Right now, I probably spend around $100 per month in gasoline.

If you plug in at home each night, great. But charging options at work are sparse, and I don’t want to sit at a rest stop for hours to power up my ride, let alone worry about losing juice on the highway. It looks like you can either use a regular home plug for a super slow charge, buy a special, faster, home charger or pay for those super-fast public chargers that take about an hour to zap you up for another 250 miles.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about gas tax revenue dropping due to less traffic during the pandemic and more EVs hitting the road. So you knew the government would get its sticky little fingers going. Turns out there’s a move in Harrisburg to charge EV owners fees to help fund road maintenance. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out, but, for now, I’ll enjoy not having to buy another car for several years!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.