A Basic Primer on Electric Vehicles

Thinking of buying an electric vehicle? Think they suck and only idiots drive them? Well, here’s a relatively impartial batch of information on electric vehicles.

I will compare EVs to cars powered by internal combustion engines (ICE cars). I won’t address hybrids except to say that they have both the best and the worst of EVs and ICE cars. The best in that they get better gas mileage than a strictly ICE car. Worst in that they have even more moving parts than a regular ICE car, since they typically have both a gas engine and an electric motor. So, more stuff to break or wear out. Still, these days most cars of any type are pretty reliable- not like when I was a kid and you’d have to start replacing parts like alternators, water pumps, hoses and belts after just a few years, and needed a tune-up every 10,000 miles. And back then the warranty was only a year or 10,000 miles. Yeah, I’ve been around a while.

Don’t them things catch fire a lot? Actually, no. EVs aren’t full of gas, so in an accident they’re way less likely to catch fire. ICE cars do catch fire from time to time, although it’s not anywhere near a leading cause of fires or death. EVs rarely catch fire, much less often than ICE cars. There are two differences: First, when EVs catch fire they’re harder to put out and it takes longer. But fire departments now know how to deal with EV fires. The other difference is that when an EV catches fire the media feels compelled to report on it. Nobody reports on an ICE fire unless a kid dies or it burns down a whole house. And those EV fires that come from e-bikes? They’re almost always from cheapo after-market batteries, not batteries that came with the bike. Or at least that’s what the media keeps reporting.

The main differences between EVs and ICE cars: Simply put, an EV is propelled by an electric motor or electric motors, powered by a very big lithium-ion battery. Very big as in it takes up half of the underside of the car and weighs over 1000 lbs. An ICE car is propelled by an engine burning gasoline (or diesel fuel). A full 20 gallon tank of gas weighs around 140 lbs. (diesel fuel is a little heavier). A car engine might weigh around 400 lbs., obviously depending on the car, and not including the weight of the transmission. An electric car motor might weigh a couple of hundred pounds. But really, which parts weigh what isn’t terribly relevant. EVs are heavier- For example a Tesla Model Y weighs around 4400 lbs, versus a Camry at around 3400 lbs. (weights vary by model).

The reason weight is relevant is that the more weight, the faster the tires wear out. But that’s not the main reason that EVs burn through tires. The main reason is low-end torque. When you slam on the gas in an ICE car, it takes a while for the engine to produce a lot of power, because ICE engines don’t produce a lot of torque or horsepower at low engine RPMs. So they accelerate gradually. An EV has full torque starting from zero, so if you slam on the accelerator (technically not a ‘gas’ pedal) it really moves. And that wears out tires. A quick internet search says that the tires wear out 20-50% faster, with a greater consensus around 20%. My guess is that the higher number is because tires made specifically for EVs are different- they’re engineered for low rolling resistance (for greater range) and to be quieter (because when the car itself is pretty quiet, tire noise is more noticeable, so they want to reduce it). So they’re not quite comparing apples to apples, but that’s not so relevant because what you’re looking at is owning an EV vs. not. Plus, EV internet forums do have people complaining about having to replace tires more often, although a big part of this is how you drive. If you take advantage of a car that can go zero to sixty in four seconds, you’re gonna burn through tires faster. Enjoy the ride- you’re paying for it. Still, if a set of tires is $1200 and you go through them in 40,000 miles, that’s 3 cents a mile, versus obviously half that cost if they last 80,000 miles. So, not a big part of car ownership, you’re just stuck paying $1200 all at once, not like paying for gas or electricity a little bit every week.

So let’s talk about ownership cost. EVs do go through tires faster. However most other costs of ownership are lower. Because of regenerative braking (the car uses the motors to slow down, which recharges the battery and saves using the brake), you will rarely touch the brake pedal in an EV. Even holding on a hill, the motor does that (some EVs have settings so you can choose how regenerative braking works; this is a general, basic essay so please don’t start a debate).

EVs don’t need oil or other fluid changes, no belts or hoses. Some EV owners brag that their only cost other than electricity is washer fluid. Do the motors wear out? Nope, not really. What about that giant battery? (EVs also have a regular car battery, to power the car’s electronics, and that battery gets recharged by the big battery) Well, the warranty is long on EV batteries. They do occasionally break, and if the car’s under warranty you get another one. If not, well, you’re paying maybe $10,000 or more. But EV battery failure is pretty rare. So is ICE engine failure, but it happens. The difference is, nay-sayers don’t spend time talking about it. Because it’s rare.

EVs are also way cheaper to drive. If you have a house with electricity. If you live in a place where you can charge your car only from a place you pay, it probably costs about as much for electricity as you’d pay for gas. It might be 20-30% more or less, but the difference isn’t huge.

The difference is huge if you can charge at home, which most people do most of the time. Then, depending on what you pay for electricity, you can save a ton of money. And some power companies give you a discount or rebate if you charge at night. I live in NY and pay over 25c/kwh for electricity, but for charging at night I get 10c back. Pretty good? It gets way better. Because I don’t actually pay for electricity- I have solar panels on my house that produce more electricity than I use, even with an electric car. But I still get that 10c/kwh back. So they’re paying me to drive my car!

(information about solar panels)

If you live somewhere where your electricity costs, say, 10c/kwh, you’re doing well. Let’s do a comparison, a car getting 30 mpg, and $3 gas. So, driving a mile costs a dime. By  comparison, let’s say your EV requires 300 watt-hours to drive a mile (this is a typical amount). If you’re paying 15c/kwh, it costs you 4.5c to drive a mile. Less than half the cost of gas.

But let’s talk about what everyone focuses on- range and charging time.

You don’t think about range when you buy a gas car, because you can drive 250+ miles before stopping for gas. And most people don’t want to drive for more than, say, 4 hours, without stopping anyway. You stop to buy gas, then you park and use the bathroom. Five minutes to buy gas, another five minutes for other stuff, it’s a ten minute stop.

That’s away from home. Near home, which is probably 75%+ of your driving, it’s a five minute stop to buy gas.

Every single time you buy gas, it’s 5 minutes.

Now let’s look at the EV charging stop. When you buy gas, you fill the tank, because why not? With an EV, you don’t charge all the way to 100% on the road, because EV batteries charge more slowly as they get charged. So you basically drive the car down to 10%, then charge enough to get to the next charging station (or home) with a little bit of a cushion. The car’s computer calculates all this and tells you where to stop and charge, so you don’t need to figure anything out. A charging stop might be, say, twenty minutes. The difference is, you can leave your car charging and go use the bathroom (or eat a meal- and if that’s the case, why not charge to 100%?). You can’t do that at a gas station unless there’s two drivers and one stays with the car. Because otherwise when you’re finished filling your tank you’re blocking the pump and people get pissed off.

So, you think that EVs suck because of that extra ten minutes? That’s when you’re travelling. When you’re around home- commuting to work, visiting nearby friends, shopping, most of what you use your car for- you’re charging the car at night at home. And that doesn’t suck up 5 minutes of your time. It’s ten seconds to plug your car in, another ten seconds the next morning to unplug, and you don’t have to do that every night, just when you need to.

So if you charge at home 75% of the time, charging an EV takes about the same amount of your time, on average, as buying gas would.

The only difference is that passengers might complain, because they’re not with you when you charge at home. BUT- you’re also always leaving for your trip with a full charge, whereas most people don’t make an extra stop just to fill their gas tank before a trip.

So it’s pretty much a wash, on charging time. And where did I get that 75% number? I don’t commute to work (which would increase the 75%, thus a bigger advantage for EVs) but I do travel away from home for work (which would decrease it). So I’d say that most people charge at home MORE than 75% of the time.

And when I’m on the road? A lot of hotels have free car charging. So that’s a benefit in both time and money (although it does take a little time to choose a hotel that has a charger, and I recommend that you call the hotel directly to confirm, because sites like hotels dot com have a lot of misinformation).

But there is one big disadvantage of an EV when it comes to road trips, if you’re towing something. If you’re driving an ICE car and you have to stop to refuel twice as often because you’re towing something heavy, you accept that extra five minutes. But if becomes 20 minutes with an EV, that’s annoying. Oh, one other disadvantage of an EV when you’re towing? Fitting next to a charger. Some charging stations have one or two chargers at the side of an aisle, rather than at the back of a space, for vehicles towing. But it does make charging on the road more complicated. I’m not saying don’t get an EV if you tow- you can still have all the advantages of an EV if you tow. You’re just going to have to rent a gas or diesel vehicle for your road trips.

And another disadvantage, depending on where you live- on the east and west coasts there are plenty of charging stations. I’m not sure that is the case in some of the barely populated areas of the country. But most of us aren’t driving through Montana or Wyoming, or if we are, we’re sticking to highways.

Do electric batteries degrade over time? Yeah, somewhat. Maybe your range will go from 300 to 275 miles. Not the end of the world. And if you bought the car new, that’s the next owner’s issue, because you’re probably not keeping the car for ten years.

If you’re thinking about buying a Tesla, before you do anything- if you have a friend who owns one, as for their referral code. They’ll get something if you buy (like credits towards charging- I used referral points to buy a roof rack) and you’ll probably get something too (points towards charging or buying accessories, or full self-driving for a couple of months, or whatever they’re giving away at the time you order). If you don’t know anybody who has a Tesla, PLEASE use my referral link (you NEED to use this link to buy; you can’t add it later). And I will give you $100 when I get the credit, assuming that I get at least $100 in credits (but, again, you MUST use this link to order). And if you do know someone with a Tesla, and they want you to use their link, well, I just gave you $100 worth of negotiating power! Note: my offer is only good if the value I receive is worth at least $100, because they do change the referral program from time to time. It’s also only valid if I still drive a Tesla, because I don’t keep cars forever and I don’t know what my next car will more, or when I will buy it. Feel free to email me to ask.

Renting an EV might not be great, because you’ll probably have to charge it before you drop it off. I recently (spring 2025) tried to rent an EV. They told me it was fully charged and that if I returned it with 80% I’d be okay. Turns out, it was 20% charged, and they couldn’t even tell me what they’d make me pay for bringing it back with less charge than it came with (I spent ten minutes googling it before I could find the answer). I told them to stick it, give me an ICE car. But this problem will probably go away if/when rental companies have chargers on premises, although it seems like they don’t seem inclined to want to add EVs to their rental fleets.

Here are some other advantages and disadvantages of EVs vs. ICE cars:

Repairs– Not every mechanic can fix an EV. Advantage ICE (for now). But ICE cars have a LOT more moving parts to break or wear out.

Environmental– ICE cars burn a lot of fuel, which is bad (the pollution from burning plus refining and transportation costs). EVs require mining rare earth metals, so that’s not great. But on the whole EVs are way better for the environment, even when taking into account dealing with used batteries. There’s a LOT of misinformation on the web about this. Oh, most electricity in America is not produced by burning oil or coal (and for the portion that is burning oil? Way more efficient than what happens in an ICE). Also, natural gas is way better for the environment than burning oil, although obviously they’re both beat by wind, hydro and solar, and depending on your point of view and concern for the future, nuclear. 

 Cost to buy– Even with tax benefits, EVs are generally more expensive, but not hugely so, especially given the costs of ownership. Advantage ICE.

Insurance– EVs seem to cost more to insure, although when I got my most recent statement I asked what it costs to insure a Camry vs. my Tesla Model Y, and the difference wasn’t that much, especially considering that my Tesla did cost more to buy.

Temperature control– Big advantage to EVs. You can use an app to turn on the heat or air conditioning in your car in advance so it’s always the right temperature when you get in. And you can keep it there if you’re, say, leaving a pet or food in the car. Some ICE cars may have some of these features, but EVs win here.

Performance– EVs, because they develop full torque right from the start, are usually really, really fast. Like some of the fastest cars zero to sixty are EVs. Even a basic EV like a (non-performance model) Tesla Model Y goes zero to sixty in under five seconds. A performance ICE Mustang is maybe four seconds. But the Tesla Performance Model Y EV is around three and a half seconds, and the performance version of the electric Mustang is even faster. Even a cheapo, non-performance EV is so much nicer to get on a highway with, because you can go from zero to almost highway speed, fast enough to blend into traffic, really easily. I used to drive a 48 hp diesel rabbit, and there was a local highway entrance that was a nightmare, because the car took about a decade to go from zero to sixty. Even my Honda Fit wasn’t the best car for that highway entrance.

Storage and passenger space– EVs usually have not just a trunk but a front trunk (frunk) because there’s no engine upfront. And with no transmission either, the passenger floor is flat. Advantage EV.

Sound– No engine burning fuel and making noise- Advantage EV. If you like engine noise, some EVs can fake it, but that seems kind of dumb to me.

Ride comfort– Advantage EV as an electric motor is smoother than a gas engine- you don’t realize this until you ride in an EV.

General efficiency– This isn’t really an owner issue, but I feel compelled to point out that an ICE car wastes most of the power it produces because it goes to overcoming friction or it’s waste heat. Only about 20% goes directly to powering propulsion. An EV is more like 75% efficient. 

One thing to keep in mind if you’re critical of EVs– almost everybody who owns an EV has already owned at least one non-EV, so we can compare. If you think EVs suck but you’ve never owned one, well, you don’t have the experience that EV owners have had. I have talked to a lot of EV owners, and most are really happy with their purchase, although a few have said their next car will be gas-powered. And if you don’t have the ability to charge your car at home, like you rent, or live in an apartment without a charging station, an EV may not be for you right now. BUT- as more homeowners buy EVs and install chargers, well, they probably aren’t ripping out the chargers when they move. So more and more houses, and apartment complexes, will come with charging stations. Note- on the road there are fast chargers, that can give a car a good charge in twenty minutes. The home chargers, that run on 240 volts and maybe 48 amps, take a few hours. But you will be able to charge from empty to full overnight.

Questions? Ask an EV owner. They’ll probably be happy to answer your questions and may never shut up about it.