Jody wanted to go beyond everyday lifestyle actions and have a greater impact. After some research and family members inspiring her to explore going electric, she made the switch to an electric car and is never going back to gas, even though her EV purchase was somewhat of an accident ;). She shares her EV journey below.
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In 2017 I had already been taking personal action to reduce my carbon footprint, but I felt it wasn’t enough. I used Project Drawdown’s list of 100 most impactful actions to determine what I could affordably do next.
After a trip to visit family in California, I was inspired by my cousin’s recent purchase of a Ford Escape (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) PHEV. It was the first I had heard of PHEVs, and they seemed like a smart middle ground to manage range limitations. We were in the market for a new used car, so I looked into ones for sale in my area. Many were listed as having over 100MPG, given the combination of a full battery charge and a full gas tank. My cousin had mentioned that he rarely had to fill up his car, so I assumed that in addition to mostly using the battery, the excellent mileage of the gas engine must also have played into this. The cars were affordable, too, between $9,500 and $15,000 (back in 2017).
I went to a dealer and drove a 2014 Nissan Leaf SV that only had 4,000 miles and was around $13,500, including taxes! I was sold. The problem was that I’d failed to notice the “Zero Emission” logo emblazoned on the driver’s door because of my prior assumption that it was a PHEV, not a fully-electric vehicle.
At the time, none of the car sales sites displayed charge ranges, but rather gave an approximation of range in equivalent mpg. There was no explanation of this conversion, so even though I felt a little dumb when I learned that the car I wanted to buy was a full EV, I figured I couldn’t have been the only one to make this mistake.
My husband and I decided to go for it. This would be a second car to our reasonably efficient Ford Escape Hybrid, so we could use the Leaf for local trips and still have a longer-range option.
It’s worked out great, and we still own it in 2024. It’s a nice car and it never needs gas or oil changes. We’ve only needed new tires once, and are due for a new set soon. We had a Level 2 charger installed in our garage for $1,000, and the additional amount to our electric bill is negligible, probably around $15 per month.
I don’t ever want to own a gas-powered car again.
Because it’s now a 10-year-old car, the maximum range has declined by about 10%. It still runs great and whatever car we get next will definitely be a longer-range EV. I don’t ever want to own a gas-powered car again.
