Letters: Electric vehicles getting better and better | Opinions and Editorials

The carmakers who are producing electric vehicles should be congratulated. Climate change is happening at a rate faster than anyone had predicted, and electric cars produce only one-third of the pollution that a gasoline car does. And that includes pollution from manufacturing and energy processing.

I bought my first hybrid in 2014 — a Chevy Volt. I charged my car every night using a regular household 120-volt outlet in my carport. When I sold it 8 years later, the batteries still charged to the same level as they did when new.

Now we own a hybrid minivan, the Chrysler Pacifica. We can cover 90% of our errands on the batteries alone and have filled the gas tank once in the last two months. If we want to see the grandchildren in Kentucky, we get there using the hybrid engine. All we need is a 120-volt outlet at the daughter’s house to charge the battery.

In the last year, more charging stations are coming online in our area. Apps like Plugshare and ChargePoint make them easy to find. My wife and I just purchased our first fully electric car, a Chevy Bolt EUV, for $26,500 after the federal tax credit of $7,500. That is a good bit below the national average for a new car. The electric bill is roughly $55 month to charge the Bolt. That amount of money will get you 15-20 gallons of gasoline. How long does it take your car to burn that much?

Batteries are getting better and cheaper than ever with new technologies and additional manufacturing plants coming online. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Ask people who have bought an electric car what they think. EVs are less expensive and easier to operate than you think.