Musings: My green car turned out to be a joyride

When I recently decided to buy an electric car, my thinking was all about saving the environment. But I was in for a surprise: Driving my electric vehicle on a smooth road feels like effortless gliding. Granted, that doesn’t happen often in Huntington, thanks to the gas company seemingly tearing up almost every street. But when a street is intact, I get a gorgeous feeling, with the murmur of the tires the only noise.

And when I hit the accelerator, power is immediate, graceful and awesome. Electric cars are not just good for the environment — they’re fun and responsive. They redefine the experience of driving a car. I’ll never go back to a gas-powered car.

My car is a used 2023 BMW i4, so yes, it’s a performance luxury sport sedan. But I test drove several electric vehicles from other companies, and they were all quiet, with serene power and little vibration, just fun to drive.

Another big advantage is that EVs cost anywhere from 30% to 50% less to maintain because they have fewer moving parts — no belts or spark plugs to be replaced. Before the federal government ended the $7,500 incentive for buying an electric car last year, the subsidy helped even out the generally higher cost of a new EV versus a fossil-fuel burner.

So far, there hasn’t been a federal replacement for that lost incentive, but several states are stepping in. New York offers a subsidy of up to $2,000 to buyers of a new EV, and several other states offer their own. Meanwhile, the rise in gas prices spurred a 35% increase in EV sales globally in the second quarter of this year.

Some EVs can travel 350-400 miles on a battery charge. Mine gives me about 220 miles of highway driving. But almost all my driving is around town, and I charge it in my driveway while I’m sleeping at low, off-peak rates.

EV technology likely cannot be stopped. For some people, fossil-fueled cars — those with an internal combustion engine — offer drama, create sensations, and “sing” a repetitive song as one works up and down the gears, as a social media post put it.

I envision the day when most electricity will come from wind, solar and tidal power, without warming our planet. And most of our cars will run on that clean electricity, providing us with the mobility we want without polluting the air.

Efforts to discourage EVs probably will continue, but this technological revolution is inevitable because the secret is out: EVs are economical, clean and fun to drive.

— Frances Cerra Whittelsey, Huntington