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We have owned an electric lawn mower for more than a decade and it continues to be one of our greatest larger purchases ever. (I go on and on about why it’s been so great in this other post.)

So, when we unexpectedly found ourselves in need of a new vehicle, we were naturally interested in electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles - so many pros and so few cons

Unsurprisingly, this month we bought a pre-owned electric vehicle! I’m in love! And it’s only been a few days.

Here’s why it was such a great deal.

Pros for buying our electric vehicle

  • We bought pre-owned. Since it’s three years old rather than brand-new, that saved us about two thirds off the original price, and it’s still in like-new condition. That’s a tip I learned from Dave Ramsey to avoid the worst of the depreciation that happens on cars.
  • Zero emission
  • Can get about 75 miles on a single charge
  • free charging stations around town
  • no buying gasoline
  • no wasting time at gas stations
  • no oil changes
  • minimal maintenance required
  • drives like a dream

Cons for buying our electric vehicle

  • Range anxiety, since it can only get 75 miles on a single charge. That’s it. That’s really the only con so far. The newer electric vehicles can go twice as far on a single charge.

My daughter thought she should pose holding a leaf next to our Nissan Leaf in the picture below.

We just got a charger for our garage that will plug into a regular outlet so we didn’t have to pay an exorbitant amount to get a fancy 30 amp outlet installed. We’ll see how it goes though since this means that the charging time required to fully charge the car will be exorbitant instead. ? But no more gas or oil! And it’s so quiet.

Update: It is June 2018 and we’ve now owned our Nissan Leaf EV for about 9 months. And guess what- we still love, love, love it!!! My in-laws gifted us the installation of a fast-charge port in our garage so now we can fully charge the car in only a few hours!