Busting the top three electric car myths

Tesla Model S with vanity license plate.
Tesla sells the most electric vehicles in the world, by far. [Photo By Christof Demont-Heinrich]
editor's blog iconThere are a lot of myths about electric cars that are simply not true, many of them perpetrated and pushed by Big Oil and Fossil Fool interests. Perhaps the Top 3 myths about electric cars, at least in the United States, are:

  1. They’re “too expensive/unaffordable”
  2. They don’t have enough range
  3. They’re slow and no fun to drive

NONE of these myths is true. In fact, ALL of them are, at this point, 100% LAUGHABLE — and yet they persist, largely, and sadly, because too many people don’t bother to go beyond myths and explore electric vehicles for themselves.

MYTH NO. 1: Electric vehicles are “too expensive/unaffordable”

There are now MANY affordable EVs with 200+ miles of range in the USA, from the Nissan LEAF to the Hyundai Kona EV to the Chevy Bolt to even the entry level Tesla Model 3. You can research AND find countless affordable EVs at PlugStar.Com

Me standing in front of my 2020 Chevy Bolt with one of the Mission Solar panels that will soon be fueling it šŸ™‚ [Photo by Chris McGuire]
Hereā€™s my own current EV cost example ==>

=> 39-month 2020 Chevy Bolt lease
=> Zero money down
=> $289 per month w/12,000 miles per year (yes, this includes the monthly savings of $2,500 Colorado state leased EV tax credit and, I know, many states do not have this ā€” but we do! )
=> $330 to fuel for the WHOLE year
=> Maintenance = tire rotations and filling windshield fluid. Thatā€™s it!

According to Experian, the average new car monthly payment in the USA is MORE THAN $500 and the average USED car payment is $380.

Now, it may be that you are sitting on a car that you have already paid off. Good for you. Sit on it for awhile.

But, when the time comes for another car, please do NOT buy the MYTH that electric cars are ā€œtoo expensiveā€ and take the time to actually explore EVs and see for yourself if they really are ā€œmore expensiveā€ for you. Remember to calculate long term fuel costs (usually 3-4 times LESS for EVs) AND for maintenance (about 2/3 less for EVs) when doing your calculations

ALSO, please think about the EXTRA health and environmental AND economic costs that gas cars incur on ALL of us, the so-called ā€œexternalitiesā€, or pollution that gas car owners spew into the air and into our lungs without having to pay for it immediately ā€” they DO PAY in the long term, though, as ALL of us do!

Many electric vehicles, including my Chevy Bolt, offer more than 200 miles of range. [Photo by Christof Demont-Heinrich]

MYTH NO. 2: Electric vehicles don’t have enough range/”range anxiety”

Currently, there are more than 20 electric vehicles in the American market that offer more than 200 miles of range. One, the Tesla Model S Long Range (LR) offers 402 miles of range. Lucid, a new American-based electric car company recently announced that its Lucid “Air” will have more than 500 miles of range.

That’s more than enough, and, in fact, some say it’s overkill given the battery back size and weight necessary to achieve 500 miles of range that many drivers may literally “need” once a year — or less. Many of the electric cars with 200 – 300 mile range are VERY affordable, including my 259-mile Chevy Bolt, which costs me $289 per month to lease.

MYTH NO. 3: Electric cars are “slow” and no fun to drive

While all three of these MYTHS — that electric cars are not “affordable”, that they do not have enough range, and that they are “slow” are truly laughable — meaning they are not anywhere close to be being true — this is perhaps the most laughable of the three. The truth is electric vehicles are QUICKER, in most cases, WAY QUICKER than the vast majority of gasoline cars.

A Tesla Model 3 in motion
The Tesla Model 3 performance can accelerate from 0-60 in less than four seconds. [Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Peter Stevens]
My “ho-hum” Chevy Bolt goes 0-60 mph in a brisk 6.4 seconds and I have more than once — WAY more than once šŸ˜ — surprised many a gas sports car driver in my unassuming Chevy cross-over, which definitely does NOT look quick, but in fact, is VERY quick!

Of course, my Bolt’s quickness pales in comparison to the quickness of any Tesla with Tesla’s performance versions of the Model 3, S, Y and X all knock-your-socks off and snap-your-head-back quick, or, really, QAF, meaning QUICK AS F—.

They boast 0-60 mph times that range from 1.9 seconds to around 4.5 seconds. By the way, to give you an idea of just how quick going 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds is: The vast majority of MOTORCYCLES on the road today do not go from 0-60 mph that quickly. It’s also worth noting that the vast majority of people reading this are likely driving around in a gas car that goes 0-60 mph somewhere in the 8 to 10 second range, with some of you driving around in ICEs that are even slower than that off the line šŸ˜‰


So, that’s it: THREE MAJOR electric vehicle MYTHS, all of them, at this point UN-true, and, even, actually, in many ways laughable, slain in about 750 words!

Now all I — we need — is to get more people to read this and/or help me deconstruct these myths and get the word out about just how AMAZING electric cars are. And, of course, there’s something else I can’t resist mentioning: You can fuel an electric vehicle with 100% renewable energy generated electricity, meaning it is AIR POLLUTION free. That’s a very BIG deal in a world in which 90% of humanity breathes in unhealthy air virtually every day and in which a Climate Emergency is already long since upon us!