Electric motors don’t make the neat sounds that engines do, but they also don’t need gasoline to run. Which can come in handy when your president starts an illegal war with Iran that sends gas prices through the roof, destabilizes the global economy, and creates a giant mess in the Middle East. Of course, as higher fuel prices drive up transportation costs, businesses are going to respond with higher prices, which means even EV owners won’t escape completely unharmed. But at least we don’t have to look at a big, scary number on the pump.
The thing is, even though gas is now at least an extra dollar a gallon more expensive than it was a few months ago, people aren’t exactly rushing out left and right to replace their Tahoes and F-150s with EVs. Used car buyers are increasingly buying pre-owned EVs after letting them depreciate like COVID never happened, but that’s not just because EVs have replaced hybrids in the general public’s minds as the car to buy when you want to spend less on gas. Prices have also fallen over the last year, while selection increased, and the technology matured.
Where do you draw the line?
Even as someone who will die on the hill that EVs make objectively better daily drivers for literally anyone who can charge at home and isn’t some special exception that proves the rule, I’m actually proud of my fellow American for not selling their cars and panic-buying new EVs the second gas crossed $4 a gallon. Even if you lease, new cars are expensive, and it doesn’t make sense to spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to fix a problem that may only cost you an extra $1,000 annually. We don’t need to speed up the next financial collapse.
That does raise the question, though, of how expensive gas would have to get before you’d buy an EV. If gas magically jumped to $100 a gallon overnight, even the most dedicated gasoline enthusiast would be eying a $15,000 Chevrolet Bolt like it’s, I don’t know, some actress who looked attractive in some role she had 50 years ago. (Side note: I just checked, and Julie Newmar is still alive.) But for you, personally, what’s the line in the sand for you? Would you still not be interested at $5 a gallon? What about $6? Or is it even about the money at all? Wherever you land, we want to hear from you down in the comments.
