This Is the Main Reason I’m Not Ready for an Electric Car

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A writer’s driving habits make an electric car a poor choice. Read on to see why. 

The time has come for me and my husband to replace our second car (since we live in suburbia without access to public transportation, we have to be a two-vehicle household). It’s a 2007 Toyota Prius that’s starting to show its age, and it’s also too small for our family.

We were initially contemplating the idea of getting an electric vehicle as our second car. But we’ve decided against it for one big reason.

An electric car doesn’t align with our driving habits

My husband and I tend to do two kinds of driving — very local or very far. During the school year, we commonly shuttle our kids around to activities in town, driving a few miles here and there. But when school’s out, we commonly take long road trips, sometimes driving for 10 hours or more in a single day to reach a destination.

That’s the main reason we’ve decided against an electric vehicle for now. The U.S. Department of Energy says that most all-electric vehicles can go 100 to 400 miles, and possibly a bit more, on a single charge. But there are times when my family wants to drive more than 400 miles in a single day. And the idea of having to pause our drive to charge a vehicle is highly unappealing.

Although it’s possible to charge an electric car in as little as 30 minutes and get several hundred miles of range out of that charge, when you’re on a 10-hour road trip, you don’t want to have to stop for half an hour and sit at a charging station — not when filling up a car’s gas tank takes under 10 minutes. And that assumes you can even find a charging station.

There are over 100,000 public charging outlets across the country, says the Department of Energy. But when you tend to take road trips to remote areas like we do, finding one can be difficult. And that’s not a risk we’re willing to take.

A plug-in hybrid is a good compromise for us

My husband and I have decided that a plug-in hybrid is a better choice for us right now than a fully electric vehicle. That way, we can drive locally on a charge without having to use gas, but we also get the benefit of a gas engine for longer trips.

At some point, we may consider going full electric if the infrastructure on charging stations improves, and if the makers of these vehicles manage to find a way to allow drivers to charge them in less time. But since we’re not there yet, a plug-in hybrid seems like a good compromise.

Of course, we’re well aware that replacing an aging car with a newer one is going to mean paying more for auto insurance. And of course we’ll have to deal with having a car payment — something we’ve been able to go without for a long time. But cars don’t last forever. So we’re doing our best to budget accordingly for our replacement vehicle and hope it ends up being a good choice.

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