Benefits of Electric Vehicles

As of: 12:07 PM, 12/25/24

Why Go Electric?

Besides not paying for gas, there are many perks to owning an electric vehicle. One major perk? Helping the planet.

4 Main Reasons Why Your Next Car Should Be Electric

1. You'll do the planet good.

By moving to an electric vehicle, you’re helping to create a better world thanks to cleaner emissions. EVs produce zero tailpipe emissions, which means lower smog and greenhouse gases. Learn more about clean energy below.

Clean Energy Plan

2. You'll save money.

Electric vehicle charging on average costs less than refueling a car. In addition, you could also earn a tax credit depending on the model of the EV you purchase. Click the button below to learn more about incentives and rebates.

Incentives & Rebates

3. You’ll need less maintenance.

Since electric vehicles don’t have engines and have far fewer mechanical parts, they need a lot less maintenance. You can also forget about needing to replace certain parts too. See how much you could potentially save by switching to an EV below.

4. You'll absolutely love driving it.

Driving an electric vehicle is fun, fast and quite an electrifying experience! But don’t just take our word for it. Why don’t you see for yourself at one of our Ride-and-Drive events? Book your next ride below.

Test Drive an EV

Total Cost of Ownership for Electric Vehicles

What to Expect with Maintenance Costs

Since electric vehicles don’t have an engine, they don’t require oil, so you can eliminate oil changes — which average between $20 to $100.
While EVs generally have longer lasting brake pads, as compared to gas-powered cars, tires are a different story and an important cost consideration. Since EVs are generally heavier than their gas counterparts, the tires tend to wear out faster and can be expensive to replace.
Similar to gasoline powered cars and their engines, the battery and motor(s) of an EV are expected to last the lifetime of the vehicle.
Some maintenance costs still carry over to an EV such as tire rotations, replacing your windshield wipers, filling up your washer fluid, and replacing air cabin filters.
On average, you’ll save around $4,500 on maintenance costs over the life of an EV!*

*Save even more with our Smart Charging Incentive program where you could earn up to 2,500 free miles based on 3 miles/kWh, at $0.132/kWh. Actual results will vary.

Fuel vs. Charging Costs

Currently in the U.S. (as of 2022), gas costs around $5 a gallon, while electric rates are around 16¢ kWh (kilowatt per hour). Let’s plug in these numbers and see how much it would cost for a gas-powered vehicle and an electric vehicle to go 100 miles.

On average, most gas-powered vehicles have a fuel economy of 25.7 miles per gallon. Electric vehicles use an efficiency rating called MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) with 33.7 kWh being the closest measure to one gallon. Most electric vehicles using 33.7 kWh on average will go 97 miles of range.

If we were to take a gas-powered vehicle and an electric vehicle going 100 miles of range, the gas-powered vehicle would use around 3.9 gallons of gas, while an electric vehicle would use around 34.7 kWh.

To calculate the cost of this we’d do the following:

For gas cost: Take 3.9 gallons of gas and multiply by $5.00 For charging cost: Take 34.7 kWh and multiply by 15¢

To see which would be cheapest to go 100 miles of range. Here’s what we’d find the costs to be:

Gas would cost $19.45
Electricity would cost $6.03

What we can determine from the calculation above is that charging is substantially cheaper than gas.

It’s important to note that costs vary with electric charging. For example, charging at a DC Fast Charger station will be the most expensive way to charge an EV because of its convenience to charge quickly. Whereas if you do home charging during nighttime hours, you’ll save the most as most energy companies offer discount rates during this time.

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How Insurance Rates Work

Typically, car insurance rates are based on the following:

Total cost of the vehicle
How expensive repairs might be
How the vehicle stands up against accidents

As compared to gas-powered vehicles, electric vehicles are more expensive to buy overall, and they are built with specialized parts that need to be replaced in whole rather than fixed. As a result of this, most electric vehicles are more expensive to insure with costs averaging around $1600 per year, while gas-powered vehicles costs average around $1200 per year.

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EV Events: Take a Spin & Ask Questions

Ride-and-Drive Events

Want to try an electric vehicle without the pressure of a salesperson? Now’s the chance! Test drive an electric vehicle free at our Ride-and-Drive events.