I used to love driving- that sense of freedom, sense of discovery- excitement and joy going new places and all of that faded over the years- there’s just not a lot of joy to be had slogging through traffic in a Honda Pilot. Great car, reliable, comfortable, safe… but man, not a lot of excitement to be found.
Over the course of my life, I’ve owned 24 vehicles- from a Porsche 914 to several 4×4 pickups, sedans, wagons, SUV’s etc. My first car was a 68 Dodge Charger that was more bondo & rust than car but man was it fun to drive- until the brakes failed. Then it kinda sucked. But until then, it was awesome.
When electrics came out, I was interested but I’m not one to jump on something so fundamentally different when it comes to a car- that’s a big investment to dump into an unproven approach.
Well… March of 2023, I was coming out of Portland when the transmission on my 2000 Tundra died. Since it would be weeks until it was repaired, I decided to rent an electric car- to see how they were to drive, & to see if it would work for my life.
See- I live in a Condo and I don’t currently have a garage to charge every night. If you listen to the media, I’m one of those people who should avoid buying an electric because of a lack of home charging. I honestly thought that would be hard and make it impossible for me but that was wrong. I have to rely on public level 2 charging and depending on where you live, that can be harder. But it’s not impossible.
I rented a Kia Niro from Enterprise for a week and it is just a normal car. It happens to have a battery instead of an engine. My last newer car was a 2011 honda CRV- great car. I got into the Niro and it was different enough, that I had no clue how to operate it. Felt kinda dumb sitting there. But once I figured things out and got on the road, it was surprising. It was so quiet, it was quick, & smooth; and it was fun.
I provide transportation to a couple of people who don’t drive so I wanted to try it out with them. One trip I had to do was Beaverton to Gresham to pick someone up, then to Hillsboro for an appointment, then back. Overall round trip clocked in at 107 miles. That Niro was averaging about 4 miles per kilowatt hour of electricity so I did some math and those 107 miles cost about $4.50 in charging; The same trip in my truck would have run about $38- almost 8-9 times more expensive in gas. That was eye opening.
I drove that Niro about 500 miles while i had it- about $21 in electricity; same miles in my truck would have been about $175 for the week. I extrapolated that out to 1000 miles a month and the savings of electricity vs. gas is about $350 a month for me. That’s a car payment. That only goes up as gas flirted with $5 a gallon or if I drive more.
I can either give that money to the oil and gas companies or I can use it to buy an electric. So I did.
I’m the first of my friends or family to buy an electric so I had no one I could ask for advice. In fact, several are still against the entire idea- one brother thinks it’s going to explode at literally any moment so he won’t even ride in it yet; other friends think I’ve been duped into trading my life savings for a pile of magic beans that’ll save the climate. I try to tell them it’s not a climate statement… it’s just a car.
I started reading a lot- reviews of cars like the Niro because I liked that one. Similar cars were the Bolt, the Kona, the Leaf. I read about all of them- decided against a leaf because of the battery issues. Decided I needed to go drive everything to see what would work for me.
Problem was, I loved everything I drove. All were fast, smooth, efficient & comfortable. For a little run-about, any of them would be fine. I wanted to go with a used one both to save money and because I wouldn’t have a huge financial commitment to the car if I hated the thing or if it just wouldn’t work for me- you know the whole “living in a Condo, having an electric is bad. Charging is impossible” that sort of thing.
The only hurdle I ran into was the dealership experience. I don’t need to go into it, but the whole high-pressure sale and “I gotta talk to my manager stuff” just brought up so many bad feelings and it actually killed my first attempt to buy a used Niro. I can understand the appeal and success of the Tesla experience- shop online, a few clicks and you have a car ordered- so much easier.
But- I didn’t want a Tesla and I wanted to keep it cheap. I had narrowed my search down to either a Niro or a Bolt solely due to the size of the backseat- I have an adult daughter who will not sit up front so a backseat that can fit an adult is important.
A dealership called Platt Auto had a bunch of Niro’s, Bolt’s and other stuff to look at so I headed out there- dreading the experience because it’s another dealership on McLaughlin.
But they were awesome. No pressure, no sales tactics of any kind- just what are you looking for here’s our prices, and take it for a drive. It took me 3 visits to figure out I really wanted the Niro, it came with all of the smart cruise, and other advanced driver assistance stuff standard while on the Bolt, that was all extra. I figured if I’m going in on this, I want all the current safety tech. Then I drove like 4 of them- all with zero pressure or anything from the sales guys- it was such a pleasant change. I highly recommend them.
I figured out which I wanted and the paperwork was really straightforward and I left there with a lightly used 2020 Kia Niro EV with 35k miles for $19,000 before rebates. $15k after the $4000 off. I checked later- I could not find a single 2020 or newer ICE vehicle with the same features as the Niro for under 20,000- unless they were salvage or rebuilt titles- this thing was perfect for a great price.
Still… my brother thinks I’m going to explode at virtually any moment, so it hasn’t all been great, but that’s OK. Another brother is now convinced a Bolt will be his next car and at least one friend is actively searching for EV because she has loved trying mine out- I’ll let any of my friends try the car out just to show them how fun these things are.
Charging has not been an issue at all. There are five public level 2 charges around my condo and we’re in the process of installing 4 new ones just for our use in a secure parking area. The public ones are run by the City of Beaverton and run $1 an hour for 5.5 to 6.5 Kw/hour- so .15 to .18 cents per kW- I use .17 as my estimate in costs.
As of now, I’ve got over 5600 miles on it and it’s getting about 4.1 miles per kWh; which would mean I’ve used about 1366 kW of electricity at .17 cents per kWh- is roughly $232 in charging.
Alternatively, my old Tundra gets 12mpg- on a good day; Those 5600 miles would be about 467 gallons of gas at $4 a gallon… $1868 in gas. The EV is literally $1636 in my pocket. My car payment is $320. So.. I’ve turned that $1600 savings from gas money into about 5 car payments so far. I can’t argue with this.
I love this thing. I haven’t had this much fun driving since the Porsche and this is a whole lot safer and more reliable. I’ve rediscovered that joy of driving again- Like when you first got your license- that freedom. I’m even going on ‘Sunday drives’ – a winding mountain road is just too much fun with the instant torque, good regen and the efficiency- It’s been a great change for me.