Bay Area Houston

An EV is not for everyone but for those considering here are a few things…. to consider.

I bought a 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV 2 years ago. For what I use the vehicle for it has been absolutely fantastic. I have a fast charger in the garage and I charge at night with my free nights plan. The only time I need to go to a gas station is for snacks or to fill up my other gas car. For me the Bolt is perfect for my dog and I but an EV may not be for you. Here are some things to consider when buying an EV.

Cost
The cost of an EV has been reduced considerably over the years. The EV tax credit is available for some based upon your income. For me I didn’t qualify but the price was still very reasonable. The Bolt has everything I need. Great music, a sunroof, leather climate controlled seats, a cold AC. There are a wide variety of EVs available some are high end such as Tesla, Rivian, and BMW. Others are reasonably priced such as Chevy, KIA, and Ford.

Performance
EVs are generally fast. I like to cruise at 80MPH. It is smooth. The Bolt has a Speed mode which I have used only a few times. The Bolt is fast in normal mode. The acceleration can push you into the seat. One of my important issues was performance and space. I wanted a small SUV hatchback so my dog can be comfortable and I wanted to have speed if I ever needed it. The Bolt did the job!

Battery Life
By law the battery is guaranteed for 8 years or 100,000 miles. The cost of replacing the battery, if ever needed, has been reduced considerably costing much less than a car engine. Cars last well over 10 years with many having over 200,000 miles. Batteries will degrade after a consider amount of time but personally I will be buying a new car before this happens. We usually keep our cars for about 10-15 years with 150,000 miles.

Insurance
Some people claim car insurance is higher from EVs. I did not see anything unusual when I swapped out my Subaru Impreza.

Charging
My car came with a 110 and 220 charger. The 110 can plug into any plug you have in the garage but that plug needs to be DEDICATED to charging your car, ie it cannot be shared with other appliances or you will trip the fuse. The plug in my garage worked fine….until my wife used the hair dryer! Charging from 9PM-7:00 I would get about 50 miles. Although this is relatively slow it was enough for me for the first two years. I eventually installed 220 into my garage and now it takes about 5 hour to get a full charge from 0-250 miles, about 50 miles per hour. Although my driving habits do not require the 220 charger it is very convenient. It took me a while to adjust to the charging schedule. Most nights I just plug in and it will automatically start charging at 9:00 PM. By 1 or 2 o’clock the charge is complete.

Charging Stations
There was no standard when I bought my car but now it seems they are moving to the Tesla charging port. My car requires an adapter to use the Tesla chargers but Mercedes have charging stations that I use that require the regular port. It is something to consider when buying an EV.

Miles/Kwh
The capacity of my Bolt is 65 kWh. On the highway I can easily get 180 miles without a charge. Local driving I can get over 200. Driving long distance such as to San Antonio requires a stop halfway with about a 30 minute wait. If I need to drive further, I take my ICE car (internal combustion engine). Overall I am saving about $1820 on gas from my previous car.

Gas Tax, Registration Fees
Since we do not use gas EV owners do not pay the gas tax on every gallon. Texas solved this by tacking on an EV fee on the registration. That is $200. Texas also removed the requirement for inspections and EVs do not emit pollutants so they are not required to be tested.

Maintenance
As with most EVs there is little if any maintenance needed besides changing the AC air filter and adding windshield wiper fluid. There are tires especially designed for EVs to provide better mileage but I used standard Yokohama tires which provide a smoother ride as a small cost in miles/kwh.

Overall
For me this is a great car!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026 at 10:42 am and is filed under Consumer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.