I Bought An EV—And I’m Never Looking Back

I traded in my minivan for a Tesla Model 3 RWD almost two years ago and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

Living in Windsor, Ont., I consider myself lucky to not have a long commute riddled with traffic slowdowns—it takes me about 15 minutes to drive the seven kilometres to my workplace. But I have two young kids and an active lifestyle that requires frequent driving. While my husband still drives a big gas-guzzling SUV, my little electric vehicle is the family car that we do nearly everything in. It’s become our main car because of how much cheaper it is and how much we love it. 

When I bought my EV, the upfront costs were higher: I paid roughly $60,000 including taxes and a $5,000 rebate from the federal government (that program has now been paused as the funds “have been fully committed”). But the savings since buying have made the purchase well worth it. I used to spend about $3,000 a year on gas alone for my minivan. Aside from the cost of the car itself, installing a charger in our garage cost us $475. When we moved houses in June 2023, we had to reinstall the charger, and that ran us a steep $5,000 since we had to upgrade the breaker box in our new home to make the charger work. That being said, I don’t miss gas stations and I don’t miss stressing about the price of gas. The at-home charger is also absolutely worth it: I plug the car in overnight and in the morning, it’s 100-percent charged. And I only charge it about once a week, so it’s not a big task. 

While my hydro bill has gone up a little, it’s only an extra $20 or $30 a month. Compared to filling up my minivan, which was about $120 every other week, it’s incomparable. I also save on maintenance: While I go to the dealership for new tires, the car doesn’t need regular care like oil changes, which also saves money.

My experience is not unique: A new report from Canada’s parliamentary budget office found that EVs cost less in the long run, despite the bigger upfront cost. The eight-year cost for an EV purchased in 2022 was 88 percent of the eight-year cost of a similar gas-powered car, the report found, and operating and maintenance costs can be 2.5 times less than a traditional car. 

My EV also performs extraordinarily well. Now, when I drive my husband’s car, I get irritated! I don’t go around racing, but my EV can go from zero to 100 in eight seconds. It can just go without you even noticing it. In fact, my husband sometimes doesn’t even notice how fast he’s going. I have to tell him to slow down. 

One complaint might be the car’s range. I don’t drive long distances often, but my husband says he’s not ready to buy an EV because he wants to be able to make the four-hour drive from Windsor to Toronto without stopping. While my car wouldn’t go as far as Toronto without needing a charge, I’d only need to stop for 15 or 20 minutes to use a supercharger. Of course, if you’re driving somewhere remote and you can’t use a supercharger, then your choices are limited and you might need to do more planning upfront. (And in the winter, you need to charge more frequently, making long-distance drives a bit more time consuming.)

Another is Elon Musk: Having bought a Tesla, I am absolutely devastated and disappointed with how evil he turned out to be. I still love my car, though, but I don't know what I'm going to do when it's time to replace it. 

If our country wants to reach its emissions goals, more Canadians will need to use EVs—and fast. The federal government has a goal of having at least 20 percent of all vehicles be electric by 2026, 60 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035. But as of last July, nearly 13 percent of car sales in Canada were EVs.

These days I do something in my EV that I never did with my minivan: I drive for pleasure. I take the long way home because driving is fun now. I skip the expressway and take the local roads, driving 50 km an hour just enjoying the view across the river, not worrying about gas.