This letter is in response to the letter to the editor of Jan. 10 by Rich Collins regarding his trip to Florida and how an EV would not have suited him. Mr. Collins also brings up how towing heavy loads makes an EV unsuitable.
Well, I must agree with his premise. Current EVs are not designed to tow heavy loads over long distances. However, it begs the question, how often does Mr. Collins need to tow heavy loads over long distances? If that need arises every week or even every month, an EV may not be the best choice for him. On the other hand, if the need is once or twice a year, perhaps for those trips, he could rent a vehicle more suitable for towing heavy loads over long distances and use his EV for all the other trips he makes. It is important to understand the use case for the vehicle you purchase.
We have owned a 2017 Chevy Bolt for five years and done around 95% of our driving in that car. We charge at home (for free – we have solar), so I never worry about the price of gas. It took us 58,000-plus miles with no oil changes, engine issues or other things that internal combustion engines require to keep going. Once our 2017 Bolt received its battery update, we were able to drive significantly farther than the writer suggested, even in cold weather.
We now own a 2023 Chevy Bolt, which provides range in our last cold snap of well over 225 miles; in summer, it is close to 300. It takes me weeks of driving about the local area to even come close to that. Full disclosure: I work from home for one business, but our other business takes us up and down the state quite a bit.
We are now a two-EV-car family, as my husband traded his internal combustion engine vehicle in for a 2022 Ford Mach E, which can get over 300 miles on a charge. Does he need to back off his lead foot a bit? Yes, mileage (EV or ICE) is reduced significantly when you drive 75 to 80 mph. Will the car provide everything we need to get around, including an airport run to Philadelphia last week? Yes, easily!
But what about long trips? What about our yearly vacation to South Carolina? Guess what? With planned stops, we have mapped it as taking maybe 30 minutes longer, and there are many apps and information available to make it work for us.
I’m pretty sure that for a household with more than one vehicle, 95% of the households in the U.S. could easily replace one of those vehicles with an EV today, and with some forethought and planning, most could replace both vehicles with EVs.
I’ll take our EVs any day!
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