The ascendancy of electric vehicles is a truly astonishing thing to behold. It was only back in 2010 that the Nissan Leaf, the first mass-market EV, was released in the United States. Less than 15 years later, almost every major manufacturer has a fully-electric car, truck or SUV for sale, and Americans are buying them in record numbers: nearly 1.2 million vehicles in 2023, per Kelley Blue Book, which is an impressive 7.6% of the total market, up from 5.9% in 2022.
However, if you’ve read the news (or possibly just skimmed headlines) about the automotive sector in the last month, you may be under the impression that Americans have actually decided they don’t want electrified cars. The Wall Street Journal gave a November feature the provocative headline “Are Americans Falling Out of Love With EVs?” but quickly wrote in the story that, actually, “the jury is out”; that didn’t stop their editorial board from issuing an opinion this month that claimed “Americans don’t like the product.” Elsewhere in the media, the focus has been more on slowing EV sales that haven’t met the expectations of automakers, not assuming that buyers themselves are turning their nose up at the electric experience.
So how do Americans really feel about electric cars? It’s a tough question to answer on the whole. While 7.6% of the new car market is a huge slice for what is essentially an emerging technology, that’s still a small number compared to the millions of gas-powered vehicles sold in 2023. Then there’s the fact that experiences vary widely around the country: certain electric models are only available in select markets, public chargers are much more widely available in certain areas and then there’s the weather factor.
Instead of pulling opinions out of thin air, we spoke to seven Americans (ranging in age from 27 to 73) from different parts of the country (Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Minnesota and New Jersey) who made the switch to an EV sometime in the last six months. Their reasons for taking the plunge are wildly different, and so are their thoughts on what they’ve liked and disliked about the experience so far. One thing that they do have in common? They’re far from disillusioned about the promises of electrification.
These interviews, which were conducted by phone and email, have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Maureen Mahowald, 66
Edina, Minnesota
Bought a Ford F-150 Lightning with her husband George in October 2023
What do you do for work?
We’re retired.
What car did you have previously?
We had a 2006 Honda Accord and a 2015 Honda Pilot.
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
We were going to sell the Accord and just buy an electric sedan, but the more we got to thinking about it — we pull a camper, and that was the primary use for the Pilot, but the camper that we have is at the max capacity for the Pilot and by going to the truck, we will be able to pull the camper a further distance without taxing the truck.
How much did you pay?
The price actually went down from the time we placed an order to the time we took delivery. There were a number of incentives. Our final price from the dealer was $71,580.
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
I have a $40 electric bill for my charger — we have our own [Level 2] charger in our garage — so I’m looking at $40 instead of $240 [for gas]. That’s huge. And I’m plugging in instead of pumping gas on a cold winter day.
We are also intrigued by the technology. My husband is the one who is always finding the chargers and studying things, I just enjoy the benefit of his study. I think we’re also interested in the benefits to the environment, but I wouldn’t say that’s the number one thing. I think that’s nice. But we’re just thinking, this is new, let’s try it out.
What have you disliked about it?
We did a 3,000-mile road trip over the holidays without pulling the camper. That helped us decide that we will not take it with the camper a long distance this season. We will stay in Minnesota and let the charger industry mature a little bit before we take it to the Grand Canyon or something. The locations were dictated by where our loved ones live because nobody would do this otherwise: we drove from Minnesota to Nebraska, Nebraska to Nashville, Nashville to San Antonio, and then back home. We used 11 different brands of chargers, so that industry needs to consolidate. In both Missouri and Texas, we could not take the most direct route because the most direct route didn’t have fast chargers. There just aren’t enough chargers.
What would you like to see improved about the EV experience?
There’s a lot of educating that needs to be done. We as owners know to use PlugShare or some other comparable app to find your charger, but for the next person who’s thinking of buying a vehicle, they’re not seeing chargers because there’s no signage. You know how you drive down the highway and gas stations have “gas at such and such a gallon” or “diesel” or “we’re open 24 hours”? That kind of signage needs to add “EV charging here,” so that even people who don’t have an electric vehicle start to realize, oh, it’s there, this isn’t so hard, maybe next I’ll think about an EV. Right now it’s a mystery.
The electric vehicles themselves need to consolidate and agree on where they’re going to put their charge point on the vehicle. For example, our Lightning has the charger on the driver’s side forward of the driver’s door. When we were on this recent road trip and went to charge at a Tesla station — and Teslas are designed to charge from rear — because of the cord length, we had to take up two charge spots. We couldn’t charge from the charger that’s directly in front of us. We had to pull from the one that’s to our left. So now I’m making Tesla people mad because I’ve just taken up two spots. The industry has to decide where these charge ports are going to go, or the charger industry has to decide to have longer cables.
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
I think we’re at 10s. We’re converts. We love it. We haven’t had anything where the vehicle hasn’t worked, and we haven’t had any problems in the cold weather because we garage it.
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Pete diCoio, 38
Hamilton, New Jersey
Leased a Hyundai Ioniq 5 in October 2023
What do you do for work?
Regional sales manager for Elo. We manufacture touchscreens, all-in-one touchscreen computers. No daily commute into an office, but because my region is based here in the Northeast, I do commute to customer visits pretty routinely.
What car did you have previously?
Our other vehicles are paid off. One’s a Sunday driver for me, kind of my fun car, my track car. When the weather gets nice I take the car down to NJ Motorsports in Millville. It’s not a car I want to add miles on. It’s a 2014 BMW M235i and my wife has a 2017 Hyundai Tucson.
What made you want to switch to an EV?
I’ve been part of a community called Leasehackr for years, so at some point my goal was to lease my next vehicle knowing that we own our two other vehicles outright and I’d have to start commuting for this job a little bit in terms of customer visits.
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
It was a leasing thing that was available, but I was also intrigued by the design of the car. When I first saw it, I was like wow. I’m a car guy, and I was like, man, this thing looks really cool.
How much did you pay?
It was a two-year lease, 12,000 miles a year. I did a one-time payment of $6,556, and that’s it. No monthly payments. The other advantage too of EVs in New Jersey was we don’t pay sales tax for electric vehicles, so it just sweetened the deal that much more. I’m getting another $1,500 back from the state after doing taxes this year, another $1,500 back from PSE&G, who is our electricity provider. The total cost of ownership of the car was like $3,000 when I did the math over two years. I was like, there’s no way I can turn this down.
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
I wouldn’t say I’m a speed freak, but I think what’s really cool for me being a car guy, someone who enjoys driving a car on a track, it’s the torque, it’s the instant power delivery of it. It’s very smooth. That’s probably the most addicting quality for me — this thing just jumps off the line. It’s a lot of fun for a car that weighs as much as a Ford F-150.
What have you disliked about it?
I think [charging] is my main complaint. Electrify America’s network is just horrible. I don’t think there’s enough infrastructure in place to support EVs from a broader standpoint. While we had some really good experiences going down to Maryland and up to New York in stations where all the charging bays were functional and there weren’t long lines, the one by us is two to three hours every time. I’ve gone to use it, and it’s just way too much time out of my day. Electrify America, their customer service was responsive and picked up the phone right away, there just wasn’t any resolution. When I went back to that station three weeks later, the same charging bays were still out of service and there were lines of people waiting.
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
I would probably put it at an 8.4.
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Lee Goldman, 68
Wellington, Florida
Bought a Hyundai Ioniq 6 in November 2023
What do you do for work?
Retired audio engineer, ABC television network in NYC
What car did you have previously?
Lexus ES F Sport
What made you want to switch to an EV?
Most use is around our area and occasional trips to Marco Island, about 150 miles each way.
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
The design of the Ioniq 6 — stunning
How much did you pay?
MSRP was $55,300, paid $2,000 over list plus $3,000 in protection packages (the dealer gave me $30,000 for the Lexus).
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
Car has excellent pickup. Very quiet. Home charging. Two years free at Electrify America stations. Low cost per mile after purchase.
What have you disliked about it?
Charger location anxiety for road trips
What would you like to see improved about the EV experience?
Florida is awful when it comes to plentiful charging stations. [Ed. note: He attached a screenshot of the sparse Electrify America charging map in Palm Beach.] 1.5 million people, a large number of EV owners and only a handful of stations.
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
10. Beyond expectations. Love driving the car and finding new very cool features weekly.
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Keegan McAllister, 35
Des Moines, Iowa
Bought a Kia EV6 in December 2023
What do you do for work?
I’m a stay-at-home mom and my wife is a software developer.
What car did you have previously?
I previously drove a 2014 Mazda CX-5 (I still have it, but am preparing to sell it).
What made you want to switch to an EV?
I’ve been interested in electric cars for a long time. The main thing holding me back was my own living situation — I was living in an apartment and didn’t have a place to charge at home. That changed last year when my wife and I bought a house.
I think EVs are better for the environment on balance, although there are some downsides as well. Nothing’s perfect and we have to make trade-offs in life. We have 100% renewable energy generation where I live, so that’s a big point in favor of EVs. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for transportation, and I’m not leading the charge to ban gas cars or anything like that.
We pay a pretty low rate for electricity, so we will also save a lot compared to buying gas — maybe $500 per year at current gas prices, more if prices go back up to 2022 levels. It’s nice that the price of electricity is not so variable. Again, this is based on charging at home and doing 80% of our driving close to home. If you rely entirely on public charging, you probably won’t save much if anything versus buying gasoline. The biggest savings come in conjunction with rooftop solar — we don’t have that yet but may look into it in the next few years.
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
It’s the right size for my family. It looks good. It has very fast DC charging — our typical road trip stop is about 20-30 minutes, which is basically how long it takes everyone to use the bathroom and stretch their legs. We spend very little time actually waiting for the car to charge.
Two features that really help in the winter are a heat pump and battery preconditioning. The heat pump means you spend less energy to keep the inside of the car warm, while preconditioning allows for fast DC charging even in cold weather. Our January trip to Colorado and back would have taken a lot longer without those features. We ride in comfort — I don’t cut back on the heating to preserve range.
With EVs the question is always “Why not a Tesla?” So I’ll address that. I like having physical buttons. I don’t want to feel like I’m driving an iPad. I find Teslas really boring to look at, and they are very common around here. The build quality and driving experience is so-so. And Elon Musk is dragging down the brand with his jackass behavior on social media. He’s started removing features from people’s cars in response to his Twitter beefs. Tesla has a terrible track record with privacy as well. Tesla’s software and charging network is still the best, but non-Tesla vehicles (including mine) are getting access to the charging network within the next year or so.
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
I talked about the overall environmental impact before, but it’s also improved my local environment in a direct way. I’m glad my family isn’t breathing in gasoline exhaust. In the winter I can preheat the car from my phone, even when it’s parked in the garage. Or I can “idle” with the heat on and not cover everyone around me in a cloud of toxic fumes.
Home charging is super convenient! I don’t need to think about when I’ll get gas or who has the best price. Driving the EV6 is a very smooth and quiet experience. One-pedal driving is nice. There is also a lot of power available when I want it. It’s fun to floor it at a green light or freeway on-ramp and get up to speed way faster than anyone else on the road.
What have you disliked about it?
There’s not much to dislike about the car itself! I did a lot of research before purchasing, so my expectations were pretty well calibrated. Range decreases in the winter, but it is still way more than I need on a daily basis. The Kia software has some weird glitches, but nothing I can’t deal with.
I’ve had some issues at Electrify America stations — either some of the chargers were broken, or were not delivering the full power they should, or they randomly disconnected me after charging for a while. So far these problems have been minor and haven’t left me stranded, but it doesn’t inspire confidence in the network, either.
What would you like to see improved about the EV experience?
Charging is the big one! We need more DC fast chargers, in more locations, with better reliability and amenities. I don’t mind a 20-30 minute break during a road trip, but I’d like it to be somewhere nicer than the far end of a Walmart parking lot. If we had consistently working chargers protected from the elements, an indoor lounge with restrooms and refreshments, and a safe place for my daughter to run around, then charging would be a pleasant break from driving.
We also need a lot more Level 2 chargers in apartment/condo parking lots, workplaces, hotels, malls, restaurants, streetside in urban areas and pretty much anywhere people park that has electricity. This is especially important for those who don’t have their own garage or driveway to charge in, which was my situation until recently. When the comparison is between gas pumps and DC fast chargers, gas will always win. EVs are only convenient when you can do the majority of your charging in places where you would park anyway, with DC fast charging reserved for road trips and other special cases. On top of that, Level 2 chargers are much cheaper to install and operate. Most cars already spend most of the day parked, so that’s when they should charge!
The other thing the market needs is more affordable EV options, but it’s not clear automakers want to provide them.
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
I’m going to say 8. It’s basically been what I expected, which is great.
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Bryan Beltran, 27
Richfield, Minnesota
Bought a Tesla Model 3 with his wife Maria in December 2023
What do you do for work?
Maria is a special education teacher and I’m a software engineer.
What car did you have previously?
This was to replace our 2017 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
What made you want to switch to an EV?
I wanted a fuel-efficient vehicle, and we didn’t like our hybrid options so we started looking at EVs.
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
The customer experience at Tesla is what sold us. Being a third-generation Ford owner, I wanted to check out the F-150 Lightning and my wife wanted to check out the Mach-E. We were less than impressed with the service at Ford. The salesperson wouldn’t take us out on a drive, and tried to steer us away from an EV by telling us it would be challenging to charge living in an apartment. We own our home, so we were a little taken aback at the assumption. When we asked to see a Lightning model, the guy let us know he only had the Platinum trims on the lot, and he wouldn’t be able to let us test drive it.
The following weekend we went to Tesla to check out a Model 3 and a Model Y. We were quickly greeted, they got copies of our licenses and we were in a car in under five minutes. Our advisor helped us set the car up to our liking. We had never been in or driven a Tesla before. He asked if we had any questions and then let us do our test drive for as long as we would like. He let us take the car out on our own! We were really quickly enamored with the car. We came back and had questions that the advisor was able to answer, and there was never any pressure to make a purchase. We decided to design our build and put a deposit down that day.
How much did you pay?
We paid somewhere around $48,000. We got a discount because we took a car from the lot so we could take delivery sooner.
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
We haven’t had to think about gas stations or charging since we got a home charger. My wife just wakes up and goes. The instant acceleration is super fun. It hasn’t gotten old yet.
What have you disliked about it?
The insurance rates are nuts. We ended up switching our home insurance so we could bundle with our auto insurance just so we could get a somewhat reasonable rate.
What would you like to see improved about the EV experience?
The best part of our experience was the complete lack of pressure to make a purchase. We were able to enjoy the shopping experience, learn more about the car and discuss without having to discuss a down payment, our income or car payments. It was much different than our first car purchase, and a stark contrast to our EV experience at Ford.
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
10/10 would recommend because outside of having a charger installed at home, we don’t think about it. We just hop in the car and go. When we travel long distances, the car plans the charging stops for us. We just grab a bite to eat or use the opportunity for a bathroom break for ourselves or our dog. If it’s a longer charge, we watch Netflix or Hulu while we wait.
Guy Havelick, 73
Rochester, Minnesota
Bought a Volkswagen ID.4 in August 2023
What do you do for work?
Retired
What car did you have previously?
Traded a 10-year-old VW Jetta.
What made you want to switch to an EV?
I tend to almost be an early adopter for new technology, and it felt like EVs had been around long enough for them to be usable, while still exciting. The idea of minimal maintenance, quiet operation, powerful acceleration and substantial gasoline savings was a big influence.
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
We went to the Minneapolis auto show in March and sat in every EV there. This was the only one we liked. It was the most comfortable, and given our experiences with VW, we thought it could work.
How much did you pay?
The dealer was overstocked with ID.4s, so he gave us a good deal (if there’s any way to know what good is when buying a car)…about $50,000, but there were trade-ins, deals and the rebate.
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
It’s delivered on all of the reasons I wanted electric: quiet, powerful, no maintenance. Mechanically, the car is a VW, with all of its ride and style.
What have you disliked about it?
The VW software is abysmal. So abysmal that I’ve nicknamed the car “Captain Quirk.” Settings are difficult to find. Settings change on their own without reason. Example from today: the steering wheel heater is supposed to turn on when it’s cold out; today it decided not to. The phone app is almost useless, except for turning on the heat/AC before we get in the car.
What would you like to see improved about the EV experience?
The charging network is a major impediment. We have made it work, but the planning is extraordinary. Just a little trip from Rochester to Winona to Wabasha and home in zero degree weather was a challenge. Without a charge, we would have been under 25% when arriving at home. I didn’t like that idea, but there is only one fast charger in Winona, and nothing (NONE!) in Wabasha. We arranged our day to accommodate the charging opportunities. There were two stalls at the charger at Winona State, but one had an ICE vehicle parked in the stall. The other was open, and I couldn’t get the app to work, but a credit card did. It’s too much for an average person. Maybe I should have brought some grandchildren along to help?
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
I’m at a 7. Glad to have made the switch. My wife is at about a 5. The software is too complicated. The lack of charging on the road is a major impediment. If we didn’t have a hybrid for road trips (over 150 miles) we would be in a world of hurt. It’s great for around town, with home charging.
Chris Keirnan, 47
Durango, Colorado
Leased a Kia EV6 in December 2023
What do you do for work?
Doctor of Chiropractic
What car did you have previously?
Previously had a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with a Hemi V8.
What made you want to switch to an EV?
Better performance, lower maintenance costs, easier to plug in every night than stop for gas every week and current government rebates
What made you buy this specific vehicle?
Access to a dealer in my town if there were problems, fastest in this price range, quick DC fast charging for road trips
How much did you pay?
It is a lease, so it’s a little murky. I traded in my vehicle as a down payment and will pay $415 a month and the residual value is $36,000 with 12,000 miles per year.
What have you liked about the EV ownership experience?
How quiet the ride is, the acceleration, learning about charging (how, where, how much) and the low operating cost
What have you disliked about it?
Road trips need more frequent, longer stops. I only road trip once a month or so.
What would you like to see improved about the EV experience?
More options for charging on road trips. There are still big gaps in places to charge quickly in southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico. If I want to travel to Albuquerque from my house, it’s usually a three-hour drive. I can’t quite make it on one charge from my house, and there is no place to charge on the way, so I have to go way out of my way to have some charging stops, and it’s now five hours to get there. Frustrating.
On a scale of 1-10 (1 being not happy at all and 10 being happy beyond your expectations), how happy are you with the decision to go electric?
7.5. Day-to-day use has been great, but the charging infrastructure isn’t quite there yet. Part of the early adoption I guess, but it’s a challenge to figure out the proper route to be able to charge quickly and go where I want to go.
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