The Expert Podcast

To E V or not EV That is the question. So for many many months up really almost two years now, we've talked about when is the time to buy an electric vehicle and how. The current electric vehicle market is not really yet ready for prime time Ready for consumers. And there's a lot of reasons for it We'll talk about that momentarily but here's another…example another breakdown from banking rates about reasons you should not buy an electric car in 2023. And some of these hit on what we've talked about before but we'll get into some more details on top of that So the important thing to know is you're going to buy an EV eventually. Right. This is what the experts say…most big. are sunsetting combustion vehicles by 2035 2040. What does that mean Sunsetting? They're not making any. So in about 10 years there will not be any more electric or gasoline vehicles to buy Everything will be electric. In about 10 years. Right? So. What do you do for the next 10 years where you could buy an EV now but EVs haven't quite become perfected yet You still have range problems charging problems. Battery problems. That aren't ideal. They're getting better, but they're not ideal. So if you want an E V for a second vehicle or maybe as kind of a tryout of the EV lifestyle that's a different story. Most people don't have them for primary vehicles because gasoline is still better even for costs. The cost of charging versus gasoline. Is kind of break even based on the EVs being more money. So. While you might have no choice to buy an EV in 20 years. It's clear that…electric cars are phasing out internal combustion engines. But it's still a higher price. Good thing is you won't have to worry about range. Much past another year In-home fast chargers. R. Becoming more ubiquitous in your house And we've talked about installing a charger in your house It's pretty straightforward. But outside your house not all places have charging ports. So if you're outside of a city it can be a headache to charge a vehicle But within the next couple of years, There will be a lot more retail restaurants. And even. existing gas stations will switch over to the charging stations The biggest thing though is cost Right? Electric vehicles still costs more upfront as a purchase than a gasoline vehicle. Even with…the new rebates. That have been announced. Even if you take the rebate out it's still more money and it might take you five or six years…of. saving money on electricity. to make up the difference of what you pay up front for the car. And this is what it says right here We're still not at price parody. With internal combustion engines. The gap is narrowing. But in EV are still five to 10,000 more at the time of purchase. Look. Let's say it's 7,000 split The difference. If you save a thousand a year it takes you seven years to make up the difference and you have to come out of pocket first for that money. So it might be good if you're in the car evolution. To get another efficient, good gas car right now, plan on having that for three four years, maybe at the end. the decade, 2028 2029 Maybe get an EV what's available Then still keep a gas car. as your backup. And then look at that evolution but because of the fact that vehicles are changing, It's important to look at what your plans for the future are. One thing we can say is it's probably a good idea to put a charger in your garage If you're going to be there for more than two or three years. Because the installation costs right now is subsidized. And it's cheaper. With inflation for copper wires and electricians and everything else two or three years from now when everybody's doing it it's probably going to cost more to put in a. charging port. And if you do it now you're not under any kind of, pressure where if you just bought a car you need a charger right away. Some of the work you can do yourself. If you buy the charging plug. And install in your garage and you buy the wire and hook it up to the plug and just run it You don't have to put it into your breaker box You can hire an electrician to do that, but if you're actually doing. The. Get your hands dirty work. And just have the electrician do the connecting the conductors. You can save some money. It's kind of like if you were going to hire an electrician to come put a ceiling fan in your house, you don't want to miss. the ceiling fan from home Depot. You don't want to be paying electrical rates for that. You can do a lot of the. placement and structure a work yourself and just have the electrician. Put the connectors. together and put the conductors from the breaker into the plug. So electric vehicles are coming or You're not going to be driving a gas car 10 years from now. But it may not be time to jump in this year. For your primary vehicle. But it might be time to look at your next evolution in two or three years for a backup vehicle for EV plus put the charger in your garage.