John Howard: Electric cars save money
Published: 12-27-2024 2:26 PM |
South Hadley is a very good place to own an electric vehicle. This is because we are a municipal light plant town, as are Holyoke and Chicopee, so our electric rates are about half those of investor owned utility (IOU) towns. In addition, electric cars cost less to run compared to gasoline powered cars. They are much more efficient than internal combustion engine cars which have many hundreds of moving parts whereas electric cars only have about 100. There is much less to go wrong. There’s little or no maintenance on an electric car. There is no oil to change, no transmission worries, and there’s no muffler to worry about being stolen. For that matter, electric cars are less likely to be stolen than gas cars. The brakes seldom need attention because with regenerative breaking the car slows when you take your foot off the accelerator. I seldom touch the brakes except when coming to a complete stop to hold a car in place.
This is a particularly good time to buy EVs as in 2025 there are going to be several inexpensive EVs available. There is already one, the Chevy Equinox EV, which has a price of about $35,000 with a federal tax incentive of $7,500 and a Mass state incentive (MOR-EV) of $3,500. Now that we have direct pay, most dealers can take the federal incentive off the price of the car at the time of sale regardless of your tax liability. If you got a $4000 trade-in that brings the price of the car down to $20,000. Some companies even pay for a level two charger to be installed in your home. Because of the car’s rapid acceleration, you need to be careful not to spin the tires while accelerating or to exceed the speed limit. You should also be certain to check the car’s eligibility, your income eligibility, and a continuing status of these offers due to political changes. One of the unexpected joys of electric vehicles is that you no longer need to stand at a gas station on a winter day, gloves off to hold the credit card, while holding a nozzle and smelling the gasoline going into your car.
John Howard
South Hadley
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