These Are Your Takes On Electric Vehicles In The Face Of Expensive Gasoline

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This week I took an opportunity to visit a friend's home, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he'd recently purchased a used Nissan Leaf at an absolute bargain price. He reasoned that the $4,500 he spent on the car would quickly be made up by his daily local trips. He was offloading his low-mileage used AWD Dodge Charger. Rising operating costs for the Dodge, including insurance rates, oil changes, and tires (on top of mounting Stellantis maintenance bills), plus the extra set of winter tires and L2 wall charger that came with the Nissan meant the car would pay for itself in short order. 

This friend is a dyed-in-the-wool car nut. He has a collection of hot rods and a self-built shop space with several times more square footage than my home. When I need help tuning a carburetor or fabricating fender flares, he's the guy I call. The fact that he's been converted to the merits of electric vehicles in these trying times is, anecdotally at least, indicative of changing trends in the car market. This friend is no luddite, but he's not the sort to adopt the latest technology without good reason.

Last weekend, I asked Jalopnik readers if the bombing in Iran had begun to change their mind about their gasoline-powered vehicles, specifically as it relates to the recent (and ongoing) price increases. As you might suspect, the topic can be a touchy one, and the comment section was buzzing with energy. We got replies from people who have been on the EV train for years, many who are looking to make the jump, and others who have gasoline in their veins.  Let's dig into the answers from the Jalopnik commentariat — why don't we? And if you didn't get a chance to weigh in last week, here's your opportunity. Drop a few additional ideas in the comments below.

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Selling my beloved R33 GT-R after 3 years and buying an Ionic 5 N (or 6).

Suggested by W.M. Rees

This is maybe the saddest thing I've ever seen on the internet. Good luck and Godspeed.

Maybe the question needs to be reset to the following:

What would you do if we were plunged back into gas rationing, with limited purchase days per week? How would you get to work? School? The market? Your doctor?

Suggested by Rick C.

We're getting pretty innovative in the U.S. We're cutting jobs so people don't have to drive. Fewer people are having children so they don't have to drive to school. Nobody can afford groceries, so they don't go to the market. Everyone just deals with their illnesses because they can't afford a doctor, even with insurance. It's kind of a win-win for everyone involved!

The long term assessment on volatility and the damage to society was a foregone conclusion and decision back in 2018. I'm never going back.

Suggested by Former Autoblog

You have read the tea leaves and seen the darkness coming. How will I meet my end, soothsayer?

No gas for me in 22 years (unless you count methane or hydrogen). Compared to the EV1, which I drove, today's electrics are dream vehicles. This rate of improvement will continue for range, efficiency, comfort, safety, etc. Not a question of if they will dominate the market, just when. Still, I oogle gas cars all day long, which is why I'm on this site!

Suggested by Phil Klemmer

I have ultimate respect for GM's EV1 project. I wish they'd had the strength to keep the flame alive and continue developing electric vehicles from that point forward. We might be already 10 years further into the development. 

My EV daily driver just turned 8 years old a couple weeks ago and still feels like new. My wife replaced her only car with an EV 3 years ago and we exclusively use hers for our road trips.

I feel like at this point so far into mainstream EV adoption, if it's not the gas prices that will make people switch, they're just too stuck in their ways afraid of the future and will just eventually die out. Being in the EV world for so long, I've heard every excuse in the book as to why people won't get them, and it almost always comes from a misunderstanding of how they work and what their capabilities actually are.

Suggested by StalePhish

I have long said that the best way to sell electric vehicles is to get butts in seats. I think that is actually the second best way to sell electric vehicles, as we are now in a time of unprecedented ignorance. If manufacturers actually want to sell these things, they need to mandate training and understanding for dealership staff. The customer should not be expected to know more than the salesperson in order to buy an EV, which seems to be the case right now.

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I've wanted to get an EV for a long time now. By the time I'm able to the technology will be much better than it was.

I've got solar panels and my electric bill is negative $375

Suggested by Yowza

Solar is magnificent, isn't it? It feels like magic, being able to conjure energy out of thin air.

Not completely because of gas prices but also back injury, but been eyeing off lease ioniq 5s. Love the GRC but I don't know how long my body can handle it.

Suggested by Minivanman

The GR Corolla is one of the best cars on the market right now, but feeding that ripper three-cylinder high test is getting pretty pricey. I'm sorry to hear about your injury — I hope you recover well enough in time. An Ioniq 5 is a pretty good consolation prize, however. 

We are not planning on buying a new car now, but whenever we talk about getting a new car, my wife and I only discuss electric cars. That's the future.

Suggested by 6thtimearound

Might I suggest looking into some inexpensive used options? I bought my first EV for just $2000. 

Yeah it absolutely is. My partner has a 2021 Outback Touring, which is a fine car in many ways (great for our dogs) but falls short in some important areas for us, a big one being gas mileage.

Two years ago, we were in a position where we were floating the idea of getting a second car for me: something cool, fun to work on, and under $10k. It would've been my first actual enthusiast car, and you might be able to imagine how thrilling that was for someone who lived so much of their life in poverty and almost gave up on the dream, because I was sincerely shopping for some of my dream cars.

So much has changed in those two years, and not only is it totally unfeasible now for me to get another car that gets 1990s gas mileage AND requires storage and dedicated upkeep, but the conversation about trading in the Outback for a similar car with better MPGs and reliability has shifted to whether or not we should just straight up switch to an EV and invest in home charging. The newest Prius is also under consideration.

Suggested by HakosukaDreaming

This is exactly the kind of response I was imagining I would get when I asked the question. I'm saddened to hear that our collective current economic situation has essentially forced you out of an enthusiast project car, which is a rite of passage. That your fortunes have fallen from potentially buying a project car to simply trading a daily driver for a Prius is the biggest anecdotal indicator to me that a bigger recession (depression?) is coming.

I had an X3, which I never really connected with. Once Trump's insane war gas prices kicked in, paying for Super, on an ugly SUV I didn't really like, seemed stupid. I wanted a EV, with a great reliability, an opening sunroof, and I wound up with a used BMW i4. Holy smokes is it fantastic. The war 100% convinced me to go EV. Once oil companies can get people used to $5/gal, or $6/gal gas, they're not going to drop it. They know you'll pay. So glad to be EVing.

Suggested by PicklePicklesPickles

I'm really glad you like your i4. Life is way too short to be driving an X3. 

When LA gas hit $6.17, I finally pulled the trigger and went EV.

I purchased a 2025 Lucid Air Pure which had been returned on a lease – 400+ miles range, free charging at work, 50% depreciation, and it not being a Tesla were the main selling points.

Two weeks in and it's been a dream.

Suggested by Christian

I really like the design of the Lucid; it's just such a pretty car on its own. Add in the efficiency benefits and how quiet it is, and it might be the perfect daily driver. Still a bit rich for my dirtbag blood, but I'm sure it looks good on you.

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I'm too old to get rid of my sports car daily with its manual transmission. It weighs almost half of what an EV weighs, and no EV can handle the way she does.

I'm retired now, but before I retired, I took a bus to work every day for 10 years. Over that time, I calculated that I saved $55,000 over that 10-year period. More than what I paid for my car.

My car now has 75,000 miles (120,700 km) on it and is worth 60% of what I paid for it in 2016. I get compliments on it everywhere I go.

Take a bus to work.

Suggested by Cone Bunny

This is far too logical an argument for a website comment section. Take a bus to work is maybe the best advice anyone has ever given. 

Not at all. We have 2 hybrids that both get over 42mpg and both paid for and low maintenance. Based on our driving habits, we fill once a month to every 6 weeks.

Suggested by Cycloniac

Fair enough. I really hope that gasoline doesn't get to the point where it's so expensive even the hybrid folks are convinced to go electric. 

Nope. Bought my first vehicle in 15 years this summer, an up-trim SUV (used) with the 6 cylinder forced induction engine. It is technically a MHEV. Two V8 still in the garage.

Suggested by Mr. Pickles

Best of luck to you, sir. 

...Gas would have to be like $10 a gallon for me. My DD gets 14 mpg and it's paid off. Wife's car gets 30 mpg (city) and I pay $350 a month for it.

Suggested by TheDuke

If I ever paid money for a vehicle and it thanked me by returning 14 miles per gallon, I would use one of those gallons to set it on fire and make it look like an accident.

I love that EVs work for some people. No matter how high gas prices get... I'm still not getting one. I ride and roll around in the vehicles I want to, because I'm not getting bullied by gas prices. This struggle bus attitude that a lot of people have isnt healthy. So if healthy food, triples in prices... Are some of you gonna start eating dog food? Of course not.

Suggested by Robb

No matter how high? If gasoline is $100 for a gallon, you're still standing up to the bully and paying the price at the pump? Life is good, if you can afford it.

Nope. All electric cars "suck", and they're certainly not "green" by any stretch of the imagination. I would never have one even if it was free for life (including all charging costs and continual upgrade to the newest model). 

Suggested by Astro Jetson

The amount of free cars I've accepted over the years is higher than it should be, and none of them were perfectly useful modern daily driver-grade machines. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, brother.