For years they have been sold to motorists as a vision of the future. But has the electric vehicle revolution ended before it really began?
The headlines are certainly not promising. Tesla surprised analysts last month when it announced that sales had fallen for the first time since the height of the pandemic in 2020.
So far this year, Apple has canceled its decade-long project to create its own electric vehicle, while Ford is cutting production of its electric pickup truck. Meanwhile, General Motors wants to bring back its plug-in hybrid instead of going all-electric.
Yet amid all the gloomy sales reports, there’s a growing army of die-hard EV enthusiasts who insist they’ll never go back to their old gas-guzzling ways.
DailyMail.com asked its readers to give honest, unfiltered opinions about their experience with their electric cars, and was inundated with strong opinions from both sides of the debate.
David and Lisa Brundage (both pictured) say their Tesla saves them about $400 a month on gas.
Tesla surprised analysts last month when it announced that sales had fallen for the first time since the height of the pandemic in 2020.
While EV converts insist the cars are fun to drive and cost-effective, skeptics said starting prices were too high, while the lack of charging infrastructure in the United States made long trips impossible.
David Brundage, 55, has had his Tesla Model Y for just eight weeks, but he already knows he will never use his gasoline car again.
The travel agent, who lives outside Orlando, FL, paid $38,000 for the car, taking into account the $7,500 federal EV tax credit he received for the purchase.
But he estimates it saves him and his wife, Lisa, 55, $400 a month on gas while he charges the car at home using power from solar panels he had installed about a year ago.
Father-of-three David told DailyMail.com: “We will never use a petrol car again – it just doesn’t make economic sense.”
‘We’ve already taken our Tesla on a 1,000-mile road trip and the charging infrastructure was excellent. We averaged a stop every two and a half miles and our longest stop was only 17 minutes.
He added that the car was “fun to drive” and even accelerates faster than his old Ford Mustang.
His opinion is at odds with that of fellow motorist Michael Woods, who was forced to sell his Audi e-tron four months after purchasing it, at a loss of around $20,000.
Woods runs his own oil and gas exploration company, but is always looking for ways to reduce his energy consumption, having completed a master’s degree in environmental science.
But long commutes between his offices in Dallas and Shreveport left him with “range anxiety,” a term electric vehicle drivers use to describe the worry they’ll feel that their battery will die before reaching a charging point.
He said: ‘It’s a 220 mile round trip and there are no charging stations on that trip.
‘The charging infrastructure is simply not good enough. I think areas like California are better, but most of the US doesn’t have enough chargers.
“If you only use it to run around town, it’s a good car, but if you use it as your only vehicle and you don’t have another gasoline car to rely on, it doesn’t work.”
‘You can see in car dealerships that electric vehicles are piling up because no one wants them. It’s a shame because I really wanted to love mine.’
Michael Woods (pictured) was forced to sell his Audi e-tron four months after purchasing it, at a loss of around $20,000.
Matt Spease bought a gray Tesla Model Y Long Range for around $54,000 in 2022 with the plan to flip it and make a profit. Pictured: Spease (bottom right) with his brother and two nephews.
For Matt Spease, buying an electric car was supposed to just be a matter of making money.
Spease, 52, bought a gray Tesla Model Y Long Range for about $54,000 in 2022 with the plan to flip it and make a profit.
However, to his surprise, he discovered that he enjoyed driving the car too much to part with it.
The business owner, who lives outside Detroit, MI, told DailyMail.com: ‘The car has some quirks, the automatic wipers are a joke and the autopilot has some strange reactions from time to time.
“But in my 36 years of driving, it’s the best car I’ve ever driven. I drive 120 miles a day, did some basic math and realized it’s cheaper to keep.
“Someone needs to counter all the negative campaigns about electric vehicles, it’s not just about the environment, it’s about giving people a choice and making them realize that they are better cars that do a great job of getting from point A to B”.