In the next 10-15 years, all vehicles will be electric. And for the past few years, we’ve discussed when the best time is to make the personal transition from internal combustion vehicles to electric vehicles. So, how about 2023? Well, the current EV market isn’t quite ready yet for prime time, and there’s a variety of reasons why. 

According to this article, eventually, everyone will have an EV. Many states are putting laws on the books to prohibit the production and use of vehicles with internal combustion engines within the next 10 years. In fact, most major manufacturers are sunsetting combustion vehicles in the next 10-15 years. Sunsetting means that the manufacturers will no longer produce these types of vehicles, the sun is setting on their time in the market. 

What do you do for the next 10-15 years? You could buy an EV now, but EVs aren’t yet perfected. They still have problems with driving range, charging problems, and battery degradation problems that aren’t ideal. They’re getting better, but the problems are still not ideal. Based on this, it may not be wise to trade your reliable gas car for an EV that is still working out the kinks. If you do want to start the transition now, many people purchase EVs as a second car or a backup just to try out the lifestyle. Most people don’t use EVs for their primary vehicles because gasoline cars are still better, even in cost. The cost of charging vs. gasoline is almost breakeven based on EVs being more money upfront. 

The biggest factor right now is cost. Electric vehicles still cost more as an upfront purchase than gasoline vehicles, even with tax incentives and rebates. Even if you take the rebate out, it’s still more money. It might take you five or six years of saving money on electricity to make up the difference between what you paid upfront for the electric car. The cost of gasoline vehicles has gone up in recent years, but EVs are still $5K-$10K more expensive than gasoline vehicles. Split that difference, and call it a $7K difference, that means if you save up $1,000 per year, it’ll take you seven years to make up the difference and you still have to come out of pocket for that money first. 

So it might be a wise idea to actually get another good, efficient gas car and plan to have it for 3-4 years. Then, toward the end of the decade, look into what EVs have to offer. Still keep your gas car as a backup, but plan for the future transition. 

One way that you can prepare now is to put up an EV charging station in your garage or accessible on your property, even if you don’t have an EV yet. As the EV transition accelerates, the cost to install a home charger will increase exponentially due to the increased demand. Right now the installation costs are subsidized and it’s cheaper with inflation and labor costs to install a charger now, rather than in a few years. Even if you don’t need it right away, if you know it’ll be part of your future and it’s affordable to do so now, consider installing a charging station. You can even do some of the work yourself.

If you purchase the charging plug and do the preliminary installation steps, you can then simply hire an electrician to hook up the electrical aspects. Make sure to do some of the preliminary installations before the electrician begins their work. Electricians are expensive, and you won’t want to pay that hourly rate for them to do the tasks that you could easily do yourself. 

The transition to electric vehicles is fast approaching. And while 2023 may not be the best year to buy an electric vehicle, it may be the best year to install a home charger and make a transition plan for your future.