Is An All Electric Vehicle In My Future

In 2003 I was driving a sports car.

It was fun and it was flashy.

Then my conscious got to me and I mean in a good way.

I knew that every mile that I was driving I was leaving a carbon footprint and the

carbon footprint that I was leaving by driving the high performance sports car was larger

than I felt comfortable with.

So in 2004 I sold the sports car and bought a Honda Insight.

The Honda Insight is a hybrid and to this day, eleven years later, it still gets over 50 miles

to the gallon.

It makes me happy that I bought it every

time I fill up at the gas station, which is not

all that often.

EV - Electric Vehicle

Now I have turned my sights on the idea of buying an EV.

An EV is an automobile that is powered completely by electricity.

Driving a vehicle that is all electric will help me to reduce the size of my carbon footprint

even more.

So how popular are all electric vehicles you may ask.

Well, in Japan there are now more electric vehicle charging stations than gas stations.

It was recently reported that in Japan there are now some 40,000 electric vehicle

charging stations, compared to some 34,000 gas stations.

Some of these charging stations

are free to use and some require users

to pay a fee.

The fee structure for the stations that require a fee vary from a monthly

subscription that allows you to use it as much as you need, to a pay each time you

use it option.

It seems to me that the monthly subscription option would work best for drivers who have

the same commute several times a week.

By paying a monthly subscription they could stop at the same station whenever the need

arose.

Where To Find An Electric Vehicle Charging Station

For those who may be driving in unfamiliar areas, there are now apps that can be used to locate charging stations in your current

locale.

In addition, some EV's have as part of their built in navigation systems, mapped data

that allows drivers to identify charging stations that are close by.

Of course a very common charging station is at ones home.

All you do is plug in your vehicle at night and it is ready to go the next morning.

My Honda Insight now has 140,000 miles on it and it is running great.

Naturally, I have not had a car payment in many years.

But I must admit that the idea of owning an all electric vehicle appeals to me.

As a result, I may be visiting an electric charging station to charge up my electric

vehicle on a regular basis in the near future.