BMW drivers have the infamous reputation of being assholes on the road. We completely disregard proper road manners. Turn signals? What are those? Add to that the magnificently instant power of electric motors, and the asshole intensifies even more…
I recently took my BMW M2 to the dealer for its annual service. For loaner vehicle I was given a BMW i5 - an all-electric BMW 5 Series. It’s the first time I’ve ever driven an electric car, never mind that it’s my first service loaner to not be powered by dinosaur juice. I was instantly a fan: unlike a gas loaner where I have to refill the amount I use, for an EV loaner there’s no expectation of charging back to the initial level! As a fan of decreasing the amount of hassles in my life, this development is lovely.
Back to the BMW i5. The instant torque of electric motors is indeed very intoxicating. No naturally-aspirated gas engine can match the response of an electric motor. With such accessible power, electric cars invite drivers to be aggressive. It’s too easy! Anybody that’s in front of you can be passed in an eye blink. Any gap in traffic can be filled before other drivers can react. Even for me, someone who prefers to do the speed limit in the slow lane, the i5 loaner egged me to test out its capabilities. The fastest car in the world is a rental EV.
Not that I wasn’t of this opinion before, but having driven an EV finally, I am more convinced that you should absolutely buy electric if you are able to charge it at home. The power is nice, yes, but so is the negligible maintenance cost (brakes and tires, mostly). And if you believe in the whole better-for-the-environment mission (let’s skip over the mining materials for the batteries part), even better.
If I actually had a commute, I wouldn’t look at anything but an all-electric car.
Still standing.