So you’ve decided to buy an electric vehicle for your next purchase, and don’t know where to start?
If shopping for a new car wasn’t difficult enough, now we need to learn about everything that goes into owning an electric vehicle (battery distance, charge time, electricity costs, etc.) and may not know where to start. Follow these steps to find the electric vehicle that fits your lifestyle.
Buying a new electric car doesn’t have to be daunting. For many, buying a car is one of the largest purchases you will make, so understanding how to shop for your next vehicle is important to help save you time and stress throughout your shopping journey.
“Narrow down your shopping list”
How to Buy a New Car in 10 Steps | Kelley Blue Book (kbb.com)
In a KBB article listing 10 steps to buying a new car, they list “Narrow down your shopping list” as a key step, which may be the most important step to save you time and prepare you for your next vehicle purchase.
But, how do you narrow down your list when there are hundreds of choices, and new cars coming out every month?
Luckily we’ve created a better way to research the best electric car for you.
In this article we discuss…
- The problems with most car websites
- How to better research and shop for electric cars
- What information we provide to help prepare you for your next electric car purchase
The Problem
The problem with most car websites is they don’t really help you narrow down your list unless you already know the make and model you are looking for. You’ll usually start with a body type or two, that still leaves lots of vehicles to search through. Also, most car websites rely on advertising revenue, so their goal is to get users to increase clicks, not save time. Finally, most car websites haven’t fully adopted electric vehicles as the future.
Car searches don’t help you find the electric car to fit your lifestyle
Many of the big-name car sites we turn to have several shortcomings that do a poor job of meeting our needs as consumers.
The first shortcoming is the search. Whenever you turn to buy a product, you are looking to fulfill a need. In my case, our family needed a safe, reliable, seven-seat electric car with a 200-mile range.
Today, car sites prompt you to search for a car by body size or vehicle model. You are forced to look through pages of content searching for electric cars that best fit your needs. The search by body style or model works well if you know what car you are looking for but is of little help if you want to find the right electric vehicle that fits your lifestyle.
If you have not settled on a vehicle, searching through countless pages of information is time-consuming, and unless you look at every vehicle, you may miss out on a vehicle candidate that meets your needs.
Display Ads lead to Poor Experiences
Part of the reason car sites make you look through countless pages is financial. Most publishers make money by displaying advertisements on their websites. Therefore, the more pages car sites show you, the more money they make. As a result, they have the incentive to show you as many pages as possible when you visit their website. Any feature that will reduce the number of pages you will consume makes these car websites less money. Therefore, many car websites place a gauntlet of pages in front of their visitors.
Financial Incentive
The last but vital reason car sites do a poor job covering electric cars again is financial. Gas-powered cars make up 98% of the automotive market. As a result, car sites focus most of their resources and mindshare on making money off the gas-powered auto market. As a result, electric cars are not a major priority for most car websites at this time.
A Better Way to Find the Best Electric Vehicle that Fits Your Lifestyle
Having experienced difficulties researching what electric vehicle best fits our lifestyle, we decided there had to be a better way. Electric Driver is my opportunity to create a better way to research and find the right electric car for you. We believe electric cars are the present and the future. Therefore Electric Driver’s only focus is electric cars. Focusing exclusively on electric cars allows us to create an experience completely dedicated to addressing the unique needs and questions that arise from electric car shopping.
Helping Shoppers Transition to EV owners
Electric cars can save you time, money and reduce your emissions, leading to a healthier environment. Our goal is to help show you the benefits of owning an electric car. We feel once you experience these benefits electric cars provide, you will have a hard time going back to a gas-powered car. Before we go on, I won’t ask for your help. When visiting Electric Driver, if you do not see an answer to an important question you have, please let us know. We want to create a better experience and need your help creating a better way to research electric cars.
How to better research and shop for electric cars
- Research Starts with Your Needs
- Comparison Shopping Helps Make Decisions
Research Starts with your needs
When you look to buy a product or service, you search for a solution to your problem. In our case, when we wanted to buy an electric car, we needed a vehicle that could seat seven, travel at least 200 miles on a charge, be safe, reliable, and we wanted to cut our monthly gas bill. We wanted to find the right electric vehicle that fits your lifestyle. Our list of needs served as a checklist to evaluate which electric cars were contenders. Whenever you shop for a high-priced item like a car that will stay with you for years, determine what is important to you. Your needs are what will guide you to a better purchase decision.
Start With Needs-Based Search
Any shopping journey begins with knowing what needs are important to you. Our solution is what we call a needs-based search. After you tell us what matters to you, we ask for your price range, how many people you need to transport, and how far you need to drive on a single charge.
Electric Driver then goes to work and matches you with the vehicles that most closely match your needs. The specific needs we use on Electric Driver result from countless interviews and feedback from people like you.
When We Shop, We Compare
When considering a purchase, you make decisions, evaluate between multiple imperfect options, and find the solution that best meets your needs. Whether it’s deciding which college to attend, what movie to watch, or what car to buy, our nature is to compare and evaluate trade-offs between available options. In our example, our search at the time had us selecting between two choices, a Tesla Model X or Tesla Model Y. When using our list of needs to evaluate each vehicle, the seating was the tiebreaker for us. The Tesla Model X won out in the end because the seven-seat option was roomier and had more interior space.
You want to know what is important to you going into the shopping process in order to make better decisions. Make sure you do your homework and leave no stone unturned when looking for suitable options to evaluate. The worst feeling is purchasing a high-priced vehicle only to find out your search overlooked a better option.
How We Help You Compare and Evaluate to find the best fit for your lifestyle
Once you enter your information into Electric Driver’s needs-based search, we go to work. First, our website goes through all available electric cars to find which ones best meet your needs. Then Electric Driver presents you with the top three electric cars that most closely meet your needs within your budget. The search helps find the right electric vehicle that fits your lifestyle. Next, based on your needs Electric Driver shows you evaluate all three vehicles and shows you the trade-offs between all three options. Furthermore, Electric Driver also identifies which vehicle is the closest match. If for some reason, you do not like a specific vehicle, you can replace it with another electric car of your choosing. Once you have identified a potential candidate, you are ready to learn more about that specific vehicle.
Vehicle Overview with Pros and Cons
While most have heard of electric vehicles, a small percentage admit to being knowledgeable about them. According to a recent Consumer Reports survey, approximately 98% of drivers say they’ve heard of electric vehicles. But only 30% say they’re knowledgeable about electric vehicles. 68% say they have “heard of” plug-in EVs but “don’t know much about them.”
Our goal is to help give you a better picture of what it would be like to switch from your gas-powered car to an electric vehicle. Most people want to know how much money they would save by switching to an electric car. Electric Driver can estimate how much you could save by switching to an electric car. In the background, we use gas and electricity prices in your state to give you a local estimate.
The image below is the overview section for a 2021 Tesla Model 3 to illustrate what you can expect. We also share with you some benefits and drawbacks of owning an electric car.
Estimated Cost To Own an Electric Car
Another question you may have is how much does it cost to own an electric car. Specifically, how much can I expect to pay for maintenance, electricity, and insurance? Electric Driver provides estimated costs for maintenance, insurance, and electricity based on each specific electric car. In addition, electric Drive estimates cost based on what state you live in and what electric car you are considering. We also provide an estimate of what a gas vehicle would cost to own to help you visualize what you can expect to save by switching to an electric car.
Electric Car Environmental Impact
Understanding what kind of environmental impact switching from a gas to an electric car is not clearly understood by many people. You know electric cars are better for the environment, but probably don’t have a deeper understanding. Electric Driver set out to find out more about the environmental impact. We show the environmental benefits of owning an electric car. We also created an electric car model-specific feature that shows how much carbon emissions you will save.
Electric cars are a good choice for the environment, but they do not eliminate emissions. Specifically, when you buy electricity from your electric utility, you may be creating some emissions in the process. Each state has various means they generate electricity including, coal plants, petroleum, hydroelectric, nuclear, or renewables. For example, electricity from coal creates more emissions than electricity from renewable resources. Electric Driver gives you insight into where your electricity is coming from and how much emissions you create.
Rest assured, the emissions from electricity in most cases, will be much less than what a gas-powered car creates. Ideally, the better option is to buy your own solar panels and further reduce your environmental emissions. Below is a rendering of our environmental impact feature, which should be available in August 2021.
Understanding your Electric Car
Once you have a leading contender, the next step is to learn more about the specific electric car and how it fits your lifestyle. Specifically, you want to see how the electric vehicle could fit into your life. Now looking beyond your core needs is acceptable because you are trying to figure out how this vehicle can fit into your life. Understanding the warranty, reliability, and other features will help you visualize what owning this electric vehicle would look like.
EV Charging In Your Area
An Important yet overlooked question people may not consider is an electric vehicle charging in their area. Your electric vehicle will do most of its charging at home overnight, but there may be times you need to charge away from home. Therefore, you will need to have electric vehicle charging infrastructure in your area.
Electric Driver – No Ads, Electric Vehicle Centered
No Display Ads on Electric Driver
We want to create a better way to research the right electric car, and display ads will get in the way. By skipping display advertisements, Electric Driver can remove unwanted distractions. By having Electric Drive no display advertisements you are free of influence, allowing you to be clear-headed when selecting the electric car that is right for you.
An Electric Car Centric Experience to Help You Find the Best Electric Vehicle for Your Lifestyle
Electric Driver wants to help you find the right electric vehicle that fits your lifestyle. So Electric Driver created a unique electric car research experience designed to help you identify and select the right electric car with ease and no distractions. If you encounter a question on your electric vehicle journey that we don’t answer yet, let us know. We aim to get more people to save time, money and reduce their emissions by owning an electric car.