This is not my car.
It’s not a real car at all. It’s an AI-generated image of a car. I used this prompt: “A stylish but realistic-looking electric vehicle that a family might want.”
I do own an electric vehicle that many families seem to want. It’s a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4, one of the higher trims. I personally think it’s stylish, but it’s certainly not for everyone.
I acquired this vehicle in the fall of 2023. It’s the first electric vehicle I’ve owned. Somewhat surprisingly given my aversion to flashy tech and the social circles I run in, I believe it’s the first pure EV owned by anyone I know well enough to know what kind of car they drive.
I expect that won’t be the case for long. But while it lasts, I figured I’d share my experience with this still-novel drivetrain (to me, at least) and my musings about electric personal transportation more generally. I hope — for all our sakes — that these thoughts and indeed this entire project come to feel dated in the not-too-distant future.
For now, please enjoy. I welcome feedback: in conversation on Twitter/X or Threads, in comments on individual posts below, or by email via the contact form at the bottom of my homepage here.
We had one car until we needed two
An impending career change and kids old enough to have actual agency put us in the market. A rare find sealed the deal. Hopefully we won’t come to regret it.
Should we have bought a plug-in hybrid instead of an all-electric car?
We decided to go all-electric, but that’s not the right call for everyone. I lay out some considerations for prospective plug-in buyers here.
I don’t regret buying a used BEV (yet)
Full-electric vehicles are better than detractors insist but not quite as capable as evangelists would like to believe. Notwithstanding the headline, this is a measured reality check for would-be buyers.
Non-Tesla EV sales surged from 2020 to 2023, but normies still aren’t buying
An output of my conversation with Karl Brauer, executive analyst for iSeeCars. Brauer is a car (and car industry) expert, and he was kind enough to share his thoughts about the state of the EV market and the EV transition more broadly.