It turned out to be a life-changing experience.
Six years ago, Sue Pallotta and her husband Andy took a ride in a friend’s Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. That sparked their curiosity about hybrids and electric vehicles, and, in 2018, they leased a plug-in Mitsubishi Outlander hybrid. Last year, they made the move to a fully electric car, a Chevy Bolt SUV.
Pallotta, who lives in Port Perry, explains why she loves the Bolt, her year-round, everyday vehicle:
‘In 2018, we ordered a Chevy Volt when the Ontario government offered a rebate (up to $14,000). When Doug Ford was elected, the rebate was cancelled. The Volt wasn’t going to be delivered before the rebate ended, so we went to a Plug ‘n Drive event in Toronto where we learned a lot about electric cars and (we) tried a Mitsubishi hybrid.
We cancelled the Volt, and leased a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid off the lot before the rebate expired, and got $7,500 back. The Mitsubishi salesperson was very knowledgeable about electric cars, compared to what we found at many other dealerships. The Outlander wasn’t exactly what we wanted, so we leased it and figured in two or three years the technology would be that much better and we could decide then if we wanted to purchase one.
When the lease was up, we bought the Mitsubishi out and used it as a trade-in. In late 2022, we were ready to go to a fully electric car. We felt the Mitsubishi technology hadn’t advanced enough and they only had a plug-in hybrid. Our Mitsubishi hybrid had four-wheel drive and a lot of great features, but didn’t go that far in electric mode … maybe 45 kilometres in summer and less in winter.
We ordered a Chevy Bolt EUV in November, 2022 and got it in January, 2023. It was roomier and sportier-looking than the Mitsubishi. We bought it from a dealership not far from us. We, again, found most salespeople were not super knowledgeable about the electric cars they were selling. We knew more than they did. But we could take it to our local dealership to be serviced — that’s one reason we didn’t look at Tesla, because we couldn’t get one serviced in our area.
Although reducing our carbon footprint mattered, we didn’t want to spend a fortune on an electric car. The main reason we bought an electric vehicle was because you save a lot over time and they hold their value better than gas cars. We live on a country road, and they are heavier than gas cars, so it’s very stable in winter.
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We got a family and friends discount through GM and a $5,000-federal-government incentive to buy an electric car, so the Bolt cost us $43,000. Andy figures in 10 years, it will have paid for itself. I have no fuel costs, no oil changes, no exhaust and the brakes don’t wear as quickly. (The car’s electric motors help slow it).
I plug the Bolt in at 7 p.m. at night (off-peak hours) in our garage and unplug it at 7 a.m., although I don’t plug it in every day. It gets 417 km per charge in summer and about 280 in winter, and I work only eight kilometres away. The only time I got range anxiety was when I had to attend a banquet in November in Oakville. It was cold, so the car didn’t get the range it did in warmer weather and I didn’t know where the charging stations were. But I didn’t run out of charge. Also in November, I went to the Royal Winter Fair and was worried when it took an hour to get out of the parking lot. It only used 10 km of range during that hour, even though I had the heater running. If you are not moving, it hardly uses any charge.
Most malls have free charging stations, including the Oshawa Centre, where I often shop. Their stations are near the entrance, which is amazing. At home, we figure the car charging adds about $25 a month to our hydro bill. Andy figures it would cost $4.88 to fully charge it if it was plugged in every day, but as I’m only making a 16-km round-trip to work, I don’t need to plug it in daily.
Andy drives a GMC Silverado and would love to get an electric truck. We use the truck to take my dressage horse to shows and electric trucks don’t get good enough range if you’re pulling a horse trailer for us to consider getting one at this time.”
