We had no time to react as a RAV4 ran the red light at Albert and Kent. Time seemed to slow down as the deafening sound of metal on metal filled the intersection and the vehicle slammed into us broadside.

Thankfully, our injuries were minor, but our vehicle was a write-off. We needed a replacement quickly.

Nine years earlier, while renovating our garage, we had roughed in wiring for an EV charger and promised ourselves that our next vehicle would be electric. But like most people, affordability mattered. Cars, new or used, aren’t cheap, and EVs always seemed priced just beyond our reach.

Then we started doing some back-of-the-napkin math.

Our old car averaged 7.9 litres per 100 km. Since we drive about 12,000 km a year, that meant burning roughly 948 litres of gasoline annually. At December’s gas price of about $1.40 per litre (the good old days), that worked out to approximately $1,327 per year in fuel costs.

The EVs we were considering let you schedule charging times. In Ontario, electricity overnight between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. costs just 3.9 cents per kWh. Based on our driving habits of about 12,000 km per year, we’d spend roughly 75 cents per 100 km driven…or about $90 a year to fuel the vehicle. Not per month. Per year. Wow. 

I’ve shared that number with several people, and you can almost see them mentally calculating how much money would stay in their pockets if they no longer had monthly gas bills.

What we used to spend on fuel could now go toward the vehicle payment itself. Suddenly, an EV wasn’t more expensive, it was more affordable than a comparable gas or hybrid vehicle.

That realization helped me understand why countries like Norway have embraced EVs so quickly. Despite its cold climate, about 95 per cent of new vehicles sold there in 2025 were fully electric.

The more we dug into EV ownership, the more it felt like buying an appliance than a traditional vehicle. There are fewer moving parts, no oil changes, and less routine maintenance. Software updates arrive automatically over the Internet. I remember joking that we were considering buying a computerized golf cart! 

Of course, we still had questions. Would the battery last? How much range would we lose in winter? What would repairs cost? And what about all the concerns we’d heard about lithium mining and battery production? After doing our homework and talking with people who already owned EVs, we became comfortable enough with the answers to move forward.

Several friends recommended the Equinox EV. We found one at Boyer Chev Olds, took it for a test drive, and within a week we owned our first electric vehicle.

Driving it has been surprisingly enjoyable. The optional one-pedal driving mode took a little getting used to, but now I love it. When you lift your foot off the accelerator, the vehicle slows itself while regenerating energy back into the battery. If you’ve ever driven a stick shift, it feels a bit like downshifting. It’s strange at first, but it quickly becomes second nature.

Charging at home is also incredibly convenient. One unexpected luxury is being able to warm up the vehicle with the push of a button on your phone while it sits safely in the garage. No fumes, no scraping ice off the windshield, just a warm vehicle, heated seats, and a heated steering wheel waiting for you.

As for range anxiety, it hasn’t really materialized for us. The vehicle gets just over 500 km on a full charge and closer to 400 km in winter, which is more than enough for the vast majority of our driving.

It’s still early days, but I suspect EVs will increasingly become a practical second vehicle for local travel, especially as prices come down. Used fleet EVs are also starting to enter the market, making ownership even more accessible.

Much like battery-powered lawn equipment, once the economics make sense, adoption tends to happen quickly.

The Norwegians may be onto something after all.