{"id":34936,"date":"2026-09-07T11:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T15:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=34936"},"modified":"2026-09-07T11:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T15:18:26","slug":"to-ev-or-not-to-ev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/to-ev-or-not-to-ev\/","title":{"rendered":"To EV or Not to EV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"ToyotaI<\/span> started driving rather late in life compared to others in my age cohort: I was 24 when I finally got my licence<\/strong>. A lot of my fellow hippies and schoolmates got their driving licence at age 16 or 17. Before I got my licence, I used public transit, trains, buses, hitchhiked across the country a couple of times, and even hopped a couple of freight trains. That was back in the late ’60s. Naive, I know, and dangerous, but I was on the road \u00e0 la Jack Kerouac, albeit in Canada and without the literary pretensions. Ah, the folly of youth.<\/p>\n

Since getting the licence, I have driven a range of vehicles from VW bugs to vans to trucks to scooters and motorcycles. These days, in my crusty dotage, I drive a bog-standard, crossover SUV at a respectable (aka slower than I used to…) speed. But then, pretty much everything I do is slower than it used to be. Except, perhaps, cursing when I doomscroll through the news about the Deranged Dictator and his enablers… but I digress.<\/p>\n

For about 40 of those years, everything I drove had manual transmissions. I only changed to an automatic transmission reluctantly, around 2005 when Toyota stopped making manual transmission<\/a>s (or at least for the RAV4 we had been driving). I grumbled at that, but succumbed (I am still grouching over the removal of the CD player and audio-in ports in ’19 , though… a stupid marketing decision!). In the decades, I have grown accustomed to an automatic (although I still miss the CD player…).<\/p>\n

In the past, it was always a gas engine, or, as the unfortunate acronym goes: ICE (internal combustion engine). That might change, I thought, as I was being seduced by the glitter of technology. My driving, not the acronym. I’m still a techie at heart, after all. But let’s not get too far ahead of the story.<\/p>\n

My driving as a retiree has, as expected, been much less than it was in my youth. In the 1970s and early ’80s, I drove considerable distances for several of my jobs, covering all of eastern and northern Ontario for one, covering all of Canada for another. I had driven in every province and territory as of the early 1980s, and in all of Canada’s major cities except Quebec. I drove across the USA in the mid-’70s on a three-month road trip, from Ontario to California and then up to BC. I drove to Chicago a couple of times to attend conventions, and to events in the ’80s in Detroit and Buffalo. I even drove in Israel in the ’70s, too.<\/p>\n

But of late, my driving has been even lower than in years before the pandemic. We walk a lot in town, and we don’t shop much out of town. Our most recent vehicle, a 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross<\/em>, had a mere 8,000 kms on it after 38 months. I think we walked our dog at least that far in the same period.<\/p>\n

We’ve been leasing Toyotas since the late 1990s, a decision we made when we owned a business, and continued for more than a decade after we sold the business. And when the lease was expiring, we asked ourselves, what should we do next? Why didn’t we just buy out the lease, you ask… well, we initially planned to. We made the arrangements to close the deal before the lease expired. But, wait…<\/p>\n

While setting up the appointment for the buyout, I saw a shiny EV on the showroom floor… a C-HR. Intrigued by a vehicle I had not seen before, I started asking questions about the rebates, the trade-in, and the monthly payments, all the while ogling the shiny burnt-orange surface (it’s called tandoori, by the way). Maybe we could make it work with some financial belt-tightening, I thought.<\/p>\n

See, as woke socialist Canadian liberal tree huggers, we really believe<\/em> in EVs, and in reducing our emissions, even if we’ve never made the move, vehicle-wise. Not that the emissions from our rarely-driven, Toyota Corolla Cross can compare to those produced by any of the many, honking big pickup trucks that clutter our streets and highways. We drive in a month what some of them drive in a week, or less. But, like other conscientious woke folk, we are deeply concerned by the raging climate change<\/a> humans have caused and want to do whatever we can to mitigate the problem. The most recent UN report on climate change<\/a> is, to say the least, depressing.*<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It seems from my limited knowledge that we have not had many (or any<\/em>, at least for our restricted budget) options for an affordable, small EV until very recently. And we would certainly NOT<\/strong><\/em> buy a Tesla (aka a Swasticar) from the company owned by the SpaceNazi Musk, nor these days buy any USA-made vehicle while the USians and their deranged leader continue to attack our economy and sovereignty (Elbows up!). But then, no loyal Canadian<\/strong><\/em> would buy either one these days (and only quislings and traitors among the Maple MAGA still vacation or shop in the USA… but I digress again). That’s one reason why the Japanese-made Toyota CHR EV appeared to make sense. Well, relative to other EV options, that is. And only in the basic, unadorned, FWD model.<\/p>\n

Affordable EVs are not only hard to find, but sell out quickly because there are many other woke socialist Canadian liberal tree huggers out there looking to make the same move. Affordable is, of course, a relative term. EVs are<\/em> more expensive than comparable ICE (no, not<\/strong> the USian fascist Brownshirts!) vehicles. I also found out they depreciate faster than ICE vehicles. (Damn, I wish I had another acronym that doesn’t remind me of the Deranged Dictator’s Brownshirts…).<\/p>\n

And EVs seem to require a new skill set to operate and maintain, with a whole new vocabulary for the parts, processes, and procedures. Seriously, what is battery preconditioning? And how do I do it? Things to learn…<\/p>\n

Driving an EV is, based on only my brief test drive of one, basically the same as my previous vehicles. Acceleration (“gas”) and brake pedals, steering wheel, lights, turn signal, wipers… okay, that I can do. Same sort of infotainment system, too, still lacking an essential CD player. Some design bells and whistles, a different sort of gear shifter, new information on the display, but nothing I can’t manage for a test drive.<\/p>\n

Can this old dog really learn the new tricks that EV ownership and maintenance require? And is it really the type of vehicle that suits our lifestyle, our cold climate, our political views, and our budget? And, in my mid-70s, is this the sort of thing I should even consider? Even as a lease? The CHR looks good, handles well, and it’s a Toyota, which comes with all the reliability and quality of the brand (and it comes from the renowned Japanese factory). But am I (or are we) ready for the change? That’s something we’ll both decide this week.**<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n