I was planning on moving away from where I've lived my entire life (basically), and I expected to be driving a lot more. Therefore, I decided I needed a car about 8 months ago and started doing a lot of research.

past

I've always liked cars, but not really the type that everyone likes (sports cars or fancy ones). I found I was only interested in keeping up with what Toyota, Honda and more recently Hyundai were doing with their cars. They are by far the most popular cars around the world, and they often seem to make choices that optimize for reliability and affordability. Their design choices are often interesting and unique (especially Hyundai as of late!). Therefore, I spent a long time thinking I would end up with the new RAV4 Hybrid.

However, I started to really consider that I did want to commit to an electric car. As someone living in America, I already contribute enough to the effects of climate change, but it just didn't seem to jibe to continue to drive a car with a combustion engine in 2020 and beyond.

why electric instead of hybrid

The first thing to validate if an electric car was better was whether you can actually get comparable savings with a good enough combustion engine (i.e. hybrid), and the answer isn't really all that simple.

The majority of the complexity came around what state you were living in and how that electricity was produced that would be powering your electric car. In NJ, the math does work out well. NJ has a very high percentage of nuclear energy which is very clean compared to other states which still burn coal.

This Engineering Explained video actually does a great job of highlighting the pros / cons.

why tesla model y?

I'll admit the Tesla Model Y wasn't purely based on logical reasons when I look back, but I will list out the primary reasons that I had in my head besides the electric:

• I wanted a car with enough space to do normal tasks around my life. I wanted to be able to move boxes, go to Ikea, pack the trunk for the beach and do some light car camping. This was the main reason to not get a Tesla Model 3.

• New Jersey established some amazing electric / hybrid car incentives. First, they lack any sales tax. Second, if your car is below $55,000, you can get up to $5,000 in a rebate from the government. For Teslas, this is the full $5,000. More details on the rebate here

• The Supercharger network for long drives is actually an important factor. Superchargers are a huge convenience both in terms of availability and speed whenever charging.