Reframing

I recently found myself grumbling more than once over various things about having an electric car. They mainly centered on range anxiety while planning to meet a friend at a mutually convenient location. It being winter, I’d noticed the battery charge dwindling faster after putting winter tires on, even though I was careful not to turn the heat on and opened windows rather than using the defroster, all to save the charge. The place we preferred to meet had a few chargers, but research showed they were all low power and wouldn’t charge the vehicle significantly in a few hours, and there weren’t any fast chargers between there and home that would have given the battery a boost if needed. Being cautious, we met at a less interesting locale that had fast chargers. By the time I made it there after traveling into the wind, the battery needed a charge to make it home. I plugged into the charger without incident and all was well until I discovered after more than an hour that the charging stopped without notifying me, and I needed more power to ensure getting home. For whatever reason, all the chargers refused to start when I plugged them in, but fortunately a call to customer service succeeded in getting one up and running. It led to an extra wait but the car charged sufficiently and I had no worries getting home, albeit still without heat or the defroster to be on the safe side.

The complaints about lack of fast chargers, being chilly while driving, etc. swirled in my head and I questioned why I had to go full electric for this car rather than easing into it with a hybrid. My brain soon tired of this negative internal talk and I’ve reframed it. I’m now proud I went all in with electric, acknowledging there are bumps in the journey, but being grateful for the opportunity to be on somewhat of the cutting edge in exploring what the world will be like without relying on fossil fuels for personal transportation. There’s no need to be frightened about giving up some of the luxuries on which we’ve come to depend while getting around in our vehicles; e.g. gas stations for a quick fill up whenever we need them so we can drive distances limited only by our need to sleep, air conditioning when it’s warm, and heat when it’s cold. Electric vehicles and charging networks are improving quickly to minimize the comfort curve in transitioning to them. Let’s embrace this opportunity to take the plunge into the electrified world that will ultimately be better for the planet and all who live on and in it. It’s all in how we choose to look at things.