EV Expert vs. Google's Gemini AI: When to Buy an Electric Car

In five words or less, why should you get an EV? Cleaner commute. Smoother drive. Lower costs. Wow, spot on. Six words again, though. Oh, is it? Today, I'm going to go face-to-face with Google's Gemini AI chatbot as we ask whether it's the right time for you to buy an electric car. I want to see if it can spot gaps in my knowledge, or maybe I spot gaps in its. I would frame the answer in five buckets. The first one comes down to range. The question I still get the most when people ask me about EVs. Here's my answer to that. Most of you, me, us, drive less than we think. These 300-, 400-mile EVs are edge use cases. Most of us drive tens of miles a day. Then there's cost, the number two question I get right after the range thing. People think EVs are premium, high-priced cars, and until very recently, they were, and they still can be, but we are at what's called the TCO tipping point, the total cost of ownership tipping point. That means if you look at the total cost of owning and using a car in the time you have it, the EV often comes out cheaper. Then we get to some soft stuff. What are your motivations? Why do you want an electric car? Nobody has to have one. Then you've got to decide if there's an EV you actually love. There are many more gas engine cars than there are electric cars so far. That'll change. But right now, that could be a factor for waiting just a couple more years when there'll be many more to choose from. Finally, there's your fear of fattishness. Some people think EVs are here today and gone tomorrow, like some kind of a 3-D television on wheels that we'll all look back at and laugh one day. I don't buy that personally, but if you have significant fears about buying into tech that doesn't have long legs, you might wait a little longer. Okay, now let's see what Gemini has to say about the big question. And it's going to be given a voice by Eleven Labs, which does AI voice generation. And, of course, we're going to show you the actual words of Gemini's response and the whole thing's represented by this orb that we came up with. So at least we know who's better looking. And if its answer is really wonky or better than mine, I'm going to hit the button and call it out. It's a compelling time to consider an EV in February 2024, but not necessarily a slam dunk. Pros. Prices dropping. New and used EVs have seen discounts and price decreases. Incentives rising. Federal tax credits remain. And some dealers offer additional deals. Okay, so there's a little bit of a mash-up going on there. Yes, talking about pricing, but I think I don't hear enough about depreciation. That's sort of the flip side of prices are coming down, but residual values are also coming down. That can be a bad guy for you as the buyer, while the lower prices are a good guy. You've got to look at them both. The sophisticated auto buyer always does. Too many people don't. Don't make that mistake. Selection growing. More models and body styles are available than ever. Charging expanding. Public charging networks are getting denser. Okay, I've got to say, it sort of beat me on that part. The public charging infrastructure. I think I under-emphasized that. If you don't have charging that you own, like at your house, or regularly available at your employer, then, yeah, you may want to wait a few years for the public charging infrastructure to get better. That means more charging locations than we have now, and more charging locations that work all the time. Too often we hear from EV owners that the charging points out there are broken. Cons. Still prissier. Most EVs cost more up front than comparable gas cars. Okay, I don't know if they're prissier or pricier, but yes, they can be more expensive in terms of their MSRP. But I think Gemini is missing the big picture I talked about. The total cost of ownership. You've got to put a lot more factors in before you decide if an EV is more expensive than not. Because we're talking about the cost of driving, not just the cost of buying a car. That's the bottom line for your budget. Charging convenience. Home charging is ideal, but not everyone has it. Range anxiety. Depending on your usage, range limitations could be an issue. Ultimately, it depends on your budget, driving habits, and access to charging. Do your research and weigh the pros and cons carefully before making a decision. Okay. The only thing missing there is your motivations. People buy electric cars for different reasons. Are you an eco-warrior? Are you someone who wants to have the cheapest possible way to get around, and you want to save a ton of money and stick it to the man? That's a separate consideration set from someone who wants to be just tech forward and innovative. Or do you love the performance of these things? They have incredible torque and they're virtually silent. These are very different profiles of the EV buyer at this point. You might want to see which one or two or all you fit into. In five words or less, describe the state of electric vehicles today. The future is arriving unevenly. Exciting, growing, but still maturing. Describe the future prospects of electric vehicles. TCO will make or break. Dominant, green, but challenged by grids. That is six words, not five, and I think it's a haiku, not really an answer. Why should you get an EV? It's that lower cost, killer performance, environment. Cleaner commute, smoother drive, lower costs. Wow, you'd think we'd rehearse this, but six words again. Aren't these things supposed to be smart? Why shouldn't you get an EV? You live in the wilderness. Range limits, charge weight, hefty price tag. Okay, now that's seven words and kind of a grab bag. In one word, what is the biggest challenge facing EVs? Like all tech, maturation. Cost. Yeah, that's rolled up in maturation. In one word, what is the best thing electric vehicles have going for them? Inevitability. Momentum. Kind of the same thing. Okay, lastly, we all know, and I think we've seen, that AI is pretty darn good at giving us answers. But the experts will point out something else that I want you to remember. AI is also great at generating questions. Let's bring in the machine that we've been using to run Gemini right here, and let me ask it what we should have been asking about today's big question. So let's see, what are the key three questions I should ask before buying an EV today? Pretty good. If you asked me to give you just three questions to ask about buying an EV right now, I could put my name to these. Can I charge conveniently and affordably? Of course, that rolls up two important issues. Does the range realistically meet my needs? Yes. Know your real needs, though. This gets to the key word, realistically, which is not 300 miles a day. Here it is, the golden term, total cost of ownership. How many times did I bang that drum? And here it is in exactly those terms. Okay, so in sum, AI is pretty darn good at giving you answers, not just information. That's a key differentiator from how most of us experience search. Secondly, use it to ask for questions, not just answers. That's a whole new way of thinking, and I think you saw how powerful that was. And thirdly, take all the AI chatbot results with a grain of salt till further notice, because like EVs, these things are also still pretty green. Maybe you noticed that a big part of what we did today required us prompting the AI the right way, asking it the right stuff. If you want to become an expert in that, check out my colleague Abrar Alhidi's video on exactly that, how to prompt AI like a pro and do it better than your friends. And let us know what you want to do next in this series, Expert vs. AI. Drop your questions in the comments. We're reading them.