I'll be honest with you: an EV was never on my radar. It just kind of presented itself — the timing and the numbers made sense — and I went for it. Now? I'm not going back.
Here's what nobody tells you: an EV isn't just another car. There's a real adjustment period. The instant acceleration, the way it brakes and decelerates with regenerative braking, charging at home, charging in public, and the maintenance you suddenly don't do — it all takes a few weeks to click. But once it clicks, it clicks hard.
Funny thing is, I almost went electric years earlier. I was this close to buying one of those original cube-shaped BMW i3s — I always loved that quirky little thing. I'm glad I waited. The i4 M50 was in the back of my mind too, but I knew it would've been a little tight for me and my family. The i5 eDrive40 hit the sweet spot. And I'll tell you right now — my eyes are already on the future Neue Klasse.
The maintenance you just stop doing
Let me start with the money, because that's what I do all day. My old 535i — a car I genuinely loved — ran me about $50 a week in gas and around $300 a year in basic maintenance: oil changes, lubricants, all the long-term engine and transmission care that comes with a combustion car. With the i5? None of that. You still bring it in for an annual check-up, and yes, brakes and tires are still routine wear items. But the entire category of engine maintenance simply disappears — and I honestly can't remember the last time I stood at a gas pump.
And before you assume I traded away performance for efficiency: I didn't. The 535i was a great car. The i5 is another beast entirely — the performance, the handling, and the acceleration are on a completely different level.
How I actually charge
Here's what surprised me most: I rarely charge at home. My weekend routine is a grocery run to the Aldi off North Frederick Road in Gaithersburg, just up Route 355 from Rockville, Maryland. That shop takes me 35 to 45 minutes — and there's an IONNA fast-charging station right there in the same parking lot. I plug in, do my shopping, and come back to a battery that's gone from about 20% all the way to 100%. Because I charge on the weekend, I get the discounted rate. My weekly charging cost? About $15.
Fifteen dollars a week, versus the fifty I used to hand the gas station. That's the part that makes people's eyebrows go up.
Range in the real world
Let's talk range, since it's the first thing everyone asks. I get about 290 miles on a full charge, and because everything around here — Rockville, Bethesda, and Washington DC, out into Northern Virginia — is relatively close, that lasts me roughly five days — with the AC blasting through our brutal summers and every feature in the car running.
In the winter it drops to around 260. That's normal — the heater pulls energy, and colder ambient temperatures affect range more than people realize. But 260 miles is still about five days of my life, so I don't think about it.
And public charging out here? It's popping up on every corner — gyms, grocery stores, shopping centers. A quick 15-to-20-minute top-up while you're already doing something else is easy. And did I mention Tesla's NACS stations are open to BMWs now too? That opened up an entire network overnight.
The thing that scares people (and why it shouldn't)
The number one thing I see from the dealership chair is range anxiety — and right behind it, the fear of home charging. People assume putting in a 240-volt Level 2 charger is going to cost them an arm and a leg. It's not. For most homes — a garage, or even the front of a townhouse, whether you're in Montgomery County or across the river in Fairfax or Arlington — it's surprisingly affordable and easy for an electrician to install.
I won't lie to you: the first month of EV ownership can feel nerve-wracking. But give it thirty days. Once you know where your nearest Level 3 fast charger is, you're at ease. And the car helps you — the in-car navigation and the MyBMW app will find you those "camouflaged" charging stations you'd never spot on your own.
Let me give you a real example. I sold an i5 xDrive40 to a client who was genuinely nervous about the whole thing. It took me two days — two days — to get his home charging sorted and show him his nearest fast charger. Now he calls me about once a week just to tell me how much he's loving it. Every single time.
My honest take
So here's my advice, plain and simple: find the right-size EV, do your research on it, and if it makes sense for you — buy it.
Yes, it'll feel a little weird at first. But think of it like moving to a new town. What do you figure out first? Where's the gas station — the charging station, in this case. Where's the grocery store, the gym, the metro, and the spot that makes your favorite sandwich. You learn your surroundings, and within a few weeks it's second nature.
Worried about the occasional long road trip? Rent a gas car for the weekend. But with more than a quarter-million public charging ports across the country now — and thousands of them right here in the DMV — what are you really worried about?
I came into this as a 20-year gas-BMW guy who wasn't even looking for an EV. Now you'd have a hard time getting me back. If it fits how you actually live and drive, I think you'll feel exactly the same way.