Harger: I love my diesel F350. She costs me $11,300 a year just to commute. That’s why I drive an EV to work
Jul 16, 2026, 7:05 AM | Updated: 4:14 pm
Let me tell you about my truck. Her name is Big DeeDee. She’s a 2012 Ford F350 diesel, and she is perfect for what she does. Towing the fifth wheel trailer, hauling gear, weekend dump runs. I love this truck. I will defend this truck. If Big DeeDee and I ever have to part ways, there will be a ceremony.
She also gets 11 miles per gallon.
My commute is roughly 80 miles round trip, from Auburn to KIRO in Eastlake, five days a week. That’s about 400 miles. At 11 miles per gallon, that’s roughly 36 gallons of diesel a week. At what we’re paying at the pump around here, that’s around $218 a week.
Over a year, north of $11,300. Just to get to work and back.
That’s a used car. Every single year. In fuel. It’s the reason I drive an electric vehicle to work now.
I leased a Subaru EV for the savings. I stayed for the torque
A couple of years back, my wife and I leased a Subaru EV. It was about the money. I wasn’t trying to save the planet. I was trying to save my checking account.
Then I drove it. The torque hit me before the savings did. The thing is fun to drive in a way I wasn’t expecting. Last weekend, I borrowed my wife’s gas SUV and went to pass someone on I-405. Where was that immediate zip? Gone. You notice the difference once you’ve felt it.
I charge overnight at home. The same commute that costs $11,300 a year in Big DeeDee runs about $850 a year in electricity — more than a $10,000 difference. I’m not going back to a gas car for my daily driver. Big DeeDee keeps her weekend job. She’s just off the daily shift.
And Washington is built for this. About two-thirds of our electricity comes from hydropower, and our residential rates are among the lowest in the nation, at least for now. Charging late at night, I’m getting some of the cheapest, cleanest power available anywhere in the country, at least for now.
EV range anxiety, the power grid, and every other concern I’ve heard for years
I get my privilege here. Not everyone can lease an EV and keep a truck. Not everyone has a garage or a home charger. I do, and I’m grateful.
Every time I bring this up, I hear from good, smart people who think I’ve lost my mind. Range anxiety. The grid. Charging time. The batteries. Usually from somebody who’s never driven one. Which I say with love.
Range anxiety is real. I’ve had one nervous moment in years of EV driving. For what it’s worth, I haven’t run out of gas in 35 years either, so I’m batting pretty well on both energy sources.
But forget the studies. Next time you’re on I-5, just look around. Teslas, Rivians, Kias, Hyundais. They’re everywhere. Washington ranks third in the nation in EV market share. About one in five new cars sold in this state last year was electric or plug-in hybrid. It worked for me. Looks like it’s working for a lot of other people too.
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Free markets, right?
You don’t want to subsidize EVs? I’m with you. The federal tax credit is gone, and I don’t need it back. Ten thousand dollars a year in fuel savings is more persuasive than any tax break ever was. That’s my subsidy. The pump provides it every day I don’t use it.
You don’t want to tell Detroit what to build? I agree with that too.
The product isn’t in trouble. Some companies are
The New York Times Magazine just ran a piece about American automakers retreating from EVs. Ford killed the electric F-150 Lightning, which is what I was thinking of getting once my Subaru lease is up. GM delayed a Buick EV. Stellantis wrote down billions in losses.
But look at who’s not retreating.
Rivian just launched its R2 to the kind of reviews car companies dream about. They’re expanding their plant in Georgia. Uber ordered 10,000 of them. Rivian’s own policy chief put it plainly: they didn’t build the company on tax incentives, and they’ll win because the product is better.
Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia are building EVs in Georgia. The Japanese manufacturers are figuring it out. The next generation of electric vehicles is getting built in America. Just not necessarily by the companies we grew up calling American.
Nobody should force Detroit to build anything. And nobody should force you into an EV either, or bail out the companies that won’t build them. But when the market moves on without you, that’s the market working exactly the way it’s supposed to.
I think we all believe in free markets. Detroit included. They just might not like what the market decides.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
