As a mother of two small children, an eight-year-old son and a three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who were two years younger when we bought our electric vehicle, I wondered, like many parents, whether an electric vehicle was the right choice for my family. At the time, the decision to buy the vehicle was mainly based on financial considerations.
After two years of driving, I can tell parents with a young family that there are other factors worth considering when you have small children before deciding to buy an electric car.
Traveling by electric vehicle for a family with young children has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include state-of-the-art safety systems, as well as a chassis built to protect the battery from a strong impact which reduces the risk of being injured in a collision, and of course, it’s a money saver. Disadvantages include long charging times that can be difficult with small and impatient children, especially when some of the charging stations are exposed to the elements and not allowing children to ventilate.
When thinking of getting an EV you should take into account the environment in which you live, the distances you travel every day, as well as how common charging stations are in your area. Waiting for charging (even fast charging) with small, impatient, hungry, or tired children is not a pleasant experience. Even if the children are in a good mood and the charging station has no play area, or is not protected from the weather conditions (in the scorching sun or exposed to extreme cold ) which is the harsh reality at times it’s not necessarily pleasant. The range anxiety also becomes more difficult to digest with small children in the car.
In short, if you have small children, you should map out your needs from the vehicle accurately so as not to get into unnecessary adventures.
I assume that in most areas, the charging stations pop up like mushrooms after the rain, but there are areas where this is not the reality yet, so if you are parents of small children, it might be worth doing some research first.
Having said that, let’s dive into each of the reasons that you should examine before buying a vehicle to have an in-depth understanding of what you should look into before deciding if an electric vehicle is the best decision for your family.
Safety
As parents, the safety of our children is most important to us. Therefore, when choosing an electric vehicle, it is important to know that the safety element of electric vehicles has been proven beyond any doubt.
Vehicle safety systems can be found both in electric vehicles and in fuel-powered vehicles. An electric vehicle, however, usually has a low center of gravity due to the location of the battery – this element can be critical to the safety of the vehicle and passengers since it improves the stability of the vehicle and reduces the risk of overturning. The fact that the vehicle is built in such a way that the vehicle chassis is heavy to protect the batteries leads to the fact that passengers in general, including those in the back seat, tend to be injured less compared to a fuel-driven vehicle.
Furthermore, It is important to note that most electric cars come with state-of-the-art safety systems such as collision prevention systems, lane departure warnings, automatic emergency braking, and so on.
Charging Time
Small children lose patience very quickly. Stopping to charge the car (after you have already driven quite a bit, after all, that’s why you have to charge the car) can very quickly deteriorate into behavior that every parent of a bored child knows: bickering kids, crying, a series of questions like “Are we there yet?” and “I’m bored”, sudden hunger that is needed to be satisfied and more.
Unfortunately, charging stations infrastructure across the country has not yet been fully completed, so it is not always possible to find a fast charging station on your route, but in my experience even when you find a fast charging station – for the charging to be significant, you will have to wait something between fifteen to twenty minutes at least before you can continue on your journey.
The difference between a five-minute wait at a gas station in the case of a gasoline-powered vehicle and a 20-minute wait at a charging station (assuming it’s free to use and you don’t have to wait for it) with small children can be the difference between a vacation in the Maldives and a visit to a disaster area 🙂 And that’s if you charge at the fast charging station!
Depending on the charging method and the car’s battery capacity, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours to charge fully with a slow charge. As I said, the slow charging station is another opera that you definitely (but don’t want to) visit 🙂
Assuming there isn’t a nearby playground that allows children to ventilate and run, or the weather doesn’t allow it – it can be a distressing story for the little ones as well as the parents. I remember we had to stop to charge the car for something like 45 minutes in the scorching heat, with no shade and it was just a disaster. The kids were red and I just wanted it to be over!!
Planning For Longer Journeys
It is possible to (partially) avoid the situation I described in the previous section by carefully planning long journeys. It is not, however, always possible. Not everywhere has fast charging stations and sometimes, even if you plan, the route requires longer stops to charge, and I must admit that it is not always easy with small children.
Not everything is solved by planning ahead.
I remember we went on vacation a few hours away from where we lived. Following a partial layout of the charging stations on our route, we had to stop twice (!) on the way. We went on vacation with several families together and even though we left first because we knew we had to stop for recharging, we still arrived last. This with two small children in tow with us – I admit it was quite exhausting.
The good news is that such trips are by no means a routine matter, so you can prepare games that can be played in or outside the car, and also prepare the children mentally for the fact that it will be a long journey.
Range Anxiety
If you already have an electric vehicle then you probably know this term well. It refers to the concern of running out of battery power while driving.
It is something that accompanies every EV driver on every drive. Every morning, I check what range I have left and keep an eye on the odometer from time to time while driving.
As a parent of small children, I notice that when I drive with the children (certainly in the evening) this anxiety intensifies if I reach situations that are close enough to the end of the range (and no, it has not yet happened to me that I have reached the limit of the car’s ability to drive) but it is something that exists. A gas-powered car will never know this feeling, because there are gas stations everywhere. Charging stations for electric vehicles – much less so.
The problem is that as a parent of small children you are distracted many times, the children ask for something, one of them calls you or cry’s and you don’t notice that you went on a drive with a low range until it’s too late.
The solution – in the previous section: planning in advance and making a habit of paying attention to the driving range before leaving the house!
Noise and Vibration
Electric cars are quieter and less prone to vibration than their gasoline-powered counterparts. With small children, this fact has positive and less positive sides.
On the one hand: on long trips, the fact that the car is quiet and less prone to vibration makes for a more comfortable and peaceful trip.
On the other hand – if you want to use the drive as a means to put the child to sleep (every parent of a toddler knows this.. sometimes only driving in the car will make them sleepy when they are wide awake and it’s way too late), in this case, an electric car will probably take you a little longer to achieve that goal.. 🙂
Environmental Considerations
Electric cars produce zero tailpipe emissions, which is beneficial for the environment and can contribute to cleaner air quality, making it healthier for children.
Cost Considerations
As I wrote at the beginning of the post, this was my main consideration when we purchased our EV. You cant compare the savings that come with an electric car versus a fuel-powered car. The savings can be seen in the cost of powering the car with electricity compared to fuel, insurance prices, and maintenance prices. Every parent knows that with a child comes a lot of joy but also a lot of financial expenses. Between diapers and formula to daycare – the expenses are sky-high, so the savings that come with an EV are very significant.
In Conclusion
Before you make a significant decision to buy an electric vehicle, you should sit down and examine in depth your needs for the car.
If your lifestyle requires frequent long trips with the children, or if the layout of the charging stations in your area is sparse, it may be worth waiting with this purchase for a few more years until the children grow a little or until the layout of the charging stations improves.
I can say that in my experience as a mother of two sweet little ones, the good far outweighs the bad, and our life as a young family with an electric car has improved immeasurably.