Driving a Gas Car Feels Like Dial-Up in a WiFi World.
Most of us grew up in a world ruled by gas stations and oil changes—fueling up once a week, hunting for the cheapest gas, and cracking the window for the dog during errands. It was just…normal. So when we switch to EVs, we adapt. Happily. But we still carry that internal combustion engine (ICE) mindset
Now imagine if EVs had come first—and gas cars were the newcomers. That’s exactly how it played out for my daughter.
Since she was seven, she’s only known electric vehicles. When she turned 15, she took a 30-hour driver’s ed course that covered gas stations, oil changes, and spark plugs—but not a single word about EVs or their near-zero maintenance. (Note to curriculum writers: it’s 2025. Time for an update.)
After she aced the permit test, we logged 50 hours of supervised driving—every single one of them in an EV. Mostly a Fiat 500e, occasionally a Tesla Model Y or even a Cybertruck. Smooth, silent, intuitive.
But for her final six hours of required “Behind the Wheel” lessons, she had to drive an ICE car. And suddenly, she was a new driver again. Heavy-footed on the gas. Slamming the brake. Lurching like a kid on a go-kart. Afterward, I asked if she was okay. She looked at me and said, “Gas cars suck. They’re so slow and jerky. Why would anyone drive one of those?”
She went on—unprompted—to list the flaws: stopping at sketchy gas stations late at night, wasting money on fuel, the noise, the smell, the emissions. And then the kicker: “If EVs came first, gas cars never would’ve caught on.”
As her mom (and proud EV advocate), I had to smile. Let’s be honest—teenagers rarely agree with their parents. But she wasn’t parroting me. She was speaking from lived experience. And she nailed it.
I know change is never easy. But it’s part of life—we adapt all the time. Remember when automatics replaced stick shifts? Drivers resisted at first, but once they felt the difference, there was no going back. EVs are that same shift, only light years ahead. They’re the streaming to CDs, the smartphone to the flip phone or the GPS to the original Mapquest. Once you experience the smoother, smarter, more connected way of driving, the old way instantly feels clunky and outdated.
EVs deliver that leap: no gas stations, no oil changes, just instant torque, regenerative braking, and technology that feels more like an intelligent device than a machine. Sure, you could dust off a Betamax instead of a DVR or wrestle with rabbit ears instead of streaming—but why would you? The upgrade is obvious. Once you’ve seen the future, you can’t unsee it.
EVs aren’t just the future—they’re already the better way to drive. Sometimes it takes a first-time driver - looking at it from a different perspective - to see that most clearly.
About Kamala Vanderkolk.
Kamala Vanderkolk is National Car Charging’s Business Development Lead for Colorado and Virginia. A longtime EV advocate, she’s logged over 200,000 EV miles, co-authored Colorado’s 2019 bill protecting EV charging access, and brings both policy expertise and personal passion to her role. Based in Colorado since 2011, she’s also a busy mom who loves skiing, paddleboarding, baking, and road-trip conversations with her kids about all things EV.