EVs in Oxford: ‘Fun to drive’
How many people in Oxford drive electric vehicles? More than you'd think, Board President James Rubenstein writes. He spoke to a dozen EV owners about their experiences.
EVs in Oxford is a column series by Oxford Free Press Board President James Rubenstein about the impact of driving electric cars and the people behind the wheels locally.
Jack and Sally Southard were planning to pick up their son at Cincinnati Airport when they learned that his plane was very late. The hour-long drive to CVG is tough enough in daylight, let alone in the middle of the night, but their electric vehicle came to the rescue. Jack programmed the car’s full self-driving option to get them to CVG in the middle of the night, and it did so flawlessly.
It’s no secret that electric vehicles have been caught up in national politics. During the Biden Administration, Congress enacted several laws to promote the manufacture, purchase and operation of EVs that President Trump opposes. The rate of growth of EV production and sales may slow during the Trump Administration, but the transition of motor vehicles from gas engines to batteries will continue because all carmakers are moving in that direction, although at varying speeds.
I thought EVs were still relatively rare in Oxford, but when I started to sketch out this series, I quickly identified more than a dozen friends and acquaintances in Oxford who have EVs. I see a few around town driven by people I don’t know, too. Professionally, I’ve followed the growth of EVs as a consultant on the auto industry at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and I’ve taught a course about EVs for several years in Miami’s Institute for Learning in Retirement (including the term beginning later this month).
The variety of EVs on the market is expanding rapidly. Tesla is the leader in U.S. EV sales, but its share of the market has declined from 80% in 2020 to 44% in 2024. Of the 14 local EV owners I know, four each drive a Tesla, Chevrolet Bolt or Hyundai Ioniq, and one each drive a Chevrolet Equinox or BMWi3.
The absence of Japanese brands is striking, as those carmakers have lagged behind their competitors in offering electric vehicles. Japanese carmakers, led by Toyota, have focused instead on hybrids. The first Honda EV, for example, is being built by GM. However, Honda is currently constructing a factory near the Jeffersonville outlet mall to make EV batteries.
What’s it like to drive an electric vehicle in Oxford? The headline: Oxford EV drivers love their cars. Bill Snavely: “I love my Hyundai [Ioniq 5].” Hardy and Barbara Eshbaugh: “We love our Hyundai Ioniq 6.” David Prytherch and Kathleen Veslaney: “We aren’t ‘car people,’ but we love our Bolt.” Kathleen Knight Abowitz: “What I love about the car is how fun it is to drive.”
EV drivers typically cite two “fun” features. First, electric vehicles are much quieter than gas-propelled ones. “It’s really fast and peppy,” Kathleen Knight Abowitz said. “The car is quiet and more than sufficiently responsive,” reports Rick Momeyer. At high-speed driving, road noise can enter the passenger compartment, but in Oxford’s stop-and-go traffic, the relative quiet is very noticeable.
The second “fun” feature of driving an electric vehicle is rapid acceleration. Oxford’s multitude of four-way stop sign intersections and pedestrian crossings enhance safety, but they aren’t a good match for gas engines, which are the least efficient and most polluting in stop-and-go traffic. In contrast, EVs provide quicker acceleration from a dead stop, and no polluting emissions. As David Prytherch summarizes the “fun” factor, “EVs are so fun and quiet to drive that they make all other cars look like slow, noisy dinosaurs.”
So EVs are fun to drive, but how practical are they to own in Oxford? Next week, I’ll cover how EV owners “fill up” in town.
James Rubenstein is president of the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press and professor emeritus of geography at Miami University.
