If you’ve never driven electric cars, it’s time to get behind that wheel. They’re loads of fun. They pop from a stop position fast, accelerate faster, and stop fastest. It has to do with the start and stop of electricity powering the car.

A Nissan Leaf can easily out-maneuver a BMW sports car on the highway. The Leaf will pass the Beemer before that combustion engine can push energy to the motor. It’s a treat to leave speed cars in the electric car’s dust, which isn’t to say speeding is the key. It’s the acceleration.

Electric cars have expanded their driving range. The Leaf is good for 210 miles, more if the ride is mostly downhill. Tesla’s can go for 300+ miles. A trip from Denver to Winter Park may take about 110 miles of juice to get up the hill, but only 60 miles of juice to get back down. The car adds energy with the downhill ride to the Front Range. The Leaf battery can be charged in Winter Park for about $5 at the Charge Point station across from Hernando’s Pizza Pub.

Braking is another way electric vehicles are terrific. If your electric car has a brake-saving mechanism, you may not have to put your foot on the brake pedal to slow down or stop. Stopping is a matter of taking your foot off the accelerator to cut off the electricity powering the wheels. At the very least, a light tap on the brakes slows the car down, and stopping in an emergency gets an immediate boost as soon as the foot leaves the accelerator.

Car maintenance is a dream. There’s practically none. The battery doesn’t need an oil change. No oil filters. No timing belt replacement at 60,000 miles to the tune of at least $1000. No fill ups at the gas station. No radiator boiling over.

The car battery can be charged in your garage. A couple of thousand dollars puts a fast charger in. If you want to charge on your home’s electrical system, that’s not a problem. Just get an adapter and an extension cord. It’s an overnight charge for enough miles to get anywhere you need to go in town. Put some solar panels on your roof to reduce electricity usage from the power company and you can help the planet as well as juice your car.

The main issue with electrical vehicles is distance. That’s why investment in electric charging stations is so critical. It’s hard to believe that gas stations near restaurants don’t have charging stations. It can take an hour or so to put in some more miles with the fast chargers, just enough time to catch a meal or spend some money in stores. That’s probably why the Outlet Stores at Silverthorne have multiple chargers for cars going through the Eisenhower tunnel.

Mountain resort towns need lots of charging stations. Currently, for the Leaf to get up and down from Denver to Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, or Copper Mountain, a charge during skiing hours is important.

Breckenridge has two charging stations at its town hall, but they’re slow chargers. Fast charges are possible at a couple of Breckenridge hotels and resort units. But really, to encourage day trip electric vehicle use, mountain towns should have electric chargers like downtown Denver has parking meters. The towns could charge extra to put revenue into their coffers and help shop and restaurant owners by encouraging eating, shopping, and other recreation while cars juice up. Would that be a way to replace some severance tax revenue lost from less energy drilling by increasing sales taxes and electric charge fees?

Do you recall how clean and blue Denver skies were during the COVID shutdown? If more vehicles switched to electric power, our skies would be bluer, at least in non-fire season. That means less ozone, less haze, better mountain views, and more of the healthy environment Colorado is known for.

So far this summer, Colorado’s skies match Los Angeles air in the ’50s and ’60s when leaded gas was ubiquitous, freeway driving was booming, and there were no catalytic converters. But we don’t have to dream about blue skies. If we go electric, blue skies are a slam dunk.