Easy Sunday: I bought an electric vehicle yesterday to be my primary car.

It is a Chevy. A Chevy Blazer EV.

No. Not a Tesla.

I did not want to make a "statement" with my choice of car. It is just a car. I did not want to explain it or need to explain it away, as this Boston-area driver chose to do:

Hiding a Tesla in plain sight by disguising it.

The Chevy Blazer electric model has a small "EV" symbol in the back but it otherwise appears identical to the gas-powered Blazers. From a statement point of view, the car happens to be an EV, but it is not about it being an EV. 

A Tesla vehicle is now a political statement. Tesla is Musk. Musk is Tesla. Trump stood in front of the White House and urged people to buy Teslas. 

I have driven German-or-Japanese-branded cars for 25 years. My experience is that they deserved their reputation for reliability. In changing to an EV, I expected to stick with a Japanese brand, a Honda. Their Prologue model is nearly identical to the Chevy Blazer, which isn't surprising because Honda bought General Motors technology for the EV, and both cars are assembled in Mexico, based on the same GM platform and in the same GM factory at Ramos Arizpe. 

The Chevy model was less expensive than the Honda I considered. The Chevy lacked some of the Honda's optional features, ones I don't care about. I figure that air-conditioned car seats are just one more thing to go wrong, and I don't need special refrigeration for my rear end.

Both dealerships urged I get a three-year lease, not buy the cars, for reasons involving the various federal rebates, factory incentives, and other "bonus" deals. Those are included into the residual value after the lease ends. That three-year drop in value over the lease term determines the lease cost. Car buying has some unintuitive elements. I got $1,000 off because I have a Costco card, which seems crazy. I got another $300 bonus because I own a Toyota, and General Motors considers me a "captured" brand-switcher. Now maybe I will speak well of GM instead of praising Japanese cars. 

The Blazer is made mostly in North America from North American parts. The batteries are made in Ohio. The car sticker does not specify USA content, but by subtracting from Canadian and Mexican content it might be something over 40 percent USA content.

I have no need to be a cutting-edge early adopter of new technology, be it cars or computers. I prefer to let others grab the lead and the attention while the manufacturers work out the bugs. Electric vehicles have gone from new and exciting to routine. I suspect I now have reliable, unexciting transportation, which is what I wanted. 

This scene would have been avant-garde five years ago. Now it is happening in garages all across America. 

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