By Eric J. Savitz, Editor-in-Chief, GM News

This Thanksgiving, my wife and I are heading 400 miles down the California coast from the Bay Area to Los Angeles to hang out with the fam, just like the Pilgrims used to do. (I think the Brewsters had cousins in Van Nuys.) And for the first time ever, we’re going to be making the trip in an electric vehicle – to be specific, our 2024 Cadillac Lyriq AWD in gleaming Opulent Blue, which we’ve nicknamed Bluey.

Bluey has an EPA estimated 314 miles of range¹, which, while impressive, won’t quite get us all the way to La La Land. I’m not especially worried about running out of juice, though – the Golden State has more than 100,000 public chargers, more than a few of which are sitting somewhere between my desk here in Silicon Valley and my sister-in-law’s couch. (Admittedly, there are other parts of the country where a 400-mile EV trip could be a little more challenging. We’re working on it.)

I can tell you right now that I’ll be answering a lot of questions from the clan about our experiences on the road, and our recent decision to become an all-electric-vehicle household. Bluey’s sibling is a 2018 Chevy Bolt EV, which we refer to as, well, the Bolt.

Here are 10 points I’m going to be making to my skeptical kin over dinner as we pass the cranberry sauce. (No, not the canned kind. C’mon.) Feel free to adopt as your own.

• The price of gas? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. It’s the most obvious and awesome part of owning an EV. No more buying gasoline.
• Home charging is the coolest. I don’t know anyone with a gasoline pump in their garage. (Maybe Jay Leno?) I would unscientifically estimate that 99.5% of the time, when we aren’t taking a jaunt down to Tinseltown, we simply charge at home. (Admittedly, that would be more difficult if I lived in, say, midtown Manhattan, rather than midtown Palo Alto, but you get my point.)
• Range anxiety? Not I. Aside from occasional long weekend jaunts, rare is the day that I need to charge Bluey away from home, given her 314 miles of range. That’s especially nice in bad weather: No more filling up the gas tank in the rain.
• For emergency purposes, EVs come with a charging cord you can plug into a standard 110-volt household outlet. It’s the EV equivalent of carrying around a gas can, but without…a can full of gasoline.
• Oil changes? Who needs oil changes? Not me. Electric cars don’t have engines. They have motors, yes. But with essentially one moving part in the drivetrain, there’s no need for an oil change every few months or few thousand miles.
• Service? Service what? With a smaller number of moving parts, there are fewer things to fix and maintain in an EV compared with a conventional car.
• Do you know about regenerative braking²? One of the more magical and underappreciated elements of electric cars is their ability to capture the energy from slowing your car to help add range to the battery.
• And then there’s One-Pedal Driving³. Another under-discussed element of EVs is that thanks to regenerative braking, in most situations you can brake the car simply by easing back on the accelerator pedal. Once you get used to one-pedal driving, you’ll never want to go back.
• Goes without saying, really, but EVs don’t have a tailpipe. Ergo, no emissions.
• Zoom, zoom! With an EV, you can get maximum torque from a dead stop, no slow rumbling increase in speed. They feel zippy. They’re simply more fun to drive. Consider buying one. You can thank me later.

Eric J. Savitz, a former reporter, editor and columnist for Barron’s, Forbes, Smart Money, and other publications, is editor-in-chief of GM News. He’s thankful to be at GM.

¹On a full charge. Actual range may vary based on several factors, including ambient temperature, terrain, battery age and condition, loading, and how you use and maintain your vehicle.
²Feature may be limited when the battery temperatures are extremely cold or hot or when battery is near full charge.
³Feature may be limited when the battery temperatures are extremely cold or hot or when battery is near full charge. Always use the brake pedal when you need to stop immediately.