What a first-time EV driver learned, and what shoppers should know

If you’ve driven gas-powered vehicles your entire life, electric vehicles might still feel a little bit like a sci-fi concept. Charging stations may feel like foreign territory. And regenerative braking? How the heck does that work?

Or wait, were those just all the anxieties I had before driving my first EV?

Before this experience, I’d ridden in a few EVs with friends and ride shares, but I’d never had the chance to spend time driving one myself. With the help of a 2026 Nissan Leaf, I set out to see what it is like to drive and charge an EV.

For other EV-curious drivers out there, my first experience offered four lessons worth keeping in mind.

Driving an EV feels more familiar than you might expect

If you ask a longtime EV enthusiast about the driving experience versus a gas vehicle, you might be in for a lengthy explanation. But if you’re just looking at these cars for the first time, there are only a few differences you’re likely to notice right away.

Most EVs have a single-speed transmission, which means there’s no shifting between multiple gears. You don’t have to wait for an engine to rev up. Because the electric motor can deliver strong torque to the wheels immediately, EVs offer what’s commonly called “instant torque.”

I really enjoyed that feeling of immediate acceleration.

The quieter drive was notable, too. Because there’s no gas engine, you don’t hear engine noise under the hood. At low speeds, the quiet is especially apparent. At higher speeds, however, you’ll still hear road and wind noise.

In other words, the experience was different — but not strange.

Some things take a little practice

One-pedal driving was the one aspect of EV driving that I found a little jarring.

EVs use regenerative braking to recapture some of the energy normally lost while slowing down and send it back to the battery. Many EVs take that a step further with a feature often referred to as one-pedal driving.

When you want to slow down, you simply lift your foot off the accelerator. Depending on the vehicle and setting, you may still have to apply the brake pedal to come to a complete stop.

I think it would become second nature over time, but during your first EV test drive, be aware that it’s a new sensation and may take a little practice to adjust to the different timing.

In the Leaf, and in many other EVs, you can turn one-pedal driving off or adjust the intensity of the regenerative braking if you prefer.

Charging may matter more than the driving differences

One of my biggest anxieties about driving an EV concerned charging. If you’ve never done it before, it can feel a little intimidating.

For my first EV drive, I went to a non-Tesla charging station that had a North American Charging System or NACS charger and took credit cards. I didn’t want to have to download an app and create an account, though if it were a car I owned, I probably would.

The charger delivered 52.64 kWh to the Leaf, and the charge was $31.42. In a 2026 Leaf Platinum+, that works out to roughly 20 cents per mile.

The process itself was very simple and not dramatically different from a trip to a gas station. The bigger difference was time. Filling up with electrons isn’t as quick as a stop at a gas station.

That’s also why the most important charging question may have nothing to do with plugs, volts or kilowatts. Instead, it’s: Where will you charge the car most of the time?

If you can charge at home, you can essentially set it and forget it. If you can’t conveniently charge where you live and instead must rely on public charging stations, that becomes a much bigger consideration.

Start with your life, not the technology

Finding the right EV comes down to many of the same questions involved in buying any car.

How many people or pets do you need to transport? How much stuff do you need to haul? Is parking tight where you live? What is the weather like? How far do you regularly drive? And perhaps most important for an EV, what are your charging options?

Don’t start by asking whether an EV is good. Ask whether an EV will work for the way you use a car.

Before this experience, EVs still felt a little foreign to me — almost theoretical. Driving one helped turn them into a very real vehicle option.

I was a little nervous before my first EV drive. What I found was quick, smooth acceleration, a quieter ride and a learning curve that wasn’t particularly steep.

Charging was simple, albeit a bit lengthy. One-pedal driving took some adjustment. But none of it made the car feel challenging or fundamentally unfamiliar.

You don’t have to decide today whether you’re ready to own an EV. But if your impressions of them are based mostly on what you’ve heard rather than what you’ve driven, a test drive may answer more questions than another hour of research.

Lauren Swift writes, edits, and produces multimedia content for Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader. Before joining Cox Automotive, she held editorial roles at national publications including U.S. News & World Report and USA Today.