Diamonds are so past century. So skip the trip to Tiffany’s. Women’s new best friend? The luxury EV.

Women are not supposed to fall in love with cars the way men do. Or so the stereotype goes. We are destined to use them semi-reluctantly, in a most utilitarian fashion. We’re often merely the backup drivers when the men aren’t around—or when they have too much booze. Women are supposed to be prudent, skittish drivers at best.

Well, I’m here to tell you that all that went to hell when women started driving electric vehicles. I already knew this as soon as I bought my first EV eight years ago, a little e-Golf that drives like the Energizer Bunny. Nobody takes it seriously until I accelerate past the Ferraris, Porsches, and Maseratis without even breaking a sweat.

Now, I am head over heels for my new EV, which was pretty much paid for by saving so much gas driving my e-Golf for eight years. This new Polestar 2 EV is love at first sight. Driving it has convinced me that sometimes the real pleasure is in the journey more than the destination.

I thought I was unusual, maybe even delusional. Then I noticed that many of my girlfriends who drive EVs are also quietly smitten. They are just better at keeping all this excitement to themselves, perhaps because it feels strange—socially not quite acceptable—for a woman to be in love with a car, an inanimate object. Men are supposed to be the ones more vulnerable to such fetishes.

Basically, women are suddenly enamored with their cars, electric ones to be precise. Even women who had owned luxury and sports cars before, seem to have a greater affinity with their EVs. So I have been asking them about what makes their EV experience life-changing?

They love the elegance, for sure. The beauty. The sleek lines. And a muscular, curvaceous, or futuristic EV turns heads simply by passing by. Simply because it exists. Just like a beautiful woman.

Think of the luxury EV as the midlife crisis that is good for the environment. When your own body is getting older, the luxury EV is like a sexy outer carapace, like the leather getup from The Matrix.

But it’s also the smooth and quiet acceleration that women love. The power. It’s the power they don’t usually have in this male-dominated world. Quiet power, without the noisy, “look-at-me” testosterone.

One girlfriend said about her Model X Tesla, “For the first time in my life, I love driving. Because it’s like driving a rocket.”

Another girlfriend said driving her EV gave her a clear conscience because she was not contributing to greenhouse gases.

EVs are clean. Not just because they are powered by electricity. But because charging them is a much cleaner—and safer—experience. Women have always hated gas stations, which feel like they are always manned by men. Gas stations are grubby and feel threatening at night, and their restrooms are eternally dirty. But charging your EV in your own garage is like a liberation from all gas station grittiness. When you charge your vehicle out in public, usually it is also a cleaner experience, in a mall garage, an outside parking lot, or a dealer, perhaps while you enjoy a cappuccino, as opposed to a gas station Mountain Dew.

There is something else EVs free women from. Women don’t like the maintenance and oil changes they are regularly subjected to with fuel cars. Unless the woman in question is an engineer, these are often situations when women are taken advantage of. Mechanics in stained overalls love playing to women’s fears to get them to open their wallets in the interest of some oily part or other that needs to be changed to avoid a crash with reality. With EVs, there is no maintenance, no regular visits to the dealer and no mansplaining the inner workings of the combustion engine to a woman who just wants to get on with her life.

Some women I spoke to also liked the autopilot and accident-prevention features, as an added safety layer. There are many new gorgeous EVs to pick from now: the Audi Etron series; the Volkswagen ID-4; the Hyundai Ionic 5; the Ford Mach-E and Ford Mustang; the Polestar 2 and 3 SUV; the Kia EV 6; the Mercedes EQS; the BMW I-4, etc. Once women go for one of these, there is no going back to the oil fields.

I was driving my Polestar 2 the other day when a thirteen-year-old boy on an e-bike stopped and gave me the thumbs up and shouted “beautiful car!” Since when? With a woman three times his age behind the wheel? No way. But even the kids find the aesthetics of EVs pleasing.

The acceleration of EVs is legendary. Everything is left in the dust. Obnoxious drivers, exhaust, noise, and all your worries. If used properly, acceleration can mean greater safety to get out of gnarly situations. There is one small downside: I got my first tiny speeding ticket recently—probably because the cop was curious about the new EV. Needless to say, I convinced him to chuck his gas car, buy an EV, and save tons of money.

So if you are in the market for a new car, or a different car, test drive an EV as well. These “experience cars” will turn your daily drive and daily grind into a meditative experience—which diamonds can never do. In our remote-work era, the home has become too closely associated with work. So perhaps the car is the last remaining sanctuary. The CEO of Polestar recently said that they outfitted the new Polestar 3 SUV with thirty Bowers & Wilkins speakers because the car is now one of the last places where people can enjoy their music. Many EVs are programmed to hum or purr to you (and alert pedestrians), to light up when you approach, and in so many customized ways to act like your best friend.

As I said in a previous article, all EVs pay for themselves with the money they save by not using gas. Most of the time, you are only using off-peak electricity from your own home charger, which is super cheap (60-80 dollars a month for 1000 miles or 700-900 per YEAR.) Any recharging outside your house is often either free for a few years (courtesy of the car company), or often only the price of two lattes, and with a supercharger, faster than it takes to consume said latte.

In addition, you are saving yourself the hundreds of trips to icky gas stations, some forty to fifty per year—400-500 per decade. You are also liberating yourself and your country from oil and the OPEC+ thugs who are fighting wars with your money, jacking up inflation for everything that uses oil to produce or transport, taking entire economies hostage, and downing markets.

Some EVs have concierge services that bring a car to your home or office to test drive. Many offer simple, honest online ordering so that the days of haggling with the dealer are over—another thing women despised. Once your car is delivered to your doorstep, you will have said no to oil, no to greenhouse gases, no to wildfires, floods, droughts, and famines. It’s the instant feel-good purchase.

Then take a drive to the ocean, to the mountains, to see a friend. No matter where your happy place is, it is now in your car too. Sit back, relax, and give yourself permission to fall in love with your car. Soon, it may well love you back.