We Couldn't Survive on EVs Before Cybertruck | Taha Abbasi

We Weren’t Looking for an EV

When Nichell and I moved to Utah, an electric vehicle was nowhere on our radar. We were deep in the off-road and overlanding world—I was building up a 1994 Land Cruiser, a passion project inspired by my father who passed away in 2018 after battling cancer for five years. I went to Matt’s off-road games. I was ready to buy a 2025 Toyota Tundra. EVs? Not for our lifestyle.

Then I took a test drive that changed everything.

Our First Tesla Experience Was Underwhelming

In 2022, we rented a Tesla Model Y in California around the Laguna and Venice Beach area. The autopilot experience was… rough. It was clunky and unpredictable. Parking lots pushed me beyond my patience. The car didn’t even stop at red lights on its own—it needed a vehicle in front to know when to stop.

I walked away thinking: Full self-driving isn’t ready. Maybe in five years EVs will make sense for us as a secondary vehicle—never as a primary and only car.

That assessment was wrong.

The Moment That Changed My Mind

I had a Cybertruck deposit, but I went to the Tesla dealership with heavy skepticism. The sales rep said, “You have to experience full self-driving.” He told me to press the mic button and say where I wanted to go. I said Starbucks.

This was FSD V13. The car drove itself out of the parking lot, onto the street, navigating red lights, navigating traffic, going around pedestrians—all the way to a Starbucks a mile or two away. About five to six minutes of driving without me touching the steering wheel or the accelerator.

When I stopped, it gave me the option to visually select a parking spot. I tapped one, hit auto park, and it backed itself in perfectly.

I called Nichell immediately. She later told me her gut feeling was: He’s going to love it. It’s going to be a done deal.

She was right.

Full Self-Driving Was the Deciding Factor

I’m confident I would not have pulled the trigger on the Cybertruck without FSD. There are trade-offs with any EV—battery pack size, range concerns especially when towing. The truck is awesome, but utility-wise the reward versus the trade-offs wouldn’t have made sense.

But full self-driving changed the equation. Every single day we use it. Whether we’re going two minutes away or six hours away, it’s on. There’s a very minimal percentage of time we’re not using full self-driving—usually just negotiating parking lots, car washes, or towing.

Learning to Live With EV Charging

We were new to EVs. At first, we tried to game Tesla’s navigation recommendations. We’d arrive at a charger at 30% and try to fill up to 80%, thinking like a gas car—longer stops, more range between them.

That was a mistake. I did the calculation: we added an hour and a half onto our total route by ignoring Tesla’s suggestions.

Tesla’s computer recommends stopping for six to fifteen minutes every two to two and a half hours—roughly 150 to 220 miles between charges. At first that seemed excessive. Now I realize it’s genius. By the time you use the bathroom and grab a snack, it’s been about fifteen minutes and the car only needed six.

For a drive from our home in northern Utah to Hurricane, we’d leave at 100% charge and only need to stop at Beaver for about twelve minutes. That’s just enough time to stretch our legs and grab coffee—exactly what our bodies wanted anyway.

Road Trips Are Actually Better

We’ve done 1,800-mile round trips from Utah to Washington. Yes, the EV charging stops add about an hour and a half to two hours compared to what Google Maps shows for gas. But when you’re driving four hours straight in a gas car, you want a 45-minute or hour-long stop anyway. The total travel time ends up about the same.

And with full self-driving, the exhaustion factor is completely different. We drove all the way from Bend, Oregon back to Salt Lake City in one stretch—arriving around 2:00 AM. In those final hours, I felt the drowsiness creeping in. But I also felt safe. If I do doze off, FSD V14 will pull over to the side of the road and keep us safe.

That wasn’t anxiety. That was confidence.

What We’ve Learned After 10,000 Miles

Since September, we’ve put 10,000 miles on the Cybertruck, including a 4,000-mile road trip. Nichell and I were both EV first-timers. There’s a learning curve with new technology, and each environment is different—managing an EV in downtown LA is very different from the mountain west where you really have to think about charger locations.

But having owned it for a few months now, I feel our comfort level rising with every trip. None of it feels like a burden anymore. All the range anxiety has turned into range planning and range appreciation—every mile traveled is smooth, we don’t have to drive, and we can choose to drive when we want to.

Would I Recommend an EV for Everyone?

Not all EVs are the same. The EVs our family members own wouldn’t have worked for us—their range is lower. That kept us from getting into EVs for a long time.

If you’re considering an EV, understand your use case. How far do you drive? Where are the chargers on your routes? What range do you need? Different EVs serve different lifestyles.

For us, the Cybertruck with FSD isn’t just acceptable—it’s transformed how we think about driving. The trade-offs don’t feel like trade-offs anymore.

Watch the Full Conversation

Nichell and I discuss our EV journey in more depth in this video:

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Taha Abbasi documents real-world experiences with EV ownership, full self-driving, and technology testing from the mountain west.