Just over two years ago, Jeffrey Leach was an employee at the Co-Op Oil Refinery in Regina. Now, he’s behind the wheel of an electric car.

Leach worked at the refinery for three decades, helping create the gasoline and diesel that powers most cars on the road – but as of a few weeks ago, not his.

“I always have believed in new technologies and moving forward in technology and both my sons are engineers,” Leach said. “Once I started seeing electric cars and seeing the potential of how powerful they were and how low maintenance they were I figured I want to look into this and see more about it.”

Back in March, Leach ordered a shiny blue Tesla Model 3 with performance trim, which arrived this month.

Leach estimates it costs him about eight to nine dollars to fully charge the car’s battery - compared to $120 tanks of gas for his truck.

“Gas for my truck was, because we live in Lumsden and I do a lot of commuting, it’s roughly $450 to $500 per month,” Leach said.

Leach wants others to learn more about electric vehicles, especially since the takeover on the roads won’t happen overnight.

“The switch to electric is going to be slow, it takes a long time for people to check out a new technology and understand it,” Leach told CTV News. “That’s the big part: understand it.”

But driving an electric car in the prairies is with plenty of pros, but some cons like a lack of charging stations, but Leach says that problem lessens with every new one that’s built in the province.

“We don’t have the infrastructure like gasoline does, so we have to keep promoting that,” Leach says.

James Dennis, the president of the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Club, says he’s seen the mindset shift on how feasible electric cars on the prairies are in recent years.

“You’re starting to see a lot more of them,” Dennis said. “When we first started there was only five or six electric cars, fully electric in Saskatchewan, now you’ve got more than that in the city of Regina alone.”

Now that Leach is retired, he has one big road trip in mind for his Tesla once the timing is right.

“I have a son that lives in Hamilton, I want to go visit him,” Leach said.