“There’s No Planet B.” “Be the Solution to Pollution.” “Defend the Wilderness.” These 8×11 outcries appear on the bumpers of Priuses, VW Bugs and wood-paneled station wagons, demanding a change in how we protect our Earth. But is this campaign all it’s cracked up to be?

Sure, deforestation, oil spills and declines in biodiversity deserve global attention and action, but what is a movement without hope for a brighter future? And how do we gain such hope without real progress? My hope comes from my 2014 B-Class Mercedes Sedan.

Lots of people throw sarcasm at me when I tell people what kind of car I drive, making fun of everything from its blue color to its noiselessness. What they don’t realize is that entirely electric cars are vital to the future of environmental protection. If the majority of people drove all-electric, we would live in a world where no cars contribute to air pollution.

There’s no gas. There’s no oil. You just plug the car into a wall and wait. This new B-Class model, which gets 85 miles from one charge, sets the path toward replacing harmful energy use with renewable energy.

When I drive to school, to Georgetown Bagels, to the gym and finally back home, I don’t have a voice inside my head saying, “Wow, you just wasted a ton of gas.” And as a bonus, I don’t need to spend $40 every few weeks as I stand at a gas pump pondering how big my carbon footprint will be today. Instead, I simply plug my car into my house’s charging station and go to bed. Within 6 to 8 hours, my car is fully charged and ready to take on the next day.

Some electric cars can be harmful to the environment because of battery acid. Chemicals like cobalt, lead and cadmium are found in rechargeable batteries, and can cause soil and water pollution when not properly recycled.

But according to Life Cycle, a manual that evaluates the environmentalism of the new B-Class model, Mercedes recycles batteries. This usually involves taking the old chemical byproducts and converting them into something new (usually more batteries). This process eliminates the potential harm they can have on the environment.

You also might be asking, “Didn’t it make your electric bill skyrocket?” It might surprise you that the answer is no. After a month of regularly using the car, my parents sat down to look at the electricity bill and saw little to no difference when compared to previous ones.

Along with no change in your electric bill, having an electric car can also provide tax incentives that can total near $10,000, another great way to convince your parents to get you a fresh new ride. I was just excited to get my own car, but my parents were equally pumped because they were getting money back.

With rebates and no need for gas money, you’d think driving an all-electric car couldn’t get better. But it does: now, you don’t even need to wait until you get home to charge up! Charging outlets have recently appeared all over the DMV, though some require a paid membership card. Apart from chargers in public parking buildings, there are also charging stations along roads next to parking meters and in open parking lots.

There’s also an app, ChargePoint, that shows the nearest charging station. It includes all stations, from public parking facilities to private residencies. My house is listed by the app as a charging station in case stranded roadtrippers find their car in need of a quick pick-me-up. With 24,931 total charging spots and 24,728 commercial spots throughout the U.S., it’s becoming easier to travel farther in an electric car.

So before you lie face-down on the ground to contemplate the inevitability of Earth dying, remember my vibrant, blue Mercedes. Hope for the future is not all black and white; it is bright, green and metallic blue.