Reply #25: Snark is okay with me (I can dish it and take it) [View All]

To be perfectly honest, I recommend leasing your first electric car anyway so that you can get used to it with no 10-year obligation. The Nissan Leaf 2012 model is now $379 per month as a lease, I expect the other vehicles to be about the same.

Isn't that close to the monthly car payment you would expect for a comparably equipped gasoline or diesel car?

The battery improvements that are expected to arrive by 2015 will make electric vehicles cheaper (or allow them to drive further on a charge). So why buy? Lease it and give it back when you're done saving money.

Saving money? Yes. You saw the post where I calculated that a Leaf would save my wife $4.66 per day. Most people work 237 days per year so that's over a grand a year in fuel savings ($1,104.42) each and every year. But most people will save even more because they still drive their car on the weekends... more driving the electric car equals more saving versus a gasoline car.