PRICE DROP: 2013 Nissan Leaf Electric 5-Seat Car Now As Low As $18800 CA, $15800 CA+SJV, $17300 IL, $16300 GA, $15300 CO, $13800 WV and Others // $12 to fill "tank"

Quote from Troublestylist : ...and add to that the irony that CA gives a huge discount...but no one in CA pays 10 cents a kwh either. Try TRIPLE that. Leave it to the government to kill cheap electricity (read: nuclear) and then pay to subsidize people to drive electric cars. I drove a hybrid for 10 years and it cost me 1.5 gallons to go 100 miles ($6). Without solar, that's cheaper than paying for electricity on a Leaf thanks to Grey Davis.

what? CA is 30 cents/kwH?!?

also please tell me what 10 year old hybrid gave you 66 miles per gallon?!? i want to buy this car!

Quote from trza : It's nice knowing that I'll be paying for somebody else's Leaf until I die. If they were such a good deal, we wouldn't have to subsidize them.

Well you must be thrilled then to find out that you subsidize oil companies, industrial food conglomerates, and all sorts of other things from motion pictures to shipping. But God forbid your taxes have to go toward innovation!

One of the reasons gas is so cheap here (as opposed to the prices in Europe) is because we subsidize oil firms to produce it and we subsidize a Department of Defense and a Department of State to maintain our interests in places where we import oil from.

Subsidies from the government and ultimately the taxpayers are a critical piece of progress. Our railroads got built because the government subsidized the railroad companies with acres and acres of free land. Subsidies reduce the risks and costs of innovation, giving entrepreneurs greater incentive and better chances.

Quote from Troublestylist : ...and add to that the irony that CA gives a huge discount...but no one in CA pays 10 cents a kwh either. Try TRIPLE that.

I don't know where you live in CA. Where I am, it's 7.5 cents a kwh. I just looked at the bill.

Quote from memon_bhai : also please tell me what 10 year old hybrid gave you 66 miles per gallon?!? i want to buy this car!

Back when the Honda insight first came out. People made it a competition to get as much mileage as possible. Many times this involved drafting a foot behind a big semi truck. I think someone got 94 MPG once.

if you live in the CA central valley, you may be eligible for an additional $3,000 rebate, putting this at $15,800. add in a solar array or solar leasing, and you've got a killer deal if you live in the valley.

Quote from trza : It's nice knowing that I'll be paying for somebody else's Leaf until I die. If they were such a good deal, we wouldn't have to subsidize them.

You truly have no idea about government subsidies and trade policies in this country. Please do your dd first before posting a statement such as the one above.

Quote from travfar : I don't know where you live in CA. Where I am, it's 7.5 cents a kwh. I just looked at the bill. Back when the Honda insight first came out. People made it a competition to get as much mileage as possible. Many times this involved drafting a foot behind a big semi truck. I think someone got 94 MPG once.

What good is drafting if you spend your savings on repairing your front end because the semi driver fell asleep? Remember, if you don't see his mirrors, he can't see you.

With that said, it's fun lol.

What about AC/Heater on mileage?

Quote from fredstone : Horsepower is some arbitrary number that indicates how hard one must rev a gas engine to get the maximum torque out of it.

Horsepower is hardly an "arbitrary number" limited to how much you rev a gasoline engine. All engines and motors that turn a power output shaft of some kind can, and usually are, rated in horsepower. Even the disposal in a kitchen sink has a hp rating. And the horsepower peaks and torque peaks of internal combustion engines rarely occur at the same RPM, or at a fixed percentage of revs away from that RPM.

With all that said, the Leaf does a 0-60 dash in a perfectly acceptable 9 seconds (plus or minus, depending upon the source). Not a scorcher but it'll easily keep up with traffic.

A much bigger issue is that the observed range in various tests of the Leaf show that the manufacturer's 100mi is optimistic. It appears 60-75mi is more along the lines of what you can expect to see. Whether this is enough miles for you depends upon your use, I guess, but it doesn't leave much of a reserve.

I lived in Southern California. I am using Edison. On Tier 3, the cost of 1kwh is 28 cents. I am close to Tier 4 which is even more. So it is not that cheap!

Quote from DirtyAzn : Adding a nice solar array for your home is a bit better than the "coal-fired power plant" used to power all electric cars...

Hey, why not, what's another $10,000, right?

If I save only ~$10k driving 75000 miles on that car, compared to my 300-hemi, I'll pick hemi any day.

If electric cars were ~$10k to buy, then it'd be different game. I would consider buying one for commute. At these prices, no way. I'd rather buy a Civic for less, and spend the savings on beer.

Quote from travfar : I don't know where you live in CA. Where I am, it's 7.5 cents a kwh. I just looked at the bill.

I'm curious... are you looking at the cost per KWh, or the total bill divided by the total KWh? The taxes, fees, convenience charges, etc. do add a bit to the actual cost. not quadruple it, of course, but it does change it.

Fuel Cost
[LEAF] 75000mi / 100 * $3 = $2250
[GAS CAR] 75000mi / 100 * $16 = $12000
You forgot that after 75000 miles, the battery bank would be shot at least once and that's if you're lucky. So add $10,000 to a new battery bank and you're back to square one.
And what are you gonna do with the dead battery bank? Yeah, it goes straight to the land fill and we all call it "green".

Quote from memon_bhai : also please tell me what 10 year old hybrid gave you 66 miles per gallon?!? i want to buy this car!

Original Honda Insight.

Quote from degsie : /* grabs popcorn and waits */

You should eat the popcorn before it gets cold.