Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rooster
First, I don't understand the 30 mpg vs Electric comparison. What car the size of the Nissan Leaf, gets just 30 mpg? Ford Fiesta gets 40, Hyndai Sonata gets 40, Yaris gets 36, and they are all in the $15k or under range to purchase.
I do love the simplicity of the Electric car, but it needs to shave about 10g's off the price and double in range before it becomes even a remotely practical alternative...Oh, and come with a free charger.  |
How about comparing the Leaf to the other Nissan car that is shares it's platform with? the Nissan Versa,
a best case EPA mileage of 26/34
Also if you read other electric vehicle articles in Home Power magazine you will notice that they have had articles on home built electric cars, on buying use factory built electric cars and I have yet to see an electric car that does not have a built in charger, the charging stations are an extension cord that is bolted to the wall and has some safety switches built in, some of them have options for smart grid controls, timers or smart phone communications, if you just want the cord with the safety switches it sounds like $250-400 and you will have a high voltage cord mounted on your wall that the dog can lick or you can drop in your coffee or use while standing in the rain, if you want it to talk to your smart phone then it costs more, if you want to go to the hardware store and use a standard 14 gauge cord you can do that as well, that is what I do with my fancy high priced ($3,500) factory built electric car that I have been trying to figure out the carbon foot print of.
In reading up on the carbon footprint side of electric cars I've seen as high as being compared to a 120mpg gas car (90mpg had better math to back it up) down to this 50mpg gas car figure and of course there are people like my self who pay an extra $3 per month for wind offset electricity and for that true warm fuzzy feeling I visit my parents and charge off their 1930's wind generator and 1980's solar panels.