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As a new EV owner I find this conversation interesting. My previous cars were a Jetta TDI wagon and a 2nd Generation Prius. Both very economical cars and very reliable. The 05 Prius was 12 years old and needed the suspension replaced after 150K miles. Logically I would repair the car for $1K and drive it for another 150K miles. However, I wanted something different.
About this time my company got 6 Smart EV's for employees to drive between our 11 facilities. They also allowed us to take them home at night or on the weekend. So I checked one out. My big concern with EVs was range. After driving the Smart EV to home and back (Using the A/C one way and heat the other) I found that range was not an issue for me. I looked into leasing one through our company program but they wanted to much. I then read about the Spark EV which is the "hot hatch" of the EV world with a 0-60 time of 7 seconds. I found one at my local Chevy dealership and took it for a spin. It was a fun little car and drove like a go-cart. I asked how much it was and the salesman said I could lease it for 0 down / $100 per month / 39 months. SOLD! That is 1/2 the just the purchase price of buying a car and keeping it for 10 years like I did with the TDI and Prius.
3 months / 1500 miles later I don't regret the choice at all. I kind of regret not buying the car as I could have purchased it for $10,500 after the GM rebate and Fed tax credit. Range has not been an issue. I can drive to work twice or anywhere in my Metro area and back on a charge. If we need to drive farther we take my wife's car. What has been a problem is keeping the mileage under the 10,000 miles per year the lease allows.
I think people will be skeptical of electric cars until they personally drive one or know someone that does. At least that has been my experience. I was skeptical of both hybrids and EVs until I personally drove one.
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