Electric Car !

On 5/15/10 I paid $100 to reserve my Nissan Leaf SV -100% electric vehicle.

The news out of Nissan on availability is coiming very slowly but they are still stating that the cars will be available in New Mexico at the end of this year. I"m not too optimistic, however, because since they started producing the vehicle in Dec 2010 they have only shipped just over 100 of the 20,000 reservations they have. I'm currently waiting for them to notify me to install the home charger. I have heard that they are refusing to sell the car unless the potential owners have the charger installed before hand.

Owning an electric vehicle looks expensive up front. 1) the purchase price of the vehicle is $33,720. 2) The home charging station is expected to cost $2,000.

However, after federal tax credits of $7,500 the net purchase price would be $25,280.

I did some math on the cost savings on the vehicle. If I drive $10,00 miles in a year it should cost me $36.00 a year. Why only $36 dollars a year? Because my solar panels will charge most of my trips -but not all of them. I'm currently producing about 150 extra KWhs a month.

The average yearly fuel cost for my previous vehicle was $1,500. Thats a savings of $1,464 a year or $14,640 dollars over a decade. Also, Dont forget that I don't have to change oil or pay for oil changes.

However, the biggest benefit to owning a 100% electric vehicle is that I will living in a way that is consistent with my values and acheiving my goal of transitioning from dirty energy to clean & sustainable energy. By making the transition to clean energy I am doing my part to a) not send my hard earned American dollars to foreign oil-producing countries b) reduce my carbon footprint -which in turn reduces carbon emissions -which reduces our risk of extreme weather events -which saves lives -which saves the US government huge amounts of money, and c) help my local economy buy keeping my money in Albuquerque, NM, USA, not in Saudia Arabia.

Anyway you look at it, making my next vehicle an electric vehicle is a WIN WIN situation!.

Stay tuned for when I get the green light from Nissan to buy the car!