Just had this discussion with a friend who’s running for state house of representatives in my district last night. He was thinking he might be able to attract some low information voters if he campaigned a bit about his new Nissan Leaf.
After an hour of friendly discussion, I think he’s decided against making noise about his car choice. I also saw a hint of buyer remorse when I explained he’s not doing himself any favors by buying a plug-in.
Besides the fallacy that he’s saving himself some cash, it may be true now, but the “green” factor isn’t. Also, watch as soon as the plug-in car market reaches .05% states will freak out and start installing tax by the mile schemes.
What really convinced my friend he had made a mistake buying the Leaf was when I showed him an official guideline driving our state government’s transportation plan called “Vision 2040”. They have been testing and have worked the kinks out of a pay-by-the-mile plan for the past 10 years and are ready to implement the plan as soon as there is political will.
I love my Prius, but I just would never do a Tesla (despite how cool I think it is) or the Leaf etc. Not enough return and limited range. I guarantee you these charging stations will completely ignore flyover country for at least a decade.
And yeah, the Prius is expensive, but getting better as more and more buy them, which is why we took the plunge. Frankly, most other vehicles aren’t a lot cheaper and equal out with more gas cost anyway, and the Prius has fewer moving parts to go bad as well.
Nice to fill up for $25 instead of $80 like the old pickup.
Will the proposed tax-by-the-mile scheme extend to gas-powered cars? This could cause a revolution.