General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: More on Tesla v. New York Times: CNBC & CNN reran Broder's test drive. [View all]Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)You can only get to 18,800 if you include all the possible tax incentives and live in California.
*Edit to add, the EV Focus and Volt both qualify for tax credits also, this post is misleading the way it is phrased. The starting price of ~39,000 should be compared to the 28,800 number, not the 18,800.*
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/nissan-leaf-japanese-auto_n_2478185.html
^snip^
The 2013 Leaf will start at $28,800, which is $6,000 lower than the previous model, company executives said Monday at the Detroit auto show. When combined with the federal electric-vehicle tax credit of $7,500 and other state and local tax incentives, the price could fall as low as $18,800 in California. That would make it comparable to gas-powered and hybrid cars of its size like the Toyota Prius. It would also be far lower than the electric Ford Focus or Chevrolet Volt, which both start around $39,000.
I think they had no choice but to drop the price. The EV Focus is (IMO) an nicer vehicle. If Ford ever matches the price of the Leaf on this vehicle then the Leaf will go the way of the Edsel. One of the main problems is that they put the charging port in the center of the front grill. Every other vehicle with a plug that I have looked at (and I have tried to look at them all) have the port on the side. If you pull into your garage and try to plug it in you will need to crawl around in front of the car, between the back wall of your garage and the car. Then to unplug it you need to do the same thing.
I love EVs, honestly.. I Love Them! The Leaf was revolutionary and I need to give Nissan some credit for making that leap. Unfortunately The Leaf needs serious improvements to stay competitive. I think that in the near future we are going to see hybrids like the Volt and the new Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi be more popular. The infrastructure does not exist for pure EVs right now. Unless you want to keep one vehicle for short trips and another for longer ones a pure Electric does not fit into most people's lifestyles as of yet.