I just contracted to buy all the gasoline I want at 24 cents a gallon. No, I have not struck oil in my backyard, or come into an inheritance from a long lost Kuwaiti relative. That is the de facto price that PG&E is billing me for a full charge on the all-electric Nissan Leaf that will be delivered to me in December.
That works out to $1.20 to recharge a vehicle that will transport me 100 miles, at the price of five cents a kilowatt hour
Sounds sweet, even if the grumps at Counterpunch says EVs aren’t green at all in Electric evasion.
Of course we’ve got to significantly reduce how much we use cars. No environmentalist would deny that – and if they do, they’re not much of an environmentalist. But cars are useful, even if they’re not used often, and it’s better to have electric cars than gasoline cars.
Are you getting this as a lease or a purchase? I’m all about purchasing an EV, but after the fiasco with Saturn’s EV1 (where they pulled the leases and the cars) I’d never consider leasing such a car. Last I heard, all the major EV releases coming up (Leaf, Volt, SmartEV) are all lease-only.
Not sure if the Leaf has a purchase option. EVs are great but the limited range is a problem in the wide open spaces of the West. Could one even drive from SF to LA on the interstate and be able to recharge (and not have it take hours).
We still have have our 2001 Prius!
Some of the new batteries (and battery systems) can charge to 80% in under 10 minutes. So, stopping every couple hours of driving for a bathroom break at a place with a charging system would work. The problem is that most places right now don’t offer a high-amp 220 line, or metered billing for it.
There are a few companies making such devices, which look like parking meters with plugs on them. Most can accept credit cards or ez-pass, and have 120/220 plugs. (Bring your own cable…) The advanced models even offer a locking mechanism.
Wow, didn’t realize they could charge that fast. Now we just have to get them installed at regular gas stations too.
They’ve been able to make them in a lab as of March of 2009. The mass-production phase will probably happen in the next year on the low end (cell phones & laptops), with larger packs coming down the line. No, it’s not here quite yet, but the packs and charging systems on most EVs can be retrofitted a lot easier than a gas engine can.