Nissan Sells 100,000 LEAFs, Captures 48% Of Worldwide BEV Market To Date

That's a option that makes sense.

I did the same thing, sort of. We had a 4x4 pick-up, a small diesel vehicle, wanted and bought a nicely equipped sedan, got my wife a two seat convertible, she had one and I wanted one myself, always wanted a Lexus IS. We wound up with six vehicles and a three car garage. Five of six had a unique purpose, in my mind. Everything times six was a headache more than a expense. My wife still drives the diesel and she still has her two seat convertible. I have my Prius. In retrospect, two Prii could have replaced those six. I know that now, but you couldn't have convinced me several years ago. In reality, I enjoyed them all, but three vehicles is the right number.

 

For a two driver household, a bev or phev can easily work for 1 of the 2 or 3 vehicles. I think UCS came up with 41% of households could work easily with a plug-in. Definitely if you have 3 vehicles, a midsized gas only, a bev, and a truck, SUV, or convertable (depending on the need the other two don't fill) can work.

For those that the range of the leaf does not work, there is the tesla S, and phevs (volt, prius phv, fusion energi, c-max energi, bmw i3).

 

In fact, it was bought by an unlikely buyer.

A dentist who is interested in EVs.

 

Most anyone with $40-50,000 lying around for a down payment and a steady job should be able to afford a Telsa S. For me, the Telsa S is way more car than I need or care for other than the EV range. I'll just contently, continue to
to check off those 60 monthly payments on my Prius Plug In and wait for technology and prices to increase and decrease respectively.

 

SFO now has L2 charging in at least two short term parking lots...so if you are willing to pay for the parking you get free charging.

Mike

 

The Tesla car dealer would probably agree with you, but your spouse might kill you if you splurge a large fraction of life savings on a toy, and then add a monthly debt on top for good measure.

 

I am so sick of people referring to the Model S as a "toy".
It is belittling and insulting to those of us that feel that using less oil is more important than our personal wealth.

 

I've put 1.5K miles on my Leaf and it is awesome. I thought the Prius was the ugliest car on the road when I bought one, but then the impressive aerodynamic shape grew on me. I think the Leaf is less ugly than the Prius as first glance, but weirder. I have found myself liking it more already much faster than the Prius.

I have gone over 100miles on a single charge, and I just use my L1 charger that comes with the car. Super easy. Prius is the long range gas guzzler now.

 

Your rationalizations and 'feelings' are not my concern. Toy it is.
A spiffy one, I might add.

As for our shared desire to use less oil, you would benefit by reading economic analyses of the large scale effect of individual conservation in a market economy. Spoiler alert: it is not pretty.

 

Why is the Tesla a "toy" but a Lexus LS not a toy? The LS starts at $72K for the base model, starts at $80K for the sport F model, and starts at $120K for the hybrid 600h model. I see the LS and LS-F everywhere around here.

They are both "aggressive" looking, somewhat sporty sedans. If the only response is because you can go more than 300 miles at once in the Lexus, then I ask how often do you do that? And if that is the criteria, then why is the Chevy Spark not a toy? I was forced to rent one in St. Lucia a couple weeks ago. It has a 9 gallon tank, and they claim 265miles on a full tank (although I was lucky to get 300km out of it, 186mi).

 

Of course the Lexus LS is a toy!

I should probably say that I love toys, and do not use the word in a derogatory sense. To me it means an extravagance bought for pleasure. My material world is composed of 4 things: food, clothes, tools, and toys. I will be the first to admit that many a tool in my garage is a toy so far as my wife is concerned.

 

wait ... don't we count relationships as part of the material world too? On the other hand there was at least one I would consider a toy

.

 

I do not, although I buy toys for my spouse fairly often. And when she is happy I am happy. Usually.

 

Park in long term. Then when you leave if you NEED an extra ~10 miles of charge move to short term and charge for ~55 min and leave getting charged for just 1 hour in the lot -- that was my idea

Mike

 

almost all cars are toys. Most of the world makes-out just fine with mopeds or tiny econocars..... like the $12000 Nissan Versa or Ford Fiesta.

Anything beyond that is a want not a need. AKA a "toy" (unless you're the exception that legitimately needs a truck for hauling). BTW I did not originate this view..... I hear it a lot in the environmentalist movement. (shrug). I'll let you decide if they're right.

 

Well we have the utilitarian model t, when most cars were owned by the rich. Then we have the ummmm very negative connotation people's car volkswaggon bug, I won't remind you of its start, but then it was flocked to by a bunch of smelly hippies.

I guess from that point of view a leaf or tesla is more "fun to drive", but what really has been more damaging to the environment one of these, or the millions of bugs and corollas, versas and fiestas?

There seems to be a derogatory nature of how the word toy is applied to bevs. I know people are just paroting bad word choices. Remember the prius is an overpriced toy to many.

 

I don't understand the relevance of cars built pre-microcomputer age? (shrug) According to the American council for an Energy Efficient Economy, aka greenercars.org, the Tesla and other EVs are no cleaner than a Prius or Civic hybrid (and less clean than 60mpg SULEV insight or Civic CNG). One needs to compare cars that are, at the least, in the same decade and developed with the same modern tools/knowledge.

 

Well if you read and understood my post, you might, but I'll be I'll be happy to repeat it with further explanation.

Those inexpensive peoples cars, becaue of their large numbers, and construction and tailpipe emissions, that you mention aren't toys, have caused a lot of damage.

Now we also have derogatory talk of hybrids, especially the prius and civic early on. They don't get the milage they should, they are too expensive, they are slow, their batteries will break down. They are only good as toys. They haven't sold in sufficient numbers to have caused the damage as some of those other cars, but by repeating that cars like the leaf and tesla are just toys, you are repoeating an ignorant statement, put out there to demean. Its like repeating the anti-prius talk just moving it to anouther car
The Not-Quite-Green Toyota Prius
Yep, not as green as a hummer remember that piece of trash study.

You got to be kidding mean, I said cleaner. I'm sure these studies are just as flawed as the study pointed to above. I'm absolutely certain that the guy buying a tesla model S or leaf is not that same guy that is going to buy a civic cng. You may note that nobody really buys the civic cng.
December 2013 Dashboard - HybridCars.com
2198 civic cngs, 18650 tesla S (and they would have sold more if panasonic could make the batteries), 22,610 leafs in the US.

When I said cleaner, I meant hazardous tailpipe and smokestack emissions. You know the bad stuff SO2, NOx, particulates, NMOG. I have no idea what greener means other than people seem to define it anyway they want. Is the civic cng clean? Sure, very much so, but its more money than a civic or versa, so I guess you would call it a toy if you didn't like it. Same for the prius, although people call them worse a lot of the time. The prius is also very clean, just not as clean as a leaf or tesla S.

For what? I don't understand. aren't things like smart key, and laser cruise control toys. If you are going to follow the heard here and repeat the complaint then you have. Don't you need to buy that corola or versa, or new bug stripped with out the toys. Inexpensive without those things.

 

Sure, any SULEV vehicle is a good choice. But most cars aren't SULEV. In a dense city having many many BEVs is a big advantage over all ICE cars in terms of improving the local air quality.

Mike