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Electric Cars Available Now And Those You’ll Want To Own

The choice of electric cars, EVs is growing exponentially bringing you enough to satisfy almost all your daily driving needs with more coming on the horizon.

There’s no denying the EV scene has taken the world by surprised, draws a lot of ink, or electrons and have tapped a lot of emotions. Almost all EVs, and most neighborhood EV, NEVs will have enough range to get you to and from work. Of course, there are people who commute over 100 miles a day, for those plug-in hybrids, PHEV with a bank loan will work. Burt what’s available now and tomorrow.

Currently Available EVs. The Nissan Leaf is the undisputed king in the EV world. It has been sold for a year and the starting price of $27,700 EV can be slashed by another $7,500 if you are in the right tax bracket, plus other local and state incentives available. All of this gives you an estimated range of 100 miles. Case in point, a friend of mine lives in Long Beach, California, has been going to work with his Leaf for a year now to Santa Monica. That’s a 70 miles round trip that costs him pennies on the miles instead of the double digit pennies he used to pay with his gasoline car.

The Mitsubishi i MiEV is also available in the affordable range at $29,125 with which you can subtract $7,500 in federal tax credit bringing it down to $21,625. If you happen to live inland California, the additional incentives will bring it down to around $16,000. Not bad for a car that will give you about 72 miles of range on a charge.

The CODA is now also available at $37,400, adding the federal incentive brings it down to shy of $30,000. Check your local and state incentives for further price reduction. All of this gets around 120 miles of range.

And Then, There Is Tomorrow.

Ford’s electric Focus is right around the corner with a base price of $39,200 add the federal incentive and it comes down to about $32,000, more with other state and local incentives, if available. This car gives you also 100 miles of range.

Tesla’s Model S will be out in three weeks and available in three options, 160 to 230 and 300 miles. Prices are $49,900, $59,900, $69,900, respectively. Federal, state and local incentives also apply, if available.

BMW’s i3 will eventually be sold and give you 100 miles for $35,000, on which you can add all available incentives.

So what are we waiting for? Obviously financing is important but we are a country used to living with credit. That is a moot point. Then there’s the patriotic chord. It’s becoming hard to justify gasoline cars, giving away close to half our tank’s money to petroleum making countries hostile to the USA. Surely that point makes little sense. But in the end, we are a country built on efforts and rewards. Nothing happened easily and surely the gasoline engine wouldn’t have happened if everyone sat on their hands content with steam engines 100 years ago. So let’s hear your bravos and grunts to make sense of it all here.

In the meantime, EVs are available and will slash your maintenance and energy budget using good old made in the USA energy, strengthening our security.

Comments

christino (not verified)    June 4, 2012 - 8:17AM

It is latest offering perfectly bridges the gap between stunning good looks, luxurious travel, powerful specs and affordable pricing.

Anonymous (not verified)    June 10, 2012 - 9:16PM

Quite a misleading article. Those prices for the Tesla have been reduced by $7500.
They are not it's true cost. Shame on you. And the battery pack for the 300 mile Model S costs $44,200. It might last 10 years, but will have its range reduced by 20% (to 240 miles) by 5 or 6 years, with more to come. Want to guess the resale value of a 6 year old Tesla with its battery more than half used up? Why not tell the whole story, not just cherry picked portions?

Nicolas Zart    June 11, 2012 - 9:09AM

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I'm not sure where you get the range reduction percentage. Would you share? I've seen lithium-ion batteries tested by SCE with over 200,000 without noticeable degradation. Wherever I quote a price, I make sure to say it is with or without incentives. As far as the battery pack of the Model S costing that amount, which version are you talking about? Lastly, current EV driver don't see their range drop by 20% in 5 to 5 years. It would make them unpractical.

Marc (not verified)    July 7, 2012 - 11:37AM

You fail to address the issue of battery life and replacement, which, when amortized across the length of time before owners are likely to replace the cars, might significantly increase the cost or decrease the resale/trade-in value.
Additionally, it is difficult to take your writing seriously when it is so poorly constructed or poorly edited and rife with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.

Nicolas Zart    July 7, 2012 - 1:30PM

In reply to by Marc (not verified)

The battery replacement issue is moot since there is a secondary market building around it and batteries lasts almost as long as gasoline engines. If you have solar panels or any other means of alternative energy production, you could even use your old battery pack as local storage. This is an old counter-topic that has been debunked many times. Southern California Edison was testing Johnson-Craft lithium-ion batteries in labs in 2007 with over 200,000 without noticeable degradation. You also fail to notice that lithium batteries' cost has steadily gone down. So what if I can replace my battery pack with a better one and sell the old one?

Thanks for the encouragement for my writing style. As I've mentioned before, my English teachers were Americans and British which accounts for the punctuation. I'm glad we have people like you to remind how terrible our writing is. It sure makes things better and contributes in the most positive way. Thanks, Nicolas ",which," ;)