Wanting to own a car just because it's electric strikes me as both silly and pointless.
Whether you're driven by PC to reduce your carbon footprint or just want, like everyone else these days, to avoid crude oil, buying an electric won't really accomplish anything. In most cases and locales, EVs make little difference in your carbon output, despite preposterous characterizations like "zero emissions" being employed by braindead states like bankrupt California. And the higher cost of EVs will likely never be offset by lower fuel prices. I say this about the lower priced EVs, although none of the prices are low. The Volt's $42K price is obviously way more than twice what the car, per se, is actually worth. But in the realm of the Bimmer and MB sedans, where the Tesla Model S will roam, it's a whole different ballgame,
financially speaking. At those price levels, a highcost battery pack can economically compete and, in fact, can compete in every other way. And win. The error that practically all the early
EV builders are making is by trying to build what high priced battery packs simply don't allow at this point : low cost electric vehicles. GM should have built their Volt as a Cadillac and provided more power. As a Chevy, it makes no sense and, one could argue, is fatally flawed as a design : it incorporates excessive complexity and poor ergonomics and a high cost
second powertrain, all to overcome the cost of more batteries. In the end, it ends up with a
half electric, half gasoline vehicle that gets worse gas mileage than all of its supposed ICE competitors. As battery prices are reduced, the Volt become even more an anachronism,
and one that cannot be refitted as an electric, since its design never anticipated that eventuality. I therefore conclude that GM made exactly the same error in trying to build an electric that many folks do who desperately want to buy them : they simply weren't thinking very clearly. Remember, one million, two million, three million electric cars on the road won't
accompllish anything significant, so why waste your money on these primitive EVs
that have so little value? Wait a few years for a low priced EV or buy the Tesla Model S
next year, if you can afford to. Right now, EVs are only competitive at higher price levels.
Tesla seems to be the only company that understands this rather obvious fact. The "experienced major automakers" are mostly proving that experience obviously
doesn't mean smart.

http://www.teslamotors.com/models The Model S is the best Electric car coming to the market this year.

Anonymous, without early adopters and innovators, most product launches would never happen.

The iPod wouldnt be what it is today without the first 5,000 people who bought the highly expensive, bulky brick that was inferior to the alternatives 10 years ago.

If nobody bought it until it was "good" then it would never get good.

for those in Colorado or other non-rollout areas on the Leaf

Last info given was you could order winter 2011 (that would get you a delivery by June 2012) that was pre-quake.

A guess now is you wont be able to order til late spring 2012

and get a car by late summer, or early fall 2012.

@Tom M.

Very well stated. Buying a new car rarely does ever "make sense."

But IF one does decide to buy a new car, then like any other action one might take, it might "make sense" to have that action impinge on or compromise the lives of others as little as possible. "Tread lightly" on this earth is always a relativistic series of choice.

Hence buying and driving an EV could be "sensible" in terms of respecting the lives of those around us, since driving an EV reduces CO2 emissions, many other emissions, and even in coal-fired electricity production areas has a total "carbon footprint" smaller than a fuel powered vehicle. In addition driving an EV can be "fun" in and of itself, since the immediate torque of the electric motor gives a new kind of "feel" to the driving experience, and the low placement of the heavy battery systems in both the Volt and the Leaf give them a very "planted feel" in cornering.

Further with an EV, one can, with enough solar or wind power at their home, actually produce the power that drives the vehicle. Try that with ANY "fuel powered" vehicle.

Here is a link to a Consumer Reports piece that was just posted yesterday by one of their editors:
http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/04/a-tale-of-two-evs-californi...

@Brad
I'd really like to know how it's not an OFFICIAL order seeing as my Nissan Leaf order is Pending and I've already put $100 down on Apr 20, 2010. Nissan dealers in my area were expecting to see some Leafs by Sept (pre-quake).
Last roll-out plans I saw from Nissan (end of last year) was that nation-wide roll out would occur around June 2011.

I too am waiting on my Leaf from a 4/20/10 reservation, and I am in a 2nd tier city (Atlanta). I have actually heard of a local person getting a delivery date of June, but he's "connected" so it might be a special dispensation. I will wait as long as necessary but the slow roll out is frustrating. Was really impressed with the Leaf I drove.

While I hate the focus' front panel - too busy that's why i prefer the leaf - I did hear Denver, Co is an initial release market - where i live. If that's the case and I'm able to get on a waiting list I'll probably grab a focus instead.

Sad sad state of affairs from Nissan but they need to be a lot more up front about what's going on and explain what their plans are. I know about the earthquake and I have donated to the Red Cross but this lack of communication has been going on long before the earthquake.

kcave, you can contact Tim dot Hylen at ThinkEV dot com. I have an appointment to see him next week for a test drive. Think can basically ship to any where in the US if I understood. (I live 9 hours from Indianapolis.) Dealers will be opening in the next few months I guess. Indianapolis has the biggest incentives so that is where the test drives are at the moment.

@Brad -- that makes sense to me. But there are not 20,000 "orders" in the list of states -- just 20,000 "reservations" in all states. Is that something that can be confirmed? I want to feel like I'm one of the first 20K.

I read any and all news articles I can find about the Leaf during my long waiting period I see the order/reservation thing confused all the time. But the recent news that all "orders" will be fulfilled by the end of the summer may have gotten a few reservation-holders hopes up prematurely and add to the pain of waiting to become "early" adopters.

@Brad - so that being said, when does your source anticipate "orders" for those of us who have been on the reservation list for many months in Florida?

@Anonymous
I would and have given Nissan some slack but the biggest problem is since I reservered 4/20/2010 there has been very little information coming out and a ton of conflicting reports. After the quake info's non-existant.