@ Anonymous: BioIsoprene tires

@anonymous,
If your tire can go 30,000 miles then you'll use 32 gallons of oil (your numbers). That's nearly 1000 mpg - are you seriously concerned about that or just being argumentative? Besides, as Smidge204 indicates, there are plenty of other ways to make tires. Have you ever heard of "rubber" for another example?

Love the idea of the electric car. It's just not there for me yet. We're a two car family and it would only work if it were to be a third car for us. Range and recharge time are still factors for me. Real life example. May 2010, 100 miles into a 360 mile one way trip in the hybrid and we hit a deer. Limped that car home, transfered the kids and stuff to the conventional car and made the trip later that day. If my other car was electric with only a 100 mile range, there would have been no trip. I know, what are the odds it happens, but it has. I hit the lottery tomorrow, I'll buy a Leaf and make it the commuting car tomorrow as our third car. But until I have more money then I know what to do with or range/recharge time gets to be more in line with what we already have (this is why I like the fuel cell idea), no electric car.

I wish the Leaf the best of luck!

@FamilyGuy,
Since snarky seems to be my MO, I'll have to ask you what you'd do if you hit another deer with your conventional car?
I'll also ask whether a fast charging station every 60 miles along all the major highways would have allowed you to reach your destination?
I'll also ask whether you considered whether an EV with a small engine and not dependent on a working radiator/fanbelt in front like an ICE, might have been able to make it the whole way, even after hitting a deer?
It sounds like you're looking for a reason NOT to buy a Leaf, not for a reason to do so.
Let me add a few suggestions to consider:
- next time you're late to get somewhere and you have to stop and buy gas. Think about whether you would have had to worry about that if your car had started out full that morning.
- do you know what the price of gas is? I don't :-)
- do you know what the price of electricity is? It really doesn't matter.
- do you have to get oil changes and routine maintenance at 5k mile intervals? EV's service intervals are likely to be closer to every 20k miles and just be a checkup. Tires are the only real expendable item.
- in many states the carpool lanes will be open to EVs for a while. Depending on where you live, that can be a huge time saver.
- not knowing where you live but where I live ICE cars have to get smog inspections every few years - EVs don't.
- and then you can always think of the future. Buy supporting the Leaf (or Volt, Smart EV, iMiev, FocusEV, Tesla, etc), you are helping to ensure that your children and their children will have the option of driving 360 miles one-way on a trip when they are our ages.
- War
- Pollution
- Global Warming

I was going to have the standard AeroVironment charger installed by thinking about it now I probably do not need it either. Thanks for planting this seed in my head. Most days I will driving less than 20 miles as well so a standard 110v charge should be enough.

Do you think the remote climate control will still work on 110 volt?

Dear @EX-EV1 Driver,
It's been 16 years since GM introduced the EV1, and 10 years since GM stole it back from it's happy drivers just to crush them into oblivion. But now we have the Tesla and the Leaf, and other production cars along the path to progress. Yea!. I think that GM means well with the Volt, but they lost their momentum 10 years ago. Imagine the automotive progress we would have made if only GM had stuck to it's original plans. Now they have to play catch up... If you think about it, it's taken 100 years for the EV to evolve from its original design in the early 1900's to what we have today (with xx billion gas cars filling the gap). I can only imagine what these current small steps in the EV evolution will result in the next 100 years. I can't wait to get my LEAF, and I plan to keep it for life!