IMO, all of these green cars are only varying degrees of dufus looking. The Prius (and Insight) remains one of the dorkiest looking cars on the road even in its latest form. In other words it's not about the styling here (so save us all your fishy pictures), it's about the technology and this seems to be Nissan living up to the promise it made several years ago to have an EV ready for public consumption by 2010.

 

i think the prius has grown on a lot of people. its not really 'ugly' anymore

 

Well it is ugly but if its around the mid 20's then id seriously look at buying one to replace the 250. The interior looks pretty cool too. Its only a 100 miles but whatever it takes so I can stop sending my money to those saudi princes' then Im all for it!

 

Yeah, I like seeing the new ones.

 

Well I guess that's as close to a compliment as you can get with it. It's... not ugly.

But, like I said, these cars are not about style. They're about tech advancement and efficiency.

 

I think the crazy style is what hybrid owners seem to want, thus its looks. I much prefer it look like this than a knock-off Prius like the Insight does.

 

The Insight (both first and second generations) is a wrong-headed approach to what the market wants. Toyota delivered the goods.

 

wow this is really impressive! the electric car era will officially begin in 2012, many cars will go on sale. This will force toyota, gm, honda to stop dicking around with hybrids and go all out with a 100% EV. 100 miles on a charge being the starting point: )

There also were news about Eestor recently. Apparently they had a leaked phone call where the CEO talked about the super secretive super-capasitor program they have that can run a car on a full charge for hundreds of miles, rechard in minutes, and have endless recharge cycles for the capasitor. Waaay better than batteries. Will they hit the market soon? When they do, combustion engines are HISTORY. Period.

 

I dont mind the styling. I do like the interior.

I live in the middle of a major city and I still cant justify purchasing one (even if priced at 20K). I would still need a second car as I do venture outside of the city as well. If I literally stayed in the city all the time, then for me it would make sense.

I do like the fact that they will be offering it though.

 

great post.

and those who have an electric and another vehicle are then also paying tax, registration and insurance twice too.

you buy a green car usually for conscience, not savings.

today's gasoline only cars 'pollute' 95% less than cars just 30 years ago, so i personally don't see a compelling reason to buy a hybrid except for better fuel economy if you're thinking of switching vehicles anyway.

 

I've read on this vehicle some more and it really has my curiosity. 100 miles to a charge is more than enough and you can plug it in somewhere (work) to recharge. An optional super charger (lol) will give it 80% power in 20-30 minutes or so....

What the carmakers should be told to do is list the kilowatt charge it would cost every month with average use. In other words instead of MPG (irrelevant with an electric car) they should simply tell someone how much kilowatts it will use charged at home for 30 days under "average" use.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about all these electric cars. On one hand the car itself is good for the environment because they dont burn gas and pollute the air. However, if everyone needs to charge their cars that puts a demand on electricity which is largely generated by burning fuels then you can factor in the prices of electricity will most likely increase so it makes me wonder what the real net benefit is...

 

even if the power is generated from coal burning powerplants, the emissions are still less than equivalent gasoline burning vehicles.....plus solar is getting more and more efficient.

 

how do you know this?

good luck re-charging a car with solar at night.

 

It certainly is cheaper
I don't know much about clean coal and how clean it actually is. But I think you are on to something here. That being said, we buy are eletricity from a green energy company. The more people that do that, the more resources they have to expand.