Buying an electric car

This is a guest post is a venture capitalist David Cowan. David recently purchased a Nissan leaf after the car is less than two years.

After 3.5 years I finally reunited community car owners.

Since February 2008 and last week I had a car less. I borrowed and rented cars, taxis and cars and occasionally biked. I am also bummed many attractions (thank you-you know who you are). It started when expired warranty on my fantasy of the German Gas Guzzler; I sold the thing and really never took the time to shop around for a replacement – who has time for that?

I felt much more excited about the prospect of driving electric sedan to be greener, faster, easier and cheaper fuel. The most important thing I would never kill ten minutes, stopping at a gas – who has time for that? So I put my name in the lists for the Tesla model S, Fisker Karma, Nissan leaf or Chevy Volt decided to wait for one to be built. Three years later, I got calls from Fisker, Nissan and Chevy, and it's time to take a decision.

After examining the options and driving, it was fairly easy to buy sheet for these eight reasons:

1. compared with other, leaf gets twice the range of the battery charge: 100 miles, or 85 miles from AC engine. (Connect car and adds about 15 seconds in a day in your everyday life, or 5 minutes per month – about half the time we spend on gas pumps).

2. from a purely motor (not hybrid petrol engine) worksheet is nimbler, less fragile, and legal to drive in California carpool lanes so I can bypass traffic jams Highway 101 – WHTFT?

3. Driving in electric mode (without the aid of a hybrid gasoline engine) is surprisingly quiet and smooth (not transfer). Even at 80 miles per hour acceleration is immediate and impressive.

4 Sheet sends as smoothly as the Lexus, and small wheels turn on a dime.

5. only sheet has an open, comfortable seats with ample leg room, head to the front and back (optional, if you have children)

6. only sheet transports 5 passengers (optional, if you have three kids)!

7 sheet is the largest of the trunk and rear fold down for more cargo space.

8. final expenditure 3/4 as much as the Volt and 1/3 as much as Karma. You will receive at least $ 7500 in tax benefits, offset by the cost of $ 220 volt 2.000 home docking station.

These reasons explain why the Nissan leaf now outsells package. I can think of only three good reasons why you can buy one of the other cars:

1 sheet of clean electric motor is not a problem for the two car families in this rare day once a month, when you drive more than 100 miles, you can always use a gas Guzzler instead (Honda Odysseys are awesome). But without this backup one car household will find volts more practical (though expensive and cramped).

2. If you love driving massive, heavy sports car that sit low to the ground and you've got $ 100 k to burn (as these guys), then you may prefer a gorgeous design of Karma. It has the appearance and luxury car muscle with growling engine, bucket seats and a beautiful wood/leather interiors. (A worksheet is all plastic). Having said that, Karma is like a sports car at lower speeds, but on the highway I found it quite slow compared to the worksheet. Karma processed Highway acceleration almost as sheet only when in quiet mode, which means that the petrol engine is turned off. (You may be disappointed, as I was to learn that people can still see you in quiet mode).

3. Stephen Colbert will tease you for driving sheet.

All three machines are chock full of gizmos we all love (rear view camera, keyless entry, navigation system, XM Radio, Bluetooth, heated seats, ...), so there is no reason to stick with petrol. Sheet even comes with a cool iPhone app for remote control battery charger and climate control.

So I'm zipping around in my leaves for a week now and absolutely love it. Even after three years he was worth the wait.

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