Nissan Leaf vs Chevy Volt

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prius

Active member
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Aug 12, 2009
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Excerpt taken from:
http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/13/nissan-leaf-vs-chevy-volt-challenge-deluxe-edition/

We were talking with some green car advocates recently who proposed the following scenario: what if Nissan is able to sell the LEAF and a standard ICE vehicle for the same price as GM ends up selling the Chevy Volt for? Wouldn't that be one heck of an advertising campaign?

There are the two main problems with our little scenario: we don't have any official pricing numbers for the Volt or the LEAF. Right now, all we have are guesses. For the Volt, we've heard that the price would be somewhere between $40,000 and $45,000.... Still, if we think that the LEAF could be $15,000 cheaper than the Volt, there is a possibility that you could buy a LEAF for your daily driver and then pick up a Versa (starting price $9,990) for when you want to go on longer trips.

Other things to consider:

The environmental impact of producing two vehicles is quite a bit more than just one.
What if either company decides to offer the batteries, the most expensive part of these cars, for lease instead of purchase?
Insuring two vehicles doesn't look good compared to insuring just one, does it?
It'd probably be more economical to just rent the ICE car when it's time to go on a road trip.
 
Sure, maybe your first purchase price is less for the 2 vehicles, but what about the other costs on 2 vehicles vs one?

Maintenance and upkeep?
Insurance?
Parking?
Most people that are buying an EV will be people living in big cities, without long commutes, and without much parking space!
 
Yes, insurance costs would be higher for the Nissan Leaf and a second car vs just one chevy volt, but maybe people would use the leaf most of the year, and then during the warm summer months (or whenever they decide to vacation and go on road trips) they could insure the Nissan Versa for the long-range necessary on road trips.

And in theory, the maintenance and upkeep won't be twice as much, because the milage on the Nissan Leaf will only go up half as fast, so your oil changes etc only happen half as fast, cutting your maintenance fees in half essentially.
 
The volt appears to be an all-around vehicle that the average person could see themselves driving, where as the Nissan Leaf is for electric vehicle enthusiasts???

How many times have you forgotten to plug in your cell phone to charge it overnight? Are you going to remember to plug in your vehicle every day, or are you going to be taking lots of sick days because you can't get to work?
 
How many times have you run out of gas in your car? It's funny how aware you are of that.... why would plugging in be any different?

I think that's a better comparison than plugging in the Leaf is like plugging in a cell phone.
 
I agree.

Once people start drivving the Nissan Leaf, or other electric cars for that matter, plugging in a destination (or at home) will become second nature. There's no reason the cars couldnt have charging reminders when you take the key out... 'Plug me in' (in creepy robot voice haha)

They drive like cars, look like cars, and fun on fuel like cars... the fuel is just electrons
 
Recently, vice chairperson of marketing Bob Lutz indicated that nearly 50,000 consumers have registered at GM’s website, indicating a “strong intention” to buy the plug-in hybrid vehicle,while Bob Kruse, GM’s top electric car exec and Chevy Volt pointman, steps down.

Why? This makes no sense... how about take taxpayers money for a bailout, and then go the exact opposite of what consumer (aka taxpayer) interest shows?
 
At what point are hybrid cars not good anymore? Fuel prices are creeping up again, maybe Chevy is concerned that if fuel prices continue to rise, it won't matter if you can get 100MPG out of a car... it will still cost more than it would to charge up a fully electric car?
 
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