. . . Baccus called the Fiat 500e "a great car" that he "really enjoyed driving," one that made it a pleasure to drive every day. But, he admitted, "it wasn't a car for everyone"—in particular his spouse, who simply didn't like riding in it. He wanted a bigger car that was still an alternative-fuel vehicle, and he was ready for one that wasn't 100-percent electric. . . .
Last June, when he moved from a house with off-street parking to a rented condo, the building owner wasn't open to installing an electric-car charging station. While he has access to a charging station at work, it's shared with others. "On some days," he said, "I'd have to email a coworker to ask when they were done charging to let me know. . . ."
Also, running costs in pricey Southern California always matter. Baccus built a spreadsheet of monthly costs for alternative green cars, from a high-fuel-efficiency conventional Honda Civic through hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and hydrogen fuel-cell cars. The top two cars for lowest costs per month were the Toyota Mirai ($406) and Honda Clarity Fuel Cell ($410), against the $416 for the basic Civic sedan and a whopping $530 for an Audi A3 e-tron plug-in hybrid hatchback.
"The deals on the Honda Clarity and Toyota Mirai were just too good to pass up," Baccus said, "plus I wanted to try hydrogen and see how that would go."
Plug-in hybrids, he explained, were less practical choices because they would suffer from the same lack of access to charging as a battery-electric vehicle would. Baccus said he chose the Clarity Fuel Cell over the Mirai because he liked the Clarity's looks, and especially its interior design, better. . . .
The $369 monthly lease includes not only the fuel allowance but all maintenance, a very competitive price for a premium mid-size sedan with numerous luxury features. With fuel free for all the miles he expects to cover and California's $5,000 clean-car rebate, Baccus calculated, his overall monthly cost for the hydrogen Clarity came in lower than a $169 monthly lease on a Honda Civic compact sedan.
Fueling up isn't an issue: "I have one station next to my kids’ school that I pass every morning," he said, "and another across from my work. . . ."
It's full of technology the Fiat didn't have, but drives "like an pure electric—quiet with a lot of instant power—that has with better range." And, he said, it eliminates the need for his family to have access to a charging station at home.