Really interesting discussion everyone. Learned a bunch of stuff. Thank you for that.
As I am approaching retirement, and own several cars that are getting on in years as well (a temporary extravagance - there's a certain amount of "it's now or never" going on in our lives after now 10 years of serious medical issues cramping our life-styles, long story), I've been watching the car market with an eye towards understanding our options when we downsize for a fixed income.
In my signature you see we own very different cars - right tool for the job kind of mindset here. I don't know that we'll keep the Leaf much longer, I've been waiting to see how the J3400 charge standard gets adopted. As things stand, I'd prolly buy an EV6 or something like it, but I'd prefer something closer to the Leaf in size and price. For the moment, I don't see a better alternative, and the Leaf has been holding up well.
For a second vehicle, I've been thinking possibly something like a RAV4 Prime. Our Audi is also our tow vehicle, so we wouldn't make that move until we also sell our camper. The roadster will go when it gets cranky and begins costing us maintenance. It's just a fair weather fun car. We've put just 8k miles in 7 years on it (purchased used).
As to our carbon footprint, we've been pursuing more recently a reduction in our home - although we still heat with gas, we now have enough solar to more than meet our needs and just added a whole-house battery for backup. We have also participated in our local wind source program for going on 30 years, basically since we bought our first house. Our house is also far better insulated than most, which rather drastically reduces heating and cooling needs.
