Electric Cars - The Nissan Leaf

I love everything about a good old gasoline powered engine. The sound of the exhaust, the feeling of knowing that your`re moving forward as a result of combustion... It's a truly great feeling.

Combine the fear of global warming and the knowledge that our most precious natural resource, petrolium, is expendable, and we wind up with a new breed of automobile - the Electric car.

Nissan's answer to the electric car is the Leaf, which many of you have probably heard of. It's fully electric, and is on Nissan's 2011 line-up! My first thought was that this car is ugly as shit, and that electric cars are garbage. In the interest of not being an uninformed idiot making unreasonable assumptions, I decided to do some research on the Leaf.

First of all, statistics show that 90% of Americans drive less than 100 miles per day. The range for this car in the city is between 65 and 70 miles, but can be as high as 100 miles when using the regenerative braking feature to its full extent, and using the power consumption mode on the car's computer.

Now the question that's on everyones mind - how much does it cost to charge this thing?

The answer: about $3.84 for a full charge! Jesus Christ, right? I thought I was saving money by buying a 4-cylinder, but I guess not.

On top of all this, I wonder what it would be like to drive a virtually-silent car. What do you guys think about the Nissan Leaf? With a price-tag of about $25,000 USD, after a $7500 enviro-refund, would you consider buying one?