June 30 - Prepare to Prepare

If you purchase, you get the tax credit from the federal government, assuming you qualify. Purchasers do not get the tax credit from Nissan. But since you get to subtract $7,500 from your tax bill (assuming your total federal income tax is that much or more) it effectively reduces the price.

Nissan gives you the $7,500 reduction in price if you lease because in that case, Nissan is the purchaser, and gets the credit, and passes the benefit along to you.

Note that when you calculate total cost of ownership per mile, the Prius fares better than any other gasoline vehicle because its cost per mile for gasoline is less. The Leaf benefits twice: once because electricity (in most places) is cheaper than gasoline, and because an EV has almost no maintenance. I just had my maintenance done on my Zap Xebra for the first time in a year or two: A few squirts of grease in the front (aftermarket) suspension, and open the brake-fluid reservoir to check the level. The mechanic didn't even charge me! Compare that to oil changes every 5,000 miles.

An electric motor is extremely simple and so statistically has virtually no need for repairs compared to an ICE, and an EV can be designed without a transmission, which is a high-repair-cost item in most gasoline cars (Prius excepted).

No oil changes, no tune-ups, no timing belt, no transmission repairs, no valve jobs or head gasket or injectors or spark plugs; none of that mind-boggling complexity of internal combustion engines. Just some coils of wire.

An EV wins every way you look at it as long as you don't need to drive beyond its range; and even that limitation will disappear as fast-charging infrastructure is built.

 

How do you go from $25k to $40k for Leaf ? EVSE is only 1,100 after credit (and can be skipped alltogether).

Sales tax & finance apply equally to Prius & Leaf.

 

that would be correct, i wont pay sales tax (hopefully) for either one!!

 

Note that it is unlikely that we'll know, at the time of ordering the car, whether it will arrive in time to get the WA state sales tax exemption. Best-case scenario is that it will. But there are no guarantees. And I'd be surprised if dealers, who have no control over delivery, will make any promises.

 

yes there is not assurances in life and i hope that the biggest reason that WA and CA were part of the initial launch ares was because of the tax incentives that are time sensitive.

without knowing the true # of of preorders and their locations, it is a crap shoot and i only hope that info will be made clearer as the date approaches and i fully expect that it will be.

there have been a lot of numbers tossed about how many cars will be available and where and when, but i have always accepted there will be around 1000 per area by December 31st...now maybe that is way off.

but i also feel that, at least for me, i am ok since going by the numbers of around 8,000 ?? or so on the initial sign up frenzy with the bulk in CA. i should have easily been one of the first in WA.

 

If it helps at all, I can tell you precisely how many EV project based orders there were for San Deigo - 866. And that's 4th for the number of orders in the country behind LA, SF, and Seattle.

San Diego gets First LEAFs

 

ok that goes back to what was the original info of 4700 vehicles in the 5 pre release market areas. so i am fairly confident by completing registration on april 20th i would be in the 900 or so.

 

Because, at least as far as the EV Project is concerned, OC is a bastard, red-headed stepchild, left abandoned in a post-communist Romanian orphanage.

 

I read the announcements differently: I believe there will be about 1,000 per market in the initial roll-out, which will BEGIN in December and continue into January and possibly February.

I don't think they ever said the initial roll-out would be completed before the end of the year, but rather that it would start in December.

Of course, you are an optimist, and I am a pessimist.

 

well i dont remember the exact details either and it could be 4700 by 2011 Q1. that would be disastrous. that would fit with the initial production #'s of under 20,000 for the first year.

 

Don't get all excited. Today all we get is a "prepare to prepare to prepare" message:

 

I got the same one as mwalsh today.