Keith, you said: "... you'd
Keith, you said: "... you'd have to concede that the Leaf does not have the quality to match its price tag."
I would never concede that! If you will go back and re-read my post, I described several attributes of an EV that I value. No gas car has these attributes. The price of the LEAF, even before the incentives, is one I would pay gladly. Getting the $12,500 in incentives was icing on the cake.
A good way to look at it is to consider each attribute alone and then place a value to it based on cents per gallon.
Driving a car that does not pollute. That's a characteristic of EVs that no gas car will ever have. How much is that worth to you? 1 penny per gallon, 10 cents, 50 cents?
An EV uses domestic energy over which we never have to fight wars. No dead soldiers associated with my driving. That's got to be worth something to you. 1 penny, 10 cents or 50 cents or more?
Being able to generate energy to drive your car from sunlight falling on your roof. How much is that worth to you? I value this quite a bit.
So, if you take all these values, and there are many more, then add that to the price of gas at your station, then you can run the numbers and calculate the operational cost of driving an ICE. That's how I do it and it's why I am willing to pay a higher price for a well built EV. I am saddened that more Americans aren't running the same calculations when shopping for a car.