We finally got our electric car!

02 Jun We finally got our electric car!

Well we finally took the leap and got an electric car – a Nissan Leaf! We had been wanting one for the last 5 years, but we had to wait until now. We wanted to be sure our micro hydro system was working smoothly first. That took a couple of years, but now it is humming along and making more electricity than we need to power both Laughing Waters and our house. So we decided now is finally the right time to get an electric car, since now we can charge it from the stream. So last Friday we went to town and picked up our Nissan Leaf. 

We chose the Leaf, since we liked it the best of the all-electric cars in the mid-price range. (The Tesla goes further but is much more expensive). Nissan offers a very affordable lease of only $219/month. Since we have it on a lease, it is only costing us between $25 and $50 more per month than driving our gasoline cars (since we don’t have to pay for oil changes, repairs, tires, or gas).  

It goes 80-100 miles on a charge, so we can easily drive it back and forth to Asheville from our home in Hickory Nut Gorge. Then at night we just plug it into an ordinary wall outlet at home and its ready to go the next morning. We did keep our old car for when we need to take a longer trip. 

For a smaller car, it feels spacious with 4 seats and a hatchback. We find its really fun to drive – very quiet, yet quick and responsive. It accelerates as fast as our gasoline car, but then it recharges whenever we brake or go downhill. One more step in getting away from fossil fuels.