If you're that careful with the gas pedal your battery is going to love you for a long time and your electricity usage will go through the floor. I spend less than 20% on electricity than I used to spend on gas.

A taxi company guy I spoke to swears by 2nd generation Nissan Leaf cars, says it's saved him a ton of money.

There's a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt sown about electric cars, mainly by people who don't have any experience of them whatsoever and the petrochemical industry.

Manufacturers aren't super keen either, because unless they make their own batteries, a big part of the cost and profit of the car is outsourced and they don't get a lot of income from maintenance because there's just not a lot to go wrong with the actual driving bits of an electric car and so they're left with minor things like aircon to service.