Some 18% of the population lives in regions with a comparatively dirty power supply, where the well-to-wheels carbon footprint of a Leaf would be the equivalent of a gasoline-engine vehicle rated at 31 to 40 m.p.g. - Mitchell Tsai from Bookmarklet

These are exactly the sorts of numbers I've been looking for for years now! Thank you for posting this article! - Brian Johns

Also, the power consumption figures in that article (like 0.34 kilowatt-hours per mile) is something I haven't know before either. With that, I can calculate a per-mile cost of about 3.4 cents. - Brian Johns

My 2011 Honda Civic costs about 12c/mile (gas only, not including maintenance, annual registration, etc...) It does 32-36 mpg (maybe 20-24 mpg in bad city driving, which I almost never do). There are some articles I read a few years ago which showed that hybrids were not as cost-effective as many high mpg gasoline cars, but FriendFeed search is not finding those old posts anymore. - Mitchell Tsai

[Update - Apparently this report is bad info...] See "How green is a Prius?" [Green Hell Blog - 6/22/09] http://ff.im/UV6ce CNW Marketing rates cars on the combined energy needed “to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose of a vehicle from initial concept to scrappage.” A Prius costs $2.87 per lifetime mile. By comparison, an H3 Hummer costs $2.07 per lifetime mile. Then there will be the problem of disposing of the used batteries. - - Mitchell Tsai

Here' a recent article by a more reliable source. "Payoff For Efficient Cars Takes Years: For Hybrid and Electric Cars to Pay Off, Owners Must Wait" [Nick Bunkley, New York Times - 4/4/12] http://ff.im/UV89N The Lundberg Survey, which tracks fuel prices, said in March that gas prices would need to reach $12.50 a gallon for the Volt to make sense purely on financial terms. It said the Leaf would be competitive with gas at $8.53 a gallon. - Mitchell Tsai

See "Electric Vehicles vs Gasoline Vehicles: A Cost and Emissions Comparison" *edited* [Minnesota Historical Society] http://ff.im/UV9qa If a PHEV uses 35 kwh per 100 miles of travel, and residential electricity costs about $0.11 / kwh, the PHEV costs ~$0.0385/mile. The equivalent cost for a fuel-based vehicle per mile, would mean the vehicle has a 97.4 mpg. - Mitchell Tsai

A PHEV or EV that uses 35 kwh for 100 miles, would produce about 0.2908 kg of CO2e per mile in the Midwest region (using the GHG Protocol's Emissions Standards). This takes into account our region's power plants and the fact that they primarily use natural gas and coal. In comparison to the rest of the country, we are about middle range in terms of emissions produced for electricity. For a standard gasoline vehicle or HEV, the GHG emissions would be 0.3055 kg CO2e per mile - Mitchell Tsai

A PHEVs and EVs can be an investment in anticipation that gasoline prices will continue to rise, and electric vehicle emissions rates will drop if we will continue to add renewable energy to our power grid. Thus, in addition to other factors in purchasing a car (size, color, cup holders, etc), you may also consider that electric vehicles could mean a cost savings per mile travelled, but does not necessarily offer any reduction in our environmental footprint. - Mitchell Tsai