Comparing Nissan Versa and Nissan Leaf

I recently read a comment that compared Nissan's Versa with an internal combustion engine to Nissan's all electric Leaf.  The cars are similar except for the difference in engine. The commenter did an economic analysis to compare the two cars. He looked at cost of vehicles and cost per mile. 

If you work out the numbers you find that a Nissan Leaf costs much less per mile because it uses so much less energy per mile. 

If you are driving 50 miles a day, then it will cost $1.50 to charge the Leaf's battery each night. 365 days x $1.50 = $547 per year

The Versa actually gets about 26 mpg according to Consumer Guide. Driving 50 miles a day at 26 mpg means you'll use 692 gallons of gas a year. At $2.75 per gallon, that works out to $1904 per year.

So driving a Leaf will save you $1357 a year – assuming gas prices stay at $2.75 for the next 6 years…

But that's really not the most important point, is it? – Because we're not counting the true cost of driving a gas powered car with these calculations. Those costs include keeping troops overseas to maintain our oil supply, breathing dirtier air, and climate change.

The payback is immediate for driving an electric car, because it is using so much less energy. Treehugger reports getting 5.1 miles per kWh in their test drive of the Leaf. 

If you convert the Versa's mileage of 26 miles per gallon into the same units it would be the equivalent of 1.4 miles per kWh. That means that a Leaf drives 3.6 times the distance of a Versa on the same amount of energy or the equivalent of 94 miles on a gallon of gas. 

That's priceless.