Well the green part is an interesting debate. Sure they produce less emissions while running the real pollution issue is disposing of the batteries afterwards. Lead acid car batteries are currently recycled and the lead is used in making new car batteries, unfortunately lead acid batteries weigh too much and don't hold enough power to be effectively used on a massive scale for most cars. More of the energy from gas goes to wasted heat through the exhaust or through the radiator then actually goes to rotational power to make the car move. Then there is the energy from gas that goes directly towards friction and wearing the engine out. Electric motors have both wasted heat and friction but at a substantially reduced levels. In addition electric motors are in their peak efficiency range during their entire operating range, where gas motors have sweet spots where they produce the most power per unit of gas. These sweet spots are why gas engine technologies such as variable cam timing, variable compression ratio, and vtec have been used. Plus producing power on a massive scale is often, not always, more efficient then on a micro scale. Massive scale being power plant as an example and micro scale being a small portable generator as an example. Anyway the point is the cost savings are realized through the efficiency of mass energy production and the substantial reduction is energy being wasted in the forms of friction and heat out the tailpipe and through the radiator. A gallon of gas here costs $4 as of 8/6/11, I drive in the city and might be able to go 21-23 miles on the gallon. In other words it costs me $4 in gas to go about 22 miles. People who have nissan leafs or who have converted the gas cars to electric don't pay nearly that much per mile. A full charge on a nissan leaf is about $2 to $4 depending on the utility rates and they claim to go 100 miles on a charge, reality is more like 70 miles. So that $0.057 per mile at the $4 per full charge and $0.028 per mile at the $2 per mile charge. Those costs per mile vs the $0.18 per mile I pay in my aveo getting to work. That means my commute could be 3 to 6 times cheaper in a leaf then my aveo. Plus no oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, spark plug wires, timing belts, oil, ect as maintenance. Plus there are less parts overall to go bad like O2 sensors, cats, gaskets & seals, ignition coils, ect. There will be different maintenance items and parts, but the over all cost to repair and maintain should be less. If I could buy an new electric car, comparable to the leaf, for the price of a new civic, corolla, or aveo I would.