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#2. Other electric alternatives could be a better fit for many buyers.
For the most part, electric cars are still foreign to U.S. buyers, though the fortwo electric drive is hardly consumers’ only choice. Before smart’s juiced model hits our streets with any volume in 2012, shoppers will have access to Chevy’s Volt and, quite possibly, Toyota’s Prius plug-in variant.
And then there’s the Nissan LEAF, an electric car available later this year with an incentivized price in the mid $20,000s and leases starting at $349 per month. As smart executives pointed out, the Leaf – which is more affordable, more versatile, and, with a 100-mile range, more capable – has been engineered to meet a broad swath of needs, whereas the fortwo electric drive is geared specifically to commuters.
That makes the smart a reasonable solution for some, but for those of us who demand that our cars be as proficient at multi-tasking as we are, examples like the Nissan Leaf make more sense.