You can say what you want about Elon Musk but I've never seen a company get as much free advertisement as Tesla. I have not seen one paid advertisement for Tesla and yet there are 12,000+ pre-orders for the Model S. Each of these customers has put down a $5,000 deposit. Did I mention there's been almost no paid advertising?

Before I piss everyone off let me state that I hope the future has nothing but zero emission vehicles.

Auto manufacturers are building compliance cars because the general public is not fired up about electric cars. The slow sales of the Nissan Leaf is all the proof you need. I would consider purchasing an EV but all of them are $20,000 above my price range. (BTW, I don't qualify for the EV tax credit) I'll just keep driving my hybrid until an affordable EV comes along. The Toyota Prius was in production for a very long time before Toyota finally produced an affordable hybrid, the Prius C.

This is my opinion as an electrical engineer with experience in electrical safety regulations and testing. General Motors requires that a licensed electrician install the charging station. It's not rocket science but it needs to be done correctly. If it's done right it will be as safe as a 240 volt oven or electric furnace. GM may not be your favorite car company but give them some credit for knowing a few things about engineering.

In case people are wondering about the 50 MPG on the highway I'm talking about driving between 65 and 75 MPH without any hypermiling techniques.

I purchased a 2011 Honda Insight about six months ago. I also considered purchasing a Toyota Prius. The Honda dealer offered me $1500 more for my trade-in than the Toyota dealer. Since the MSRP difference is about $4000 I spent $5500 less for the Honda Insight. I admit that the Prius is a better car but $5500 is alot of money. By the way, I routinely get 50 MPG on the highway in my Insight with the air conditioner on high. Yes, the back seat is not roomy for people over 6 feet tall but apparently the author of this article has never seen a Honda Insight in person. It's not a four seat car. It seats five.

I owned a 1995 Honda Civic HB which is on the list of highest MPG mentioned in the article. I averaged 38 MPG but that car was dangerously slow. I had trouble on highway on-ramps accelerating up to the speed of traffic. If the highway on-ramp was uphill I would have to merge with 65 MPH traffic while going 35-40 MPH. I believe Honda designed that car solely to achieve high EPA ratings without regard for driver safety. My 1988 Dodge Omni averaged 34 MPG and accelerated quite well.

Please look at the facts about the LEAF
http://www.plugincars.com/no-active-thermal-management-did-nissan-make-right-call.html
http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2010/09/ford-liquid-coolingheating-is-key-to-electric-vehicle-battery-thermal-management/
If you want a quality EV you need to buy American.

The Chevrolet Volt creates jobs for Americans. I know it's old-fashioned to care about American jobs but I can dream that it might catch on some day.

EV enthusiast,
It sounds like you are one of those people who fell for the conspiracy theory in Who Killed the Electric Car? Don't get me wrong. I am all in favor of electric cars but anyone who knows anything about EV's knows that battery technology was the limiting factor until just recently. I have a feeling you are getting all enraged right now because Chris Paine convinced you in his film that oil companies are suppressing nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery technology. Really??? In the same film there are hybrid cars shown. Hybrids use NiMH batteries. It's amazing how WKTEC? got away with that enormous contradiction.

I lot of EV enthusiast are critical of the MPGe concept. I think it's a good way to educate the average non-technical consumer. When the average consumer sees that the Volt gets the equivalent of 93 MPG they will understand that EV's are very efficient. Another way the new sticker will educate the average consumer is the your-mileage-may-vary box in the lower right corner of the sticker. I'll bet GM lobbied hard to get the EPA to include this on the label. I have only one minor nit-pick about the label. The gasoline only mileage is a combined city/highway number. The big selling point of the Volt is that you can take it on a long trip. Long trips take placed on highways where the Volt is projected to get 40 MPG.