Does A Green Vehicle Have To Be More Expensive?

Can A Green Vehicle Save You Some Green?

 I had a discussion with a friend of mine the other day and he told me the story about how he bought the new Chevy Volt hybrid gas electric vehicle. Now this is a person who lives a sort of green lifestyle. What do I mean by that? Well he has cards on his washer and dryer telling the kids at what hours of the day they can wash clothes simply because it's cheaper. So, this friend of mine doesn't live a green lifestyle because he wants to save the earth and get rid of gas guzzlers but simply to save money. So he leased a Chevy Volt hybrid vehicle. Why lease the Chevy Volt I asked well for him the numbers simply worked better. The Volt lease was about $270.00 a month for three years. 
     What really convinced him though was his daily commute from Salinas Ca to Monterey Ca is about 24 miles and in his vehicle that currently gets 18 miles to the gallon that works out to be 48 miles round trip and costs him $10.66 a day round trip to get from home to work. That is 213.00 a month in fuel costs alone that he spends with his current vehicle. So he replaced his current vehicle with the Chevy Volt. So I was asking him well how much fuel do you use in the Volt and he told me that the Volt goes about 40 miles on electric if you charge it up which he does at work for free and at home for a small cost. So basically he is still on his first tank of gas. 
     So, there has to be a downside to all of this. He tells me that there are some downsides mainly that the volt while running on the battery if you use the heater it really eats through the battery so he tries to just use the seat warmers unless his kids are in the car. One of the other downsides is that in a gas vehicle he hates getting gas and with the Volt it's like getting gas every time you stop you need to plug in versus every week you need to get gas. But other than that he is very happy with his choice. Is this something you would think about? 
 2011 Chevrolet Volt - NRMA Drivers Seat, a photo by NRMA New Cars on Flickr.