It's frustrating to hear all the FUD about EV's out there.

First off, Honda's hybrid system was the worst one out there technologically. The IMA system I thought wasn't the way to go for hybrids and based on most other manufacturers following Toyota's full hybrid system, the market seemed to agree. I've heard of Honda batteries failing, but people are still driving 10 year old plus Priuses.

For my Leaf, I may have to replace the battery after 8 years (the warranty is 8 years/160k for a certain level of degradation). In that time, I save over 32 oil changes (at one every 5000 km). At a cost of $50 each (which is pretty basic and doesn't include a lot of the other maintenance that they do), there's $1600 of the $3 - 5 k I was quoted on a battery - and 8 years from now with the cost dropping, it may even be less).

With fuel and other maintenance savings, HOV land access, 4 years of free overnight charging, I'll save more than enough to replace the battery a decade from now.