Nissan Leaf electric car compared to a Golf TDI clean diesel

I saw an interesting video that is making some wave on the internet and I wondered if I would buy this type of car?  Would it be practical, what would be the pros and cons?

First the video. I hate those kind of video that manipulate your sense of responsibility.


So, does it really help saving the planet to buy those cars?

Let see the numbers side by side between a TDI and LEAF. Disclosure: I own a Jetta TDI and love it.



So in the end, will it save the planet?
You have to consider that the total cost is more for a Leaf for 160,000 km. Since the impact on the environment is proportional to the total cost of a system it make sense to say that the impact of the Leaf will be greater.  You also need to consider the impact of building those batteries and disposing them after at the end of their life.

Personally I would still buy TDI today.  I hope that this will change with the following improvements:

• Better batteries, based on carbon nano-tubes and ultra-capacitor
• Faster charging time
• Longer autonomy on a charge

UPDATES:

• While commuting the other day with a friend to work, it came to mind that the best way to save gas, money, the environment and many other things is to car pool. In my case, I have cut in half my travel expense by car pooling.  On top of that, I have a friend to talk about the challenges we face as a race.

• I stumble upon this article that list all the "rare" elements that goes in the construction of a hybrid car.  We love our gadgets, but all those elements need to be mined, extracted, refined, used and after the live of the car, recycled of disposed of.  All this mean cost and an impact on nature if not done properly.  We have to understand that while technologies are good, the more complexity you put in a system, most of the time it means more energy expense attached to it.