@JohnPhilpin Hmmm, perhaps I oversimplified things. Electric car prices in Canada & the US are greatly distorted by tariffs, and the situation in Europe seems to be in flux, but China is producing good quality cars at aggressive prices. (We can really get into the weeds on subsidies in China!)

In our experience, our Leaf seemed expensive until we saw not only how inexpensive it was per km to run but also how maintenance costs were almost zero! So far (except for the tiny 12V utility battery) it has been extremely reliable.

@JohnPhilpin TCO should be used when comparing electric, hybrid, and gas-powered cars too. Even the pro electric sites sometimes say things like “the gas car [or truck] is much cheaper”. The cheapest cars these days are electric. 

@JohnPhilpin Thanks for posting that. It’s a good article.

Similar questions about who the real customer is apply to a lot of businesses, don’t they? e.g. travel agents and real estate agents (for those that haven’t read it, I recommend Freakonomics).