My thanks go to Greg Dennis for his piece on electric vehicles (EV’s) in the Addison Independent from Nov. 8. EV’s are the cars of the future and no day goes by without seeing a Tesla, some Nissan LEAFs, or a Chevy Bolt  driving around Middlebury. Yet the technology is not quite there yet for EV’s to fully replace internal combustion cars. An EV, however, is the perfect second car for most two-car households already today.
Our family is on its second Nissan LEAF, a car we use for getting around locally as well as for trips to Burlington and back without recharging or even causing range anxiety. “Filling up” (charging) costs far less than taking gas. We have solar panels on our roof and drive the LEAF basically for free, and 100 percent on solar energy.
Like Mr. Dennis, we lease our EV — which is  easy since we do not pay for gas, oil changes, fan belt replacements, etc. Within three years, technology will again have made a giant leap forward, and we’ll be ready for the upgrade.
Save money and help save the planet — every household’s second car should be an EV!
Pieter Broucke
Middlebury