This Will Be a Gut-Check For Folks Who Want To Feel Good -- Paying More For Electric Vehicles

The price of an "average" car has dropped this year, to slightly below $20,000.

But not so for electric vehicles: they're going to get much more expensive, especially in California.

The state has run out of the $5,000 rebates it was giving people who purchased all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster.

That's on top of a price increase for the Nissan Leaf. The automaker said this week that it would raise the price of the base model when the 2012 cars come out this fall by $2,420 to $36,050, including destination charge. The higher-trim-level Leaf SL will go up $3,530 to $38,100, including destination charge.

This is nothing new, but it was printed March 25, 2011, with updated data.