ATLANTA — It's fall, and the Leafs are turning left and right.
    The handful of plug-in electric car models available here, led by the Nissan Leaf, has come as a bit of a shock to the Atlanta market. They aren't underpowered golf cart-like vehicles, for one thing. The coolest and most expensive plug-in, the Tesla Model S, goes from zero to 60 in, well, it was there before you finished reading this. (For the record: 3.2 seconds.)
    By the end of 2014, 18,000 to 20,000 all-electric cars will be on the road in Georgia. Although that's still a relatively minuscule number, it suggests that the vehicles have passed a big milestone: the market has outgrown the hard-core enthusiasts who would have bought the cars no matter what and now takes in people looking for a good deal.
    And such a deal it is: some people who lease the Nissan Leaf find that, between the state's $5,000 tax credit for electric cars and the savings on gasoline, the monthly cost of the lease comes out roughly to zero. (Fair warning: the tax credit cost the state $13.6 million in 2013 and may be much more expensive in 2014 because of greater sales of electric vehicles; the credit was nearly repealed earlier this year, and a state legislator has it in his sights again for 2015.)
    Leaf buyers tend to be enthusiastic about the cost, the quiet and the total absence of emissions.
    "I absolutely love it," says Leaf driver Karen Hines, who commutes about 18 miles one-way from her home in Tucker to her job downtown. "When my lease is up on this one, I will get another one. No question."
    Hines was driving a grumpy old minivan when she got a new lease on Leaf a year ago.
    "I think my monthly lease payment is probably just a little bit more than the gas I was buying for my van," Hines said. "We got a really great deal. The van was big, didn't have great gas mileage. And I get to travel in the HOV lane all by myself."
    People like Hines have made Atlanta the No. 1 market in the nation for the Nissan Leaf, which is also the nation's No. 1 plug-in electric car. A third of the Leafs sold in the United States are sold here, a Nissan spokesman said, and while the Leaf accounts for about 2 percent of Nissan sales nationwide, it adds up to 25 percent of the automaker's sales in Atlanta.
    The biggest concerns about plug-ins — the range is too limited, the price is too high, charging stations are too few and far between — are still concerns, but there's progress on every front: range for the typical plug-in is now about 80 miles on a charge (265 miles for that supercharged, $70,000 Tesla); the price is steadily coming down for most models; and charging stations are increasing in number.
    Don Francis, the executive director of Clean Cities Georgia, which promotes alternative-fuel vehicles — compressed natural gas, propane, electricity — is both a promoter and a believer.
    "The customer is beginning to see the financial benefits of the vehicle," said Francis, who is driving his second Leaf. "It's very inexpensive to operate. In addition to that, they're finding out that it's a very fun car to drive."
    William Cook, who runs the state's tax credit program for the state Environmental Protection Division, said he has been surprised by the growth in the program this year.
    The state approved 132 tax-credit certificates in 2012, he said. The number jumped to 1,372 in 2013. Through September this year, the total was 4,591.
    He estimated that 90 percent of the plug-in electrics certified are Nissan Leafs. No. 2, though quite a bit lower, is the Tesla. The list then dwindles to a few BMW i3 models, Mitsubishi I-MiEVs, Ford Focus Electrics and SmartCars. And one Toyota Rav4 plug-in, Cook said.
    Cook noted that Georgia's tax credit, which is among the most generous in the nation, is always subject to legislative review. Repealing the $5,000 credit would take a lot of the steam out of the electric-car market in the state.
    This past year, for example, Alpharetta Republican Chuck Martin, who chairs the House Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee, filed a bill that would have repealed the credit, which Martin said was too expensive. The House passed Martin's bill, but it didn't make it through the state Senate.
    Contacted late last week, Martin said he still believes the credit is bad policy and plans to renew his effort to change it during the session that begins in January. In an email, Martin said he hopes a renewed "discussion of the policy could lead to a revision, reduction, or phased elimination of the credit or just sunset at some future time."
    The Nissan Leaf has changed the game in the Atlanta market in at least two ways: first, it comes with the lease that takes advantage of that $5,000 tax credit for zero-emission cars; and second, Nissan builds the cars in Smyrna, Tenn., ensuring a steady supply to meet demand in Atlanta.
    The trick for car dealers is to have enough cars on hand to meet demand for, say, 60 days, but not so many cars that they'll sit on the lot for months. Not long ago, however, you couldn't count Leaf inventory by the month or even the week, Francis said.