Bob,

Her issue is not with the FE aspect, but the fact that the plasmacluster WILL kill her husband.

I think the plasmacluster is active even with the a/c off. There is still a small amount of airflow through the vents with the entire system turned off, and even then you will probably want to have the vent on getting fresh outside air.

As for the nissan relability, I don't know. The technology was obtained from Toyota, so it should be rock solid. heck, even the frist generation prius was/is very reliable. The hybrids have proven to be better for reliability than the ice only cars with transmissions. The transmission in a car is the most problematic component they have.