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The Neuton 6.2 battery powered mower is the most expensive in its class, but we think it might just be worth it. We spent the weekend with the little fella and he did a great job! To our surprise, it worked exactly as advertised and then some. On our half acre lot, it cut the entire yard without hesitation. We bagged the front clippings and set the height on 3. We realized that might have been shorter than we normally mow. In the back we mulched with the height set to 4. All in all it absolutely worked beautifully. Features of the Neuton 6.2: 1. Lightweight - At 69 lbs, it is very light compared to a conventional mower. Definitely makes up for not being motorized, don't really miss that feature from my gas powered mower. The larger rear wheel makes a nice pivot point ensuring easy to turn. 2. Easy To Start - I remember many a day breaking a sweat simply trying to start my gas mower. The ability to simply squeeze the handle makes it nice for stopping to pick up something in front of your path and will make it very easy for my wife to operate.
3. Quiet - After my neighbor finished laughing at me for buying a "toy mower" and seeing it in action, he gave me some kind words about how quiet it was. He was gardening while I was mowing and mentioned he "didn't even realize I was mowing my grass". Its a little louder than an electric weed eater... 4. No Gas! - Didn't have to go fill my gas can and hope it didn't spill in the trunk. No worry about gas in the garage with our small children. 5. No Fumes in My Face - Didn't once smell exhaust while mowing. 6. 60 day trial period made me feel much more comfortable forking over the higher price tag. Drawbacks of the Neuton 6.2: 1. Price - Ouch! Priced at $479, this mower is about $70 more than the Remington its nearest competitor. 2. Its mostly plastic - Although lightweight it is mostly plastic and will be interesting to see how long those components last. It is very well designed and I anticipate durability was factored into that design. One of the main reasons we went with this mower was their experience with the first generations of Neuton Mowers. Their customers seemed to be very happy with them. 3. Components if not whole thing made in Taiwan - I couldn't find exactly where the entire unit was manufatctured but most of the components were made in Taiwan. 4. Lead Acid Battery - Making batteries is a very energy intensive process and I assume future retrofit batteries will be made with better and cleaner technology. 5. Had to wait - After clicking "Order" on their website, the mower took roughly 4 weeks to arrive. Before I ordered they did tell me it was on back order and would take that long. I would assume this is no longer an issue. Overall Conclusion: We have currently only used it once, but energyQue puts its seal of approval on this product. We feel it is the next generation of lawn care for the energy conscious. It completely suits our needs and purchasing one of these contributes to fueling the next, cleaner technology for keeping up with the Jone's. The design takes us back to our hotwheel days as a young kids. We knew that if we were going to roll in the yard with a battery operated mower, it better damn well look cool. For questions about our experience with the battery powered mower, please use the comment section below so that others may benefit. Other Battery Powered Options:  1. The Remington Power Mower priced at $399.95 features a weight of 60 lbs, 60 volts and 60 minutes of mowing. It includes a mulching plug, grass catcher bag and a water bottle? There is an additional battery available for $109.99 if the 17 inch wide blade won't cut your yard in 60 minutes. This particular mower also features a "powerboost mode" in case your in some thick grass or your battery just couldn't hack it. We were torn between the Remington and the Neuton but ultimately chose the Neuton 6.2 over its rival because of the Neuton's 19 inch width and it just looks so much cooler. We think with the lower price point and optional plug in feature will definately give Neuton a run for its money. Also this mower was readily available to purchase right off the shelf in our local hardware store. Because of the long lead time of the Neuton we had to borrow our neighbors gas mower 3 times before it was delivered.  2. The Earthwise 20 inch Cordless Lawnmower is priced at $349.99 with a whopping weight of 97 lbs, 24 volts and an estimated cutting time of 45 minutes. This mower looks the most like a regular lawn mower with a bagging option, side discharge and a mulching option. It has an easy to see and use one handle action for raising and lowering the overall cutting height. We would have been happy with this mower except it looked too much like a regular mower. That may be a dumb reason to pick one mower over another, but design was an important factor. We wanted something that looked like the next generation and shouted that it was different. Also I was concerned about the weight of the Earthwise since it was not going to be self propelled.  3. The Black and Decker LawnHog is priced at $229.99 has a weight of 61 lbs, 24 volts and an estimated cutting endurance of 1/3 of an acre. This model has a 19" cutting width and looks to be the easiest to store vertically after folded up. It is certainly is the most economical of all four but also probably the least sexy. Why Go Electric? The main issues with the gasoline mowers are air pollution and safety. A 2001 study showed that such a mower emits the same amount of pollution (emissions other than carbon dioxide) in one hour as driving a 1992 model car for 650 miles. Another estimate puts the amount of pollution from a lawn mower at four times the amount from a car, per hour. This is largely due to the lack of any emissions equipment on most lawn mowers; cars have had catalytic converters, fuel injection, and other emissions-control devices for decades, while most mowers have little more than a simple muffler and carburetor. Their single-cylinder engines also need to run with a richer fuel-air mixture because of the irregular flow through the carburetor, leading to incomplete combustion. This is true of all small gasoline engines; the United States Environmental Protection Agency reports, for example, that "recreational watercraft can emit as much as 348 cars". In addition to air pollution, the EPA states that 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled each year while refueling lawn equipment. That is more than all the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez, in the Gulf of Alaska. Oil spills contaminate groundwater as well as evaporate into the air making smog-forming ozone when heated by sunlight. July 5th 2008 Update: We have now had the mower for a full month and are very happy with its performance.We typically take the battery out and set it on the toolbox for charging but could probably simply plug it in if we rearranged a few things in the garage. Nothing has fallen off or broken yet and it cuts just as well as when it came out of the box. The striper we ordered with the unit finally arrived last week and really makes a nice difference in the way the yard looks after being cut. Filling the cylindrical tube with sand was not an easy task at first. We had to dry out some sand by setting in the sun for a full day. Once the sand was dry we made a cardboard funnel from an old cereal box, then poured the sand in. The striper only makes it mildly more difficult to push and really is worth the effort. My wife really likes to mow the grass now and brags about it to the neighbors. I've noticed a shift in my neighbors attitudes about the mower. At first there was laughter, but now they see that it really works and with addition of the striper, is starting to rival their lawns... Vindication is a beautiful thing! August 10th Update: We have had the mower now for 2 full months and are still pleased with its performance. on our half acre lot, the mower will cut the entire yard on one charge, however it is on its last breath towards the end. The manufacturers instructions recommend not to push the mower to its limits, so we have worked out a nice alternating rythm of cutting the front first and then the back later on or the following day.  For our purposes, I don't see the value in purchasing another battery at this time. My wife likes to cut the front towards the end of the week and I get the back on the weekend. We have been using the bag and it works great, comparable to any other mower. I cannot stress how nice it is to simply let go of the handle and then to just grasp again to start. This really makes bagging much easier overall. I have included an under carriage image so you can see what it looks like after 2 months use. (It was nice to just take the battery out and turn it over without worry of gas spilling out). So far it is holding up to our mole hill backyard pretty well. I use it to mulch the cicada damaged tree branches laying on the grass and it has held up pretty good. Overall, we are still very pleased with its performance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_mower
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The previous CMM1000 was similar but had the charging circuit on the mower. Black and Decker wisely moved the charging circuit to a wall unit rather than just using a wall wart. This means that if the charging circuit fails, you can buy an inexpensive replacement rather than sending in a mower for repair.
The price was $399 not the price quoted in the article, the price you quoted is for a corded similar model.