Nissan Turns New Leaf With Full-Service, 100-Mile, 5-Seat, "Affordable" EV
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
YOKHAMA, Japan -- Nissan unveiled its new EV today and while the car looks pretty good, the name could use some work.
It's the LEAF (Nissan's uppercase, not ours), a name, the company says, that signifies the battery-electric five-seater's ability to mimic leaves, which purify the air, by "taking emissions out of the driving experience" and thus "purifying mobility."
Ah well, they may need better copy writers, but Nissan did hand us a pretty sharp car.
And in what the automaker hopes is a prophetic pairing, the new electric car was unveiled as part of the grand opening ceremonies for Nissan's new, high-tech headquarters building in Japan's semi-official zero emissions city.
Leading the Charge
The whole thing points to Nissan's determination to be the global leader in advanced tech electric vehicles.
The five-seat, electric-blue LEAF hatchback is to be launched in select U.S. and Japanese markets late next year. The limited-market compact is to be followed in 2012 by the global introductions of two new, and smaller, subcompact EVs.
Nissan's quest for leadership in the mass EV market shouldn't be evasive if the Leaf (we're gonna drop those capital letters) lives up to its performance billing -- a top speed of 90 mph, a range of 100 miles per charge with a sub 30-minute recharge where quick-charging stations are available, and cushion-compressing acceleration that will launch it from zero to 30 mph faster than an Infiniti G37, thanks to 207 lb-ft of torque from its 80-kilowatt (107 horsepower) electric motor.
Price Leader
To the degree that price matters, Nissan's also got a big edge in the EV world. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the company insists the leaf will be "affordable" with pricing equivalent to a well-equipped C-Class (compact) car.
That's a European compact, though, and they're a lot better equipped, and more costly, than compacts in the U.S. So figure $28,000 to as much as $35,000 -- not super cheap but less than the five-place Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid due in 2011.
Mitigating things a little will be the government tax credits in Japan and the U.S. that are available to purchasers of EVs.
We don't know the Japanese program, but in the U.S., a fully electric car like the Leaf would qualify for a $7,500 tax credit -- as log as Congress keeps the program funded. That would knock the actual ownership cost down considerably.
The Leaf's price, however, probably doesn't include the $10,000 lithium-ion battery pack.
Lease or Buy?
Nissan's global approach will be to sell the car but lease the battery pack, a concept that Nissan believes will make buyers more comfortable with a new technology by keeping the manufacturer responsible for battery reliability and performance and for upgrading their cars with new-generation batteries as and if improvements in EV batteries are made.
The approach in the U.S, where consumers might be leery of buying a car but having to lease an essential part of its powertrain, may be different, though. Nissan hasn't made a decision but may chose to simply lease the entire package here, said Andy Palmer, Nissan's senior vice president and head of product planning.
The idea that users wouldn't own the vehicles and would have to turn them back after the lease was up is a tactic that hurt GM and other trial EV makers in the California in the late 1990s, when lessees wanted to buy their vehicles and couldn't.
Nissan doesn't see it as much of a problem today, said Palmer, in part because leasing is such a common concept now.
We expect Nissan also would be quite willing to sell the cars after an initial lease -- as long as the buyers were willing to continue leasing the batteries.
Decisions on the sales -- or leasing -- method as well as on U.S. pricing, will be made closer to the Leaf's late 2010 launch, Palmer said.
Nissan officials say pricing was held down in part by developing the entire powertrain, including the laminated lithium-manganese battery pack -- arguably the most expensive single component on the car -- in-house with an eye toward affordability.
Launch of the Leaf EV next year will make Nissan the first major automaker in modern times to put a full-service battery-electric car into dealerships for retail sales.
The company will beat General Motor's Volt plug-in hybrid and possibly be head of Fisker Automotive's exotic and limited-production Karma plug-in, and while Japan's Mitsubishi and Subaru both launched EVs for sale to fleets in Japan last month, the cars are smaller, lower-speed "city cars" with far less range than the 100-miles-per-charge Nissan claims for the Leaf.
Murano Meets Megane
The concept unveiled today is pretty much what the production car will look like next year, sans the exotic paint and high-end interior appointments unique to concept and show cars.
Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's global design chief, told us in an interview after a private preview showing of the concept, that the Leaf, while all-Nissan in concept and technology, borrows a smidgen of design language from partner Renault's popular Megane compact, most notably in the notched hatch.
The elongated but curiously bulbous headlamp assembly designed for looks and airflow, the extremely short nose (there's no engine to hide) and the sharply delineated flanks and wheel cutouts are all Nissan, though. The Leaf seems to share a bit of the styling that went into the Murano crossover utility vehicle -- no shocker when you learn that the Leaf's chief designer (chief Leaf designer?) also headed the Murano design team, according to Nakamura.
Range Anxeity
Nissan knows that selling an EV -- no matter how good the car may be -- is dependent on making customers comfortable that the car will serve their needs and won't run out of juice and leave them stranded.
It's called the "range anxiety" phenomenon and to help assuage fears, Nissan first developed a car that can take you up to 100 miles between charges -- sufficient for a 50 mile one-way trip if there's no charger at the other end -- and also is working with governments and utilities around the world to promote installation of chargers.
The Leaf is designed with two charging inputs -- one for a standard 110- or 220-volt line and one for a fast-charge system -- so that owners can "fill up" at a variety of places.
Nissan's work with governments and utilities is to encourage them to alter permit and zoning rules to make it easy for private parties to install commercial chargers on streets, in public and private parking lots and in apartments and private residences.
Nissan also is urging utility companies to seize the opportunity and install public chargers in their service regions to help get the infrastructure started.
So far, the company has agreements with governments and utilities in nine regions in the U.S. -- mostly on the West Coast and in Arizona -- and, either alone or as part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Singapore, Monaco Ireland and parts of Australia and England.
Connectivity
To further help do away with charging anxiety, Nissan has equipped the Leaf with a communications system that enables drivers to communicate in real time with a special information center to find out where the closest chargers are, which ones are open and operating, and whether they have fast or slow chargers.
The system also highlights in real time on the Leaf's standard navigation system screens the one-way and round-trip travel ranges the car can achieve before needing a battery charge, and sends signals to a driver's cell phone or PDA when a car plugged in to at a home or public charger is topped up and ready to go.
Now all they gotta do is get people to install the chargers, and to buy the cars.
- Posted by
- John O'Dell August 1, 2009, 6:30 PM
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- Nissan, Plug-ins and Electric
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- Electric Cars, Electric Vehicles, Nissal Leaf, Nissan EV
The PR copy is terribly misleading; ie "the company insists the leaf will be "affordable" with pricing equivalent to a well-equipped C-class (compact) car."
In Fact (see money.cnn.com), that is WITHOUT
battery pack (the greatest expense of a BEV) which Nissan is considering leasing.
I keep hearing about governments installing charging stations. However most of the electric cars seem to use unique versions of high speed charging.
Unless you want to leave your car for half a day or more at a 110V charging station, I hope the car makers will quickly come up with a standard.
It astounds me to no end, These cars and technology have been available for decades, granted the batties are new but still ... as for the prices, why are they so stupidly high, the "average" consumer could not afford one and no i'm not talking about the $50k a year executive sitting in the office across the hall, what about mr and mrs $16- 20k per yr, $28k is over the top, these cars dont cost the manufactorer $12k to build, 2010 may as well be 2110 for all the good it will do for the average person, I own a 10 yr old jeep, most all the people I know have older cars, I cant see this car being bought up in high volume for many yrs from now, im sure once they are around the $14- 16K mark there will be a turn around, leasing a battery, come on, who in thier right mind would want that?, 100 miles is ok for around town but what if you want a road trip? 2-3 or even more might do the trick, i'd prefer to charge at home all the same.
Lets get real
Well, it's interesting product but no one say anything about how many kilowatt hours the car consumes to move 1 mile. If it's more expensive than the gas engine then it's not good for environment since we need to burn something to create electricity.
Ok here we go we need to help the enviroment now they have created another problem. What happens to all these batteries when they are no longer able to be used what will that do to the enviroment.
How much will it cost to pull in the charging station to charge your car. People get real there is no quick fix to any of this but saddle up your horse and ride into the city...
They should find a way to keep the batteries charged up by using solar power electric technology to charge the batteries while the car is sitting still and using wind mill technology to generate electricity while the tires are moving.
All of the comments are pretty accurate. We'll unleash a lot of conflicts if we try to get this technology, as it is now. Imagine in the future a road trip, having to stop every 100 miles in a colossal parking lot waiting the next turn to use the quick charging plug so we don't loose 6 hrs...and even 30 minutes for the charge only, seems an awful lot. Left aside the money we'll spend kw/mile, electricity which is very expensive at this moment.Also, what's gonna happen to dead battery cells?..another source of contamination?
If companies are looking for an alternative way to move cars, electric i don't think is the answer. At this moment there's a company capable of producing oil from any carbon-derived waste (almost anything in earth), now with the Obama Fuel-politic for cars to make 50+mpg minimum for any car-type, plus that technology, we can tackle two problems at the same time...we get rid of waste instead of burying it, we produce very high mpg cars..and as a plus, we get to keep the exhilarating rumble of a combustion engine rolling at 3000 rpms!...sweeeet!
I completely agree with everyone here. It is extremely outrageous how these automakers are spending less in production to create electric cars and the cars have less mechanical parts and where technology in Japan is dirt CHEAP that the cost of the car is well over $40,000 barely with the battery.
I have built a battery powered go cart that never needs charging as long as you don't let it sit for too many days. I plan to upgrade my 1992 toyota corolla to the same technology. With all the parts found at the Junk Yard!!! Come on... AUTOMAKERS...not only are you being bailed out by governments, ...even the ones in Japan...are receiving grants and incentives from the government.
COME ON!!!!!....Give the people of the world a chance.... Think about this governments of the world.... Require a cap on automaker's prices so you don't have to give a "Clash for Clunkers" years later for people to buy another car because cars have gotten so expensive....ahhhh.. I can go on forvever..it just ticks me off.
Common Automakers... Look it up in mid 80's... Honda HF was introduced with a 50MPG Gasoline only... What happens thereafter is a mystery.
Honda No longer design such a car like that after 1995 when it ended a similar MPG of 40-55MPG in the 5 passanger Honda Civic VX... Technology ended then and Hybrids AKA better gas?
Interesting... My 1990 CRX HF get an average if not better than most hybrids also backed by several Mechanics as well.
I even tested out to prove the claim of other owners so went to visit a friend to Ontario from Ventura County and it got a little over 60 MPG. Blew me away when it could do that.
One guy wanted to buy my "POS" as he claims it for $5K... I said no way. I can't afford them hybrids and Knowing Gas prices will increase and in good timing before $2/gallon gas increase up to $4/gallon of gas at one point in time.
Common Automakers. What's the deals with "electric is the new Future car?"