TechRevu Review

Nissan Leaf on Tour
Review by Ernest Lilley
Nissan ISBN/ITEM#: 2010LEAF
Date: 22 January 2010

Links: Leaf Tour Press Release / Nissan Leaf Official Site / Show Official Info /

Nissan's first totally electric vehicle, the Leaf, is on tour in the US. This weekend it was at the Newseum in Washington, DC where we went to get a glimpse of it. You can find out when it will be in your area by plugging your zip code into the app on the official site. Just one thing. If it's a leaf, why isn't it green?

Up close, the Nissan Leaf actually is green. A light silver green that's perfect to present Nissan's first all electric vehicle in. Walking around the Leaf doesn't tell you you're looking at an electric, unless the charging port in the nose is open, while a look inside the cockpit reveals displays you'd have called "amazingly futuristic" not long ago...but you'll take for granted by the time the Leaf rolls into showrooms this December.

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Nissan's entry into the world of electric only vehicles, ready to go head to head with Chevy's "Volt" by the end of the year, claims 100 mile range on its lithium/magnesium batteries per charge, and a recharge time of 8 hours using the home recharging station...available separately. You can recharge it off a standard 110V outlet, but that takes twice as long, and a 16 hour recharge does seem prohibitive. Still, you may be able to get a charge at work (eventually) and if you're not coming home with a totally dead battery, it won't take as long to fill.

The car itself looks only slightly futuristic, and more so to the driver than anyone else. So far, we're assured, only Nissan staff have been allowed to sit in the car...but cockpit ergonomics are a solved problem for the Japanese automaker, so we can assume it's a comfortable and workable environment for the driver. With all those displays around we were pleased to note that a backup camera will be available as an option, and we're assured that you'll be able to dock your iPod with the as yet unspecified sound system.

Nobody's getting a look under the hood yet either,. and while we'd like to take a peek, it's bound to be anticlimactic, with a reasonably big electric motor sitting in the engine bay. How big an engine? How fast will it go? The cagey carmaker will only say that "The LEAF handles and accelerates like a V6 car and has a top speed of up to 90mph."

The battery weighs about 500 lb, which makes the smallish car a bit on he heavy side, approximately 3000 lb. The battery doesn't switch out at present, and you can expect about 5 years of prime life from one, expecting to break down and replace it after 7 years. By then, there may be better batteries available for it, or (more likely) more affordable options (the Leaf will cost around 30k) for replacing the car.

The folks who came to see the Leaf while I was there during its stay at the Newseum in Washington, DC, seemed mostly to be already invested in greener automotive tech, some comparing its features (favorably) to their Prius or other hybrids. The folks who stopped by but had come to see the Newseum itself were intrigued, but universally complained about the 100 mile limit. From talking to them, I gathered that they weren't urbanites, the target population for electrics. Still, even in the "burbs" you should be able to do most of your driving within its range.

Boundless freedom just isn't that easy to give up, and non-urban America may just not be a friendly place for electrics, no matter how cute. Maybe if Nissan started with electric tractors and farm equipment they could bring the country around. The hard economics of it still make gas powered vehicles cheaper to own than electrics though, and farmers tend to be pretty pragmatic when it come to their businesses.

Meanwhile, the Leaf is sure to find a home with green early adopters who can manage their driving distance.

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