Source: http://www.sfgate.com/Nissan's all-electric car, the compact Leaf hatchback, is making its first U.S. tour as the Japanese automaker drums up interest for the vehicle before it officially goes on sale in December in a few states — including Texas.
Nationwide rollout of the vehicle will come in 2012, but other states will be added along the way as charging infrastructure is installed, Nissan said.
The automaker already has had discussions with Reliant Energy in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, as well as with the electric utilities in Houston and Austin, and will be meeting with CPS officials Feb. 3 in San Antonio, said Mark Perry, Nissan North America's vice president for product planning.
The Leaf's nationwide tour, which began in Los Angeles in early November, will include just one stop in Texas, Feb. 5-6 in Houston.
I caught up with the Leaf this week at Nissan's Americas headquarters near Nashville, Tenn., where I got to see and drive the vehicle.
It's a four-door model similar in size and shape to Nissan's compact “C-platform” car, which is sold as the Versa in the United States. But Perry said the car is slightly larger and roomier than the Versa, with some of that extra interior space made available because the car has a flat floor not possible in a gasoline-engine vehicle.
The car comfortably seats five people and can go more than 100 miles between charges, a range designed to satisfy “real-world consumer requirements,” Perry said, noting that most Americans drive an average of 40 miles a day.
For those who must drive farther than 100 miles, Nissan is working with various government agencies, electric-power providers and businesses to set up charging stations in a variety of settings, including fast-food restaurants along the interstate-highway system.
One of those is already in place, Perry said — at a McDonald's restaurant in Cary, N.C. Nissan didn't set that one up, though – it was done by the restaurant's franchisee, who wanted to be among the first businesses in his area to accommodate electric cars.
Recharging at commercial stations such as those along the interstates could take as little as 25 minutes, which would work well in conjunction with fast-food restaurants as the typical road-trip stop at such a restaurant lasts about 20 minutes, Perry said. The chargers for the Leaf will be compatible with other electric vehicles being readied for the U.S. market, including plug-in hybrids from Toyota and General Motors, such as the Chevrolet Volt.
Most recharging of the Leaf will be done overnight in owners' garages, Perry said, which will take just eight hours if the battery is nearly exhausted. That's based on using a 220-volt, 30-amp charger that Leaf buyers will need to purchase and have installed by a licensed electrician.
The car also will have an onboard charger for emergencies that can be plugged into a standard 110-volt household electrical outlet. With a discharged battery, the recharging time would be about 15 hours, Perry said.
While no prices have been announced yet for the home chargers, they could cost up to $1,500 when the expense of installing 220-volt service is included, he said. But a federal tax credit of up to $2,000 is available for home-charging stations, and up to $50,000 for business or public charging stations.
The Leaf drives like an ordinary car, with a brake and accelerator pedal, but it's extremely quiet, as there is no motor noise. And it has surprisingly quick acceleration, giving it the feel of a car with a V-6 gasoline engine.
Top speed will be about 90 mph, although I wasn't able to go anywhere near that fast on Nissan's closed test loop at its headquarters building in Franklin, Tenn.
The car has no transmission — power from the electric motor goes straight to the drive wheels — so there are no gear changes. It has very smooth acceleration from start to highway speed, and 100 percent of the available torque is present immediately.
While some might compare the driving experience to that of a golf cart, Nissan says the Leaf is “no golf cart; it's the real thing.” It's designed to perform just like any other highway-capable vehicle, with the only compromise being the limited range provided by the lithium-ion battery.
The battery is installed under the rear floor of the vehicle, where it is as protected from impact as possible in the event of a traffic accident.
Under the hood is the electric motor, and on the front of the hood is the charging port. A flap is lifted up to open the port, where the cord from the charger is plugged into the car.
With its hatchback configuration, the Leaf has plenty of cargo space, which can be expanded by folding down the rear seatback if necessary.
No price has been announced yet for the Leaf, but Perry said Nissan's intention is to make it a mass-market vehicle, with a price similar to that of a typical compact family sedan in the low- to mid-price range. That would seem to indicate a price beginning under $20,000.
A $7,500 federal tax credit will be available for U.S. Leaf buyers, but Nissan hasn't said yet whether the affordable price it's promising will be calculated before or after the tax credit is applied.
The five-passenger gasoline-electric Toyota Prius hybrid starts just under $23,000, and the new Honda Insight hybrid is just under $21,000. But they come with a gasoline engine along with the battery-operated electric motor. The gas engine actually does the bulk of the driving and keeps the battery charged.
While the Leaf's 100-mile range isn't nearly as far as automakers had been hoping for with advances in battery design, it's a vast improvement over the 40-mile range of earlier electric vehicles using lead-acid or nickel-metal-hydride battery packs, such as those now found in vehicles such as the Prius and Insight.
The Leaf's battery is designed to have a useful life of 10 years, but that doesn't mean it will stop working at the end of that period; instead, it will be capable of just 70 percent to 80 percent of full charge by that time, Perry said.
Already, about 35,000 people have registered on the Leaf Web site — www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car — to receive updates about the vehicle, he said.
In April, those who registered will be asked if they want to reserve one of the vehicles for purchase.
Initially, the Leaf will be imported from Japan. But Nissan plans to assemble the car at its Smyrna, Tenn., manufacturing plant beginning in late 2012, using batteries that will be made in a new facility on the same site — financed in part by a $1.6 billion loan from the U.S. government.
Construction will begin on the battery plant this spring, and it will open in mid-2012. When it is at full production, the battery plant will employ more than 1,000 people and produce about 200,000 battery packs a year, Perry said.
The Leaf will offer the equivalent of 357 mpg when comparing the use of electricity to what it would cost to power the same vehicle with gasoline, Nissan said.
The automotive columns of G. Chambers Williams III appear Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Drive. Contact him at (210) 250-3236; chambers@express-news.net. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/topdown/detail?entry_id=55862#ixzz0dSqvXh2k
