2010 Nissan Leaf electric car: In person, in depth - and U.S. bound

AutoBlogGreen, August 1, 2009
Chris Paukert

It would be easy to paint Nissan as late to the burgeoning U.S. green party, as the company essentially only counts the Altima Hybrid to sell among its alt-fuel offerings - and that sedan utilized technology borrowed from Toyota, and it's only sold in a few states in small volumes. While that may be the case, Nissan says their near-term prospects are really quite different. While the company has admittedly been cautious in marketing alt-fuel vehicles in North America, they have been hard at work developing electric vehicles - as well as the advanced lithium-ion batteries to support them - since 1992. What's more, officials say they are now singularly well-placed to leapfrog "transitional" powertrain solutions like gas-electric hybrids in favor of genuine zero-emissions vehicles, and they are promising that their first pure-electric car will reach U.S. shores late next year.
That car, the Nissan Leaf, is the reason we find ourselves in the company's brand-new Yokohama headquarters today. Designed as a four-to-five seat, front-drive C-segment hatchback, Nissan says the Leaf is not just for use as a specialty urban ranabout, but rather, it was designed as an everyday vehicle - a "real car" whose 160-kilometer+ (100 mile) range meets the needs of 70% of the world's motorists. In the case of U.S. consumers, Nissan says that fully 80% of drivers travel less than 100km per day (62 miles) making the Leaf a solid fit for America's motoring majority, even taking into account power-sapping external factors like hilly terrain, accessory draw, and extreme temperatures.
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Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?
While Nissan promise to deliver the Leaf to its first American customers in late 2010, it isn't immediately clear where it wil be made available, to whom, and how. By that we mean the zero-emissions vehicle will likely be marketed in selected stateside cities that have already committed to building some of the necessary infrastructure to support electric vehicles, and the Leaf likely won't be available for purchase, it will probably be a lease-only proposition - at least initially.
Officials are still working out the speicifics on a global market-by-market basis, but in the U.S., at least, they are aiming for a cost similar to their midsize Altima offering - persumable after all local and federal government incentives for ZEV are factored in. Initial allotments of the Leaf will probably be leased, with the batteries also being a leased proposition, minimizing consumers' up-front risks for adopting this new style of vehicle and allowing for easier, more cost-effective upgrades as technology improves. As has been done with other automakers' alternative energy pilot programs in the past, the Leaf will probably be distributed to fleets and very select customers at first - a more widespread commercial push isn't expected until 2012.
As stated earlier, the Leaf will probably be initially marketed in those U.S. cities that have committed to building the necessary infrastructure to support EVs - places like Phoenix and Tuscon in Arizona; San Diego and Sonoma County in California; Raleigh, North Carolina; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Seattle, Washington. Nissan says it has established 27 partnerships with local governments around the world, and more are on the way. If you're outside such areas, Nissan says it won't discourage you from becoming an owner/lessee, but obviously home charging will need to be sufficient.
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