A 100% Electric car with promise…

The Nissan LEAF, I hope it lives up to its acromyn (Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car).

Specs:

Top Speed: 145 kph +
Cruising Range: 160 kilometres (110km with air-con?)
Normal Charge Time: 8 hours (overnight via 240v home power)
Fast Charge: 30 mins with Quick Charger unit
Battery: 48 lithium ion modules
Vehicle Power: 90kW
Torque: 280 Nm

www.nissan-zeroemission.com

The Nissan LEAF 100% Electric car should be on sale in Australia by 2012, according to Nissan Australia Managing Director Dan Thompson.

This new Electric car option:

is definitely an improvement on the very first Nissan Electric vehicle, the TAMA… back in 1947, yes, 64 years ago was when they introduced their first operational Electric vehicle.

The Nissan LEAF went on Sale in the UK in March 2011, at a price of about £28,500. That’s about A$42,000 at current exchange rates.

In the UK, they did notice a drop in cruising range of about 30% when they used the heating in winter. I would guess something similar if we turn on the air conditioning (assuming it is installed).

Just a few quick calculations.

If you spend about $2,600 per year on petrol, and have a car that costs $25,000, your total cost of car + petrol over 5 years = $38,000.  Not that much different to this LEAF at $42,000 (assuming that is close to the Australian price.

It will be worth looking at for many people that do under about 100km per day.

Comparisons:

The vehicle power of  90kW and Torque of 280 Nm was mentioned in the specs, which may mean very little to many people, so what “normal car” has this sort of power ?

• 4.0Llitre Ford Falcon: 190kW and Torque of 383.
• 1.4 Litre Suzuki Swift: 70kW and Torque of 130.
• 1.8 litre Toyota Corolla: 100kW and Torque of 175.
• 2.4 litre Toyota Camry: 117kW and Torque of 218.

The above examples give us an idea of the meaning behind those numbers.

Links:

The history of Nissan Electric Vehicles: www.nissan-zeroemission.com

Nissan Australia press release August 2011: www.nissan.com.au

Nissan Australia Electric Cars: www.nissan.com.au