Nissan is Welcoming us to the future with their car LEAF the “world’s first affordable, zero-emission car.”
The LEAF is a 5 door hatchback 100 %electric car with zero tail pipe emissions. No gas needed, it’s fully powered by a 24- Kilowatt hour lithium ion battery pack. With an electric charge lasting 100 mile, traveling is made easy with a 120v portable trickle charging cable charging the LEAF to it’s full capacity. This takes about 25 minutes, not bad considering a full size SUV takes about 10 minutes to fill up at the pump.
The top speed on this electric specialty is 90 MPH, with 0 to 60 performance tested at 9.9 seconds. The battery pack has been estimated to retain 70-80% of it’s charge 10 years down the road, and guaranteed by Nissan for 8 years, or 100,000 miles.
Included in all LEAF’s is a telematics system called Carwings. This feature is connected whenever the car is in range of a cell tower. What it does is send and receive data via radio, giving information about locations of charging stations, energy consumption, and other remote functions.
This car contains all of the interior and exterior that you would expect from Nissan, with style and functionality. Included are features such as their cold weather package, complete with battery warmer, heated steering wheel and seats. These factors coupled with Nissan’s high safety ratings make this car a no brainer.
LEAF has already won several awards, including the 2010 GreenCar Vision Award, the 2011 European Car of the Year Award, and 2011 World Car of the Year. To top it off, it was also granted the title “Most efficient EPA certified vehicle for all fuels ever.”
With a government subsidy of $7,500, the price and appeal of this car is extremely attractive. “Price is important. It’s one of the favorite questions we’ve gotten over the past few months,” Trisha Jung, director of Nissan marketing said “We know consumers care about that.” With a lowered operating 5 year cost estimated at $1,800 versus $6,000 for gasoline, this is quite an economical savings outweighing in longevity.
With high oil prices, growing concerns about greenhouse gases and our dependency upon petroleum, alternatives such as LEAF make absolute sense. The public can now place new reservations and orders for their LEAF. By the end of 2011 several states will have these cars on their dealership lots.
2012 is expected to be booming with LEAF, a leap ahead of the curve.
