Nissan just announced that their highly anticipate Nissan Leaf electric vehicle will be available to order this August and will be in driveways by December.
Nissan has been touting the affordability of the Leaf since it was announced. They currently refer to it as “the world’s first all-electric, zero-emission car designed for the mass market.”
The Nissan Leaf price hasn’t been announced yet but we have been promised an April unveiling of the magic numbers. After that announcement, potential buyers will be able to drop a $100 reservation fee to place an order in August.
If you’re wondering what price range you can expect, the Nissan Leaf is expected to be priced competitively against the popular Toyota Prius hybrid. As an all-electric vehicle, this price could make the Leaf a very competitive car. Especially considering that Nissan’s Leaf has a top speed of over 76 mph and a range of at least 100 miles.
For those of you in the market for a new eco-friendly vehicle, let us know if you’ll be considering the Leaf, or plan to put the $100 reservation fee down.
GM seriously got the hype machine working overtime when they found out that based on new DOE formulas, the 2011 Chevy Volt would be capable of 230 MPG. Now Nissan has played the same game with new DOE formulas and have come up with an MPG rating for their forthcoming electric vehicle the Nissan Leaf. The Leaf will apparently be capable of 367 MPG. While this MPG thing without any gas involved is a bit of head-scratcher, in all fairness Nissan didn’t hold a press conference about it, they just posted it on Twitter as a sort of rebuttal to the Chevy Volt announcement.
“Nissan Leaf = 367 mpg, no tailpipe, and no gas required. Oh yeah, and it’ll be affordable too!” Nissan Tweeted.
Nobody knows the details of what Nissan means by “affordable” yet, other than it’ll likely be significantly less than $45,000.
The Nissan Leaf EV is a four-door hatchback that seats five adults and has a 100-mile range. Recharging can be done at special commercial charging stations in 30 minutes or up to eight hours at a traditional plug.
The Nissan Leaf goes on sale in the U.S., Japan and Europe next year.
The funny folks over at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater have just released a new video that parodies the competitive nature of car owners.
While the video, starring Andy Richter and James Adomian, is technically pretending to be a Nissan ad, it’s really more about the perceived smugness of Toyota Prius owners. Even though we’re all Toyota Prius fans here, we can’t help but love this ad.
Nissan is getting a slap on the wrist from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in the form of a $4.4 million fine since more than 450,000 Nissan vehicles don’t light up the “check engine” light when their emissions get too high.
The cause is faulty tailpipe diagnosis equipment in 2005-2007 Nissan models.
The $4.4 million is apparently an out of court settlement. According to Mary Nichols, CARB chair, “Nissan has been cooperative during this investigation, and we are confident that the design process changes they implemented will prevent future problems.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Nissan is receiving from, rather than giving to, government agencies. Nissan was recently granted several million pounds from the government in order to retool a factory in the UK to build electric vehicles. The investment will also create approximately 4,000 new jobs.
Nissan and ECOtality created an Electric Vehicle Micro-Climate Working Group in Tucson, Arizona last March. The group was designed to layout an infrastructure for fast-charging electric vehicles.
Now the two have expanded the project to promote an electric vehicle charging corridor that would run from Tucson to Phoenix.
Nissan is preparing the landscape for its all electric cars coming in 2010 that will be inspired by the EV-02 prototype (pictured above). These new Nissan electric cars will have a 100-mile range and will reportedly be priced competitively with similar gas-powered vehicles.
