Today I test drove the Nissan Leaf, and I can honestly say I am completely excited about this car. Let me tell you some reasons why you should be excited about it too:
1. Despite its awkward, cartoonish looks, driving it feels like you are driving a pretty powerful, very refined car (think Acura TSX, Lexus IS 250, or a Cadillac CTS) not because of the trim or the leather seats mind you, but because the car has the torque/acceleration, smooth ride, cornering (lower speed), and interior silence of these types of cars AND zero emissions and a far smaller carbon footprint than any of them to boot (so it feels good to drive it because you know you aren't polluting the air/land/sea like gas powered cars do, funding big oil or the social problems our thirst for petroleum creates - well, you're funding it at only a small fraction of what any petrol powered car on the road does). If you can power the Leaf with renewable energy like I will (living in Seattle area, most of our power comes from hydro... but I one upped and have the 4kw solar array as you probably know), you're looking at what is arguably the greenest, mass produced car ever made.
2. The car is a gadget geek's dream - a dashboard overflowing with data all presented in a well structured, fast, responsive, tactile environment is like nothing else on the road really... and it even has LED headlights, a world's first in a mass produced car (though no LED's for the brights, turn signals or fog lamps... but aftermarket can take care of most of those (maybe not the brights), customizable start up (boot up) sounds, a solar panel (on the SL model) and a track ball-like gear selector.
3. It's whisper quiet... yeah, the people talking and the road noise from the nearby freeway are loud, but trust me, the car makes almost no noise when it is driving under 30 miles an hour (then tire noise and some wind noise would be slightly noticeable... about as much as on any other car in its price range). Note, for safety's sake, there is an audible, low pitched whine that warns people of the cars approach (it can be turned off, but is always on by default).
4. The whole 100 mile "limited" range thing, "range anxiety"... generally speaking, just get over it. Sure, if you commute more than 80-90 miles day, or if you don't have a garage/carport, or a space you could conveniently charge up at work or home, the car is probably not the car for you. But even if you are one of these people, you should still be excited about the car because it is just the beginning of a profound change. Within as little as 5 years or so, the range for electric cars in this price range will double or more, there will potentially be options to pull into a service station and swap batteries in under 5 minutes or charge your batteries to at least 80 percent in 30 minutes or less (note this is already possible in some area and within 18 months all major urban areas along the I-5 corridor should have these kinds of chargers installed). And anyone that can actually afford to buy the Leaf now (its a $25,000+ car after the federal tax rebate) probably can afford to buy/keep a second car more suited to long road trips of more than 160-180 miles in day. You can always rent a car if not, when you need to drive longer distances (in fact Nissan might offer a program for Leaf buyers specifically). So range is an issue, but isn't one that most people need to worry much about.
5. Maybe you think hydrogen cars are a better solution... well, never mind all of their issues for a minute, you should still be excited about this and other battery electric vehicles (BEV). There are two types of hydrogen cars being experimented with right now... fuel cell type (see Honda FCX) and those that can burn hydrogen (see BMW 7 series). Those that burn hydrogen aren't getting much attention (as evidenced by the lack of car makers and models using this approach - see only about 100 in existence for BMW 7 series), but those that use hydrogen fuel cells are actually electric cars that use fuel cells in place of batteries. Thus, the advancement of battery electric cars stands to advance the development of hydrogen fuel celled cars - proving concepts and materials from electronics to new infrastructure for "fueling" our cars.
Stay tuned for more... I hope to finalize the purchase of my first electric car before the end of the year (receiving it sometime early next year). I already have been approved for a free, in-home level 2 charger from Ecotality, and I will post about that whole process next time... :0)
