Nissan considers electric cars to be the way of the future for a great number of drivers. This was made very clear when we interviewed Carlos Ghosn on the subject of the future of personal transport two years ago.
The aptly named Nissan Leaf is the Japanese marque’s answer to reduction of air pollution, as well as cutting our reliance on oil coming from places where supply isn’t always certain.
Nissan’s Leaf probably won’t be launched in Australia until at least 2012 but we were able to carry out an advanced review of the Leaf by way of a road test during the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.
With any electric car the first question is how ‘full’ is the battery and what range will it provide on that charge? We were pleased to see our test Leaf attached to a fast charger and that the battery had almost 80 per cent charge. That 80 per cent only takes about 30 minutes, so is within the time you might spend in a cafe with friends, or shopping in a supermarket.
Charging at home is also possible, but unless you have a fast charger it will take as long as eight hours for a full battery. This isn’t the hassle it seems as you can leave it charging overnight, and a real bonus is that off-peak electricity is often a lot cheaper than that used during the day.
In the case of ‘our’ Nissan Leaf the almost 80 per cent charge showed a possible range of 97 km in a readout on the instrument panel. Tellingly, when we turned off the climate control system (it was cold in Geneva so that meant heating the car) the anticipated range immediately jumped to 127 kilometres. A push of another button to put the car into full Eco mode saw the range lift to an impressive 152 km. The Eco mode stops the driver from accelerating too hard and even normal acceleration is muted to take longer than usual.
This brings up the question of air conditioning being used continuously on hot and/or humid days in Australia. We will need to wait to review a Leaf in Australia to comment on this.
A display on the satellite navigation screen showed circles on the map that the Nissan Leaf could travel too. Note that this is for one-way trips. It also showed the positions of fast-charge stations for the battery. In this case there were none, other than the charger the car was sitting in front of. Obviously it’s vital for a network of charging stations to be established before electric cars become an everyday part of our transport scene.
Driving the Nissan Leaf simply means moving the gear selector from Park into either Reverse or Drive. Moving the lever from Drive to Park then back into Drive a second time engages the Eco mode. We found this a slightly odd way of getting the Leaf into its most fuel efficient mode, but you would soon become accustomed to doing so.
As with all of the other electric cars we’ve driven the immediate sensation in the Nissan Leaf was of silence and power. There’s no noise from the motor and it’s not until the Leaf reaches a fair speed that there is any sound at all, and that comes from air movement over the outside mirrors and from the tyres.
Electric motors generate their maximum torque right at the bottom of their rev range. This results in the Leaf accelerating hard and responding in a most satisfying manner to ‘throttle’ inputs. When the Leaf slows down, and even more so when you use the brakes, energy that’s being washed off is sent back into the battery to be used again.
Interior space in the Nissan Leaf is good for four adults as the batteries are carried under the front seats and behind the back seat. While the boot is deep and spacious in its own right, there’s a battery box at the rear that sits high and makes the folding rear seat backrests all but useless if you want to carry oversize load.
If Nissan Leaf is the way of the future we like what we see. Prices and specifications are yet to be finalised, but if Nissan is serious about getting into electric cars in a big way, and it certainly appears to be, then the prices have to be reasonable. This won’t be easy in the early days so it’s up to governments to support electric cars in some way. Either by direct subsidies, low registration charges, free parking in cities, assistance with setting up a charging infrastructure, or all of the above.
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