Looks like the world is waking up from it’s gasoline gorging party. Slowly, but surely. The latest step happened just today, with Nissan’s unveiling of its 2010 Leaf. (Get the title now?) It’s a cute little hatchback, but it’s not a clown car, as it comfortably seats 4 to 5 people (depending on tush size, of course). While electric cars have been around for years as concept cars, this signals a serious change because they are just now approaching economical and mass produced, with Nissan hoping to get the Leaf up to 100,000 units produced a year.
It can go about 100 miles on one “tank,” and with 80% of US drivers traveling less than 100km a day, the Leaf fits most potential consumers in terms of distance. But let’s talk about the charge cycle for a second. The battery is 50 kW and can do a fast-charge in 30 minutes. The executives are working with local governments in the States and around the world to help build supporting infrastructure, though they’re not going to maintain them with their own wallet. That’ll be the cities’ job.
Now for costs. As for the cost of the car, Nissan’s keeping a gag rule on that. Let’s say the upscale gasoline cars are about 48 miles per gallon. At 1000km (620 miles), that’s about $63 a month. The cost of charging a Leaf to go the same distance is about $13 by those numbers.
For countries with no power infrastructure for these cars, people who still want one can always charge up at home, and even program it to charge in the middle of the night to take advantage of lower energy costs.
The batteries, however, are prohibitively expensive at $10,000 for a replacement. To take care of that little glitch, Nissan plans to lease the batteries to Leaf owners and exchange them for new ones as part of a maintenance fee.
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