caddyowner

Glad your dad likes the car, but I wish my federal tax dollars weren't subsidizing its purchase and use.

PushinLEX

iTrader: (9)

That's true, you might get diminishing returns up north. But down here, he has a two-story house with zero blockage of the panels. He's getting 100% output.

I think he is looking into a cistern system to recapture rain water so that he can address the other problem we have in Southern California.


Yea, I talked to the tech that setup the charging station at my dad's house and he said that his company and others are vying for market share and that tons of public charging stations are going to be popping up in Socal in the next couple years. Currently, the fast commercial chargers can give a drained battery a full charge in 30 minutes. They are working on getting that time down. Also, they are giving the charging stations universal fittings that will standardize how all EV's are charged.

Thanks!

Agreed. With all the sun and clear skies we get here there is no reason not to go solar.

Az would be a GREAT place to get solar. You would probably get more output there than here in LA.

Yup.

Why would you say that? I think its one of the only meritorious federal subsidies out there. Care to explain?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i'll try... your father is obviously wealthy and doesn't need the tax breaks. he's in the 1%.

caddyowner

^^^
This is probably best discussed in the debate forum. Sorry I brought it up. Let's get back to the automotive merits of the Leaf.

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

Is there a service schedule for the car? Just wondering because as far as i know, there no oil changes, spark plugs, etc to be done and since its EV i'm assuming the brake pads will last forever too with regen. braking..lol

RXSF

brake pads will probably last until 60K miles.

Alucard

Even a little thing like not ever having to do smog checks must be nice

caddyowner

I still have visions of sparking electric bumper cars at the county fair. The shape of the Leaf doesn't do much to dispel this impression.

bagwell

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn: Second Generation Battery Is Coming Online NOW

About a month ago we reported a news story out of Japan that said the Nissan LEAF was going to get a new, updated battery, giving the car as much as 25% more range, as well as a second/cheaper entry level model.

Previously, we also reported that the fully electric Infiniti LE due to come out in late 2013/early 2014 would most likely receive 2nd generation battery technology to allow for additional range (which costs less per kWh) over that of the current LEAF product in the market (that article here).

However, there has never been any official confirmation from Nissan that any of this is a reality. Most information about new battery developments at Nissan have come from leaks, or from information out of their battery JV (with NEC) AESC.

That is until this past Friday. In an interview, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn casually threw out this statement:

“There is a 2nd generation of battery coming (online) now…which is less costly than the previous one. We are in a race in which you reduce the costs and adapt the price.”


Nissan's Current Battery Weighs Over 600lbs And Powers The Car For About 73 Miles
The second generation battery he is referring to is, in all likelihood, the NMC (LiNiMnCo) battery AESC first starting working on when the joint venture was formed in 2009.

This 2nd gen battery using a lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathode can offer about 75% more energy capacity over the standard chemistry (LiMnO2) currently used in the Nissan LEAF, and is thought to be only slightly more expensive to produce.

Regardless of the particulars, this is the first admission that Nissan has perfected its 2nd gen battery, and that it is already entering production. The promise of a better, longer range and cheaper fully electric car from Nissan looks to be realized very soon.

Couple this new battery technology with Nissan finally shaking the chains of the Japanese yen/USD dollar trade in December with US production of the LEAF in Smyrna, TN coming online, and we see big pricing changes coming shortly.

None too soon.

http://insideevs.com/nissan-ceo-carl...ng-online-now/

Marklouis

seen one pull away very quickly from a stoplight. I was suprised how quick it was.

GS69

Nissan Improves Leaf EV Driving Range
Cuts Price

Nissan Motor Co., hoping to boost disappointing sales for the Leaf electric car, today said it has improved the driving range of its alternative-fuel vehicle by 14 percent and lowered its price tag.

Nissan officials said changes to the remodeled Leaf, shown earlier today in Tokyo, were based on comments from customers who voiced fears of their vehicle running out of its electric charge and stranding them.

The automaker's plans for the new Leaf emerged last month in Automotive News.

Electric vehicles, including the Leaf, have not caught on as fast as some expected due to concerns over driving range, as well as the lack of a charging infrastructure and customer resistance to paying too high a price premium over similar sized gas-powered cars.

"When technologies employed to cars are still in their first generation, it's not so easy for customers to try them out. We think that our new pricing and improvement in performance could be key to helping customers switch to electric vehicles," Nissan Leaf engineer Hidetoshi Kadota told reporters.

The remodeled Leaf can run 228 km (140 miles) when fully charged up from about 200 km before. Nissan officials said the car shed some 80 kg (180 pounds) through powertrain rearrangement and a lighter lithium-ion battery structure.

The driving range with use of air conditioner has also improved from the 120 km in the 1st-generation model, executives said, though they declined to give a specific figure.

In the new model, Nissan lowered the starting price of the Leaf in Japan to about 3.3 million yen ($40,700) from 3.8 million yen by introducing a lower grade. With subsidies, that starting price drops to around 2.6 million yen.

The remodeled Leaf went on sale in Japan today and is set to be released in the United States in the 1st quarter of 2013. The sales timing for Europe has yet to be set.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has acknowledged that achieving the goal to double global Leaf sales this fiscal year to about 40,000 vehicles would be difficult. Nissan sold 11,720 Leaf cars in the 6 months to September.

The Leaf is not the only EV to struggle. In the United States, sales of General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car have come up short of expectations, while Fisker Automotive's Karma plug-in hybrid has experienced numerous problems.

The new Leaf has more room in the trunk than the previous model after the charger was moved to the front of the car. It also has a more efficient heating system, executives said.

You Tube

RXSF

amazing. this seems like the electric car for the mass

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

2013 Nissan Leaf

Look at the 2013 Nissan Leaf – even one parked next to a 2012 model – and you'll be hard-pressed to spot the differences. Changes and updates have been made, but you have to know the details to tell. It's sort of like listening to a hipster tell you why Interpol and The National have completely different sounds.

Nissan says it didn't reinvent the Leaf because what the company has created is working. Over 25,000 Leafs have been sold in the US – 62,000 around the world – since the car went on sale in late 2010. That may not sound like a lot, but it's heads and shoulders above any other all-electric car available anywhere. The car has its detractors – boy, does it ever – but Nissan knows it's hard to argue with real-world success.

We recently spent a few hours driving the new Leaf – an SL-trim version, optioned out to $36,910 – around the hills of central Tennessee after a visit to Nissan's new 475,000 square-foot battery plant. What we learned there provided a lot of hints about the company's electric future. Nissan may be leading today, but company head Carlos Ghosn has made huge, multi-billion-dollar bets on zero-emission technology and the rest of the world has been very slow to prove him right.


As we said, there are some changes to the 2013 Leaf. Length, width, height and wheelbase measurements all remain the same from the 2012 model, but the car has lost weight. The SL went from 3,401 pounds to 3,340 lbs and the SV dropped from 3,385 to 3,340 lbs. The entry-level S trim, new this year, is the lightest, at 3,291 lbs. One of the easiest ways to spot a 2013 Leaf is to see one of the two new exterior colors, Metallic Slate or Glacier White. But most of the changes are small ones, like a little light in the charge port or the fact that you can now release the charge port door with the key fob. Also, a new auto lock feature secures the charging connector in place. There are new 17-inch alloy wheels available and the car's updated hybrid heating system is about 33 percent more efficient. The onboard charger has been moved from the rear cargo area to the front, which increases interior cargo space from 24 cubic feet to 30 with the seats down. The new 6.6-kW onboard charger, standard on SV and SL and available on the S, cuts charge time in half, down to four hours from empty to 80-percent full.

From the driver's seat, you see some differences, too. A redesigned leather-wrapped steering wheel, sun visor extensions and a new rear headrest design that has been changed for better visibility, for example. The navigation system includes a new Eco Route feature that will try to get you where you want to go using the fewest electrons. Most importantly, the dashboard lists a new percent of charge value for the battery – much more useful than the simple bars in previous versions.


The first word that comes to mind when you step on the accelerator is not a good one: neutered. It's been a while since we've been behind the wheel of a Leaf, but it was immediately clear that Nissan has made some compromises here. The biggest drivetrain change is that the new motor has had its torque output reduced, from 207 to 187 pound-feet, thanks to revamped software code. This gives the overall system more efficiency and more range, 75 official miles from the 24-kWh pack, but the horsepower remains the same, at 107. It also makes the car feel a bit sluggish.

In practice, the Leaf, which can still initially leap ahead of most gas-powered cars at stoplights and remains as easy as ever to get to 35-40 miles per hour, feels neutered in a way the car didn't before. There's just something missing. Perhaps it's the new motor. Perhaps it's just that we're getting more and more used to the way EVs drive that it takes more to impress us now. Whatever it is, we were not the only journalists to notice it, and Nissan doesn't provide 0-60 figures for us to compare just how different the new Leaf is to its older cousins. But if you really want to feel the car drag, engage the new "B" mode, which increases regenerative braking pressure, or "eco," which maximizes efficiency. For driving fun, we recommend neither.


If you're used to a gas-powered econobox, the Leaf is surprisingly quiet. If you're used to an earlier edition Nissan Leaf, then it's old news to you how much more serene it is to drive a car without engine noise. We didn't have anything bad to say about the electric power steering, but not much good, either. It does the job just fine, and that's all that's important – this isn't a sports car, or even a hot hatch. The Leaf's single-speed transmission remains wonderfully smooth throughout its speed range and the entire package reminds us, once again, that the Leaf is an ideal commuter car – provided you're the right commuter. For example, if you don't live in California, a state where the number of EV options are getting pretty astonishing, and dislike burning gasoline. Just as we don't recommend pickup trucks to everyone, we can't recommend an electric vehicle to everyone. But if you can charge up at home or work and drive fewer than 50 miles per day, on average, the Leaf remains a great, clean and affordable way to get to and from work.

It's abundantly clear that Nissan didn't want to change the Leaf formula too much. Source components and build the car in the US? Sure. Sacrifice a little bit of performance for more range? No problem. Keep most everything else the same? Yup. The reason is that Nissan wants to start selling the Leaf in much larger volumes. As Ghosn said not too long ago, "Our ambitions on the Leaf are not 2,000 cars a month. We know this is a breakthrough technology, we know this is a breakthrough car."


To that end, we just have to look at the company's new battery plant in Smyrna, TN. Mark Swensen, VP of production engineering and component facilities, said it's about a 30-day process to build a Leaf battery there. Once completed, the packs are driven by truck pretty much right next door to the plant where the Leaf is built (on the same line as the Altima and Maxima). The electric motors are made about an hour away in Decherd, TN. In the battery plant, clean rooms (where the high-tech components are assembled in an antiseptic environment), use HEPA filtration systems to keep the air clean. One such room is kept at a -40C dew point, which means a drink placed in the room would need to be at -40C before it got any beads of "sweat" on it.

Currently, there are around 250 employees in the battery facility, and the place feels roomy, with lots of space for more bodies or robots or other manufacturing components. This is because Nissan has enough capacity to build 200,000 battery packs per year in Smyrna, but it's building nowhere near that many right now. No one from Nissan, unsurprisingly, would talk about how many packs will be made at the plant this year, but we cannot imagine full capacity being reached any time soon. After all, with production plants on three continents now running (the original in Japan and a new one in the UK), local demand is being satisfied where the cars are being built, and the US is not on track to buy 200,000 all-electric vehicles – even from all automakers combined – this year. That many sales would require over 16,000 EV sales a month. The Leaf may be the best-selling EV out there (we think), but in a good month it sells just 2,200 units. Not counting exports, Nissan would need an eight-fold sales increase to push the battery plant to the limit. In other words, there's room to grow.


Growth is exactly what the company road map predicts. Brendan Jones, Nissan's director of EV infrastructure strategy and deployment, said that 80 percent of Leaf buyers are new to the brand and the car saw a large increase in younger buyers in the last year. So far in 2013, year-over-year sales are up 160 percent through April (2,103 in 2012 and 5,476 in 2013). The average Leaf buyer, Jones says, is highly educated (73 percent have more than a high school degree) and their average credit score is 750. Nissan expects the sales breakdown for the three trim lines of the 2013 Leaf to be 20 percent of the $28,800 entry-level S, 55-percent mid-level $31,820 SV and 25-percent high-end $37,250 SL.

Add it all up, and it appears Nissan thinks it has figured out the formula to keep new people coming in to experience the world's best-selling EV. It's done the math to calculate which aspects of the car needed to be improved (drop the price, for one) and which can be somewhat ignored (torque, performance) to attract the largest number of buyers. So far, the plan is showing signs of working, but it's a long drive from roughly 25,000 electric vehicles a year – the current US pace – to 200,000. A very long drive.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/05/16/2...t-drive-video/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Hmmmm. Still want a Tesla S

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Nissan Leaf will blow into China as the Venucia Morning Wind

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/11/25...-morning-wind/