Nissan EV is about to be officially announced!

[JimN]

Any manufacturer going to lease a battery has a reasonable expectation of its useful life and residual value. Leasing batteries isn't going to be about reducing the upfront cash outlay for the customer. It is just going to be a profit stream or source for the manufacturer. Enough people were sucked into leasing cars so I do believe there is a large enough gullible market to support leasing batteries if not the entire car. Options at the dealer: 1. Lease the car & battery. 2. Buy the car & lease the battery. 3. Buy the car & battery. 1 & 2 will sound attractive based on the inferred promise of a future upgrade or the fear of a catastrophic failure. This will work because consumers have short memories. Intel & AMD have promised or inferred future compatibility for chipsets & sockets to stimulate sales of current product. Those believing the promise have been disappointed.

I tried to find battery warranty requirements on the official CARB website but gave up. All I know is that Tesla's warranty is 3 years/36000 miles and that CARB seems to allow the warranty to be prorated.

[Indyking]

Cool...

MacRumors iPhone Blog: Nissan Developing iPhone Application to Monitor Electric Car Battery Charge

[Celtic Blue]

The debate about coal powered electricity earlier missed the mark. It doesn't really matter what the mix is at the moment. Incrementally you are looking primarily at shutting down coal plants if you can reduce electric demand, or adding more if demand grows (EV's) with natural gas being the other major choice. Renewables and nuke have little operating cost so the fossil fuels will likely make up the difference of any incremental increase/decrease in demand, NOT other sources.

From an older DOE report the U.S. average CO2 emissions per kwh generated was 2.1 lb/kwh for coal and 1.3 lb/kwh for natural gas.

[txtabby]

I've been waiting for this day ever since they 'crushed' the EV-1! This is Nissan's EV-1. If reports are good after the first year, I may seriously consider buying one as my 'work-commuter'... Anyone know what type battery it will have? NiCad = running it until 'dead' so it will not get a memory when you charge up again. A solar powered charger would be perfect on those days when the battery is almost dead away from home...or even at home! Soo jazzed!!!

[DaveinOlyWA]

this is exciting and once again changes any future EV plans to the point where i have simply abandoned any plans at all.

not giving up on EV's mind you. that will never happen as they are the future. its just that i am picking a time frame for action and will get the best option available at the time as it appears that we are FINALLY poised to really introduce a great variety of choices to the market.

i think its smart for Nissan to lease the battery tech. this allows them to program a generic setting which makes it easier to upgrade to much longer range options when advancing technology becomes available. its 100 miles now, but i betcha within 2 years it will be more than double that.

as far as price, that might be a problem. commuter only options will not sell well above $25,000. simply too restricting and take my word for it, as an EV owner, if it says 100, pray for 80 and with a 24 KWH system, 100 is likely an optimistic #.

but as Alan said, we have to walk before we can run and this entry into the EV field only provides additional data resources for motor, charging and battery manufacturers to study.

and every little bit helps. take my lowly Zenn. what contributions has it "taken" from the greenhouse gas emission fund? over 9000 miles driven ALL of which would have been driven by a vehicle that, at best would struggle to perform well with the ranges involved. about 3/4 of the electricity used is 100% hydro (we have about 30 % coal here but all of it is daytime peak demand use. we sell hydro to other states at night) since i do plug in at work during the day that is going to be a percentage of "dirty" power

but EV's need help. we need several changes to make EV's welcome;

*requiring employers to provide charging options at work

*incentives for EV'ers in dense urban areas where low speed and limited ranges do not hamper their usefulness, free parking, publicly funded charging areas, etc (these can be later changed to pay stations similar to parking meters and whatnot)

*buyer/lease programs that allow people to get shorter range EV's to use for commuting only. in many circumstances, many people could easily use current NEV's for their commuting needs but cannot afford to have a long range car as well

*possible regulations to standardize a small set of charging and storage options

[smartalec89]

On another note they did tell me you would be able to tow with it. no idea on how much though.

[jawshoeaw]

Originally Posted by SuperMPG

Oregon is another big hydroelectric state. 80% of energy comes from hydro, 12% from nuclear, only 7% from coal. In California, <1% energy is from coal. New York State, 10% coal. Vermont and Hawaii, ZERO per cent energy is from coal, and so on. I don't want to bore people with all these numbers, but the point is there are many places in the country where EVs make a lot of environmental sense.

I'm afraid Oregon is much closer to 50% Coal. Which is still great compared to 100% coal. Don't have my source so I might be wrong but I've heard the 50% several times. I tell myself routinely when considering whether to use Natural gas or electric for a particular thing, " well, the electricity is more expensive than gas but it's 50% clean".

One picky point about Oregon hydro - there are hidden costs with the never-ending multibillion dollar salmon restoration plans. I'm all for Salmon restoration - I just want to point out that hydro is not as clean and tidy as it might seem.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Originally Posted by jawshoeaw

I'm afraid Oregon is much closer to 50% Coal. Which is still great compared to 100% coal. Don't have my source so I might be wrong but I've heard the 50% several times. I tell myself routinely when considering whether to use Natural gas or electric for a particular thing, " well, the electricity is more expensive than gas but it's 50% clean".

One picky point about Oregon hydro - there are hidden costs with the never-ending multibillion dollar salmon restoration plans. I'm all for Salmon restoration - I just want to point out that hydro is not as clean and tidy as it might seem.

not quite 50 %...more like around 30-40% like WA state. what you have is probably close to 50% during peak times which is probably the only time that coal plants input a significant amount of power to the grid.

Wa state has hydro power to burn but we cant generate enough to meet peak demand. for dam integrity, water levels, seasonal flooding and probably a half dozen other reasons i am not aware of, hydro power works best when generated a fairly steady level.

that does not work well when daytime demand is 300% greater than night time demand. being able to charge a fleet of EV's at night will allow more of the hydro power to be used more efficiently.

right now, during the rainy season, water is let out of the dam and the extra electricity is used to pump water uphill to a retention pond to be released at a later date when water in the dam is low and power needs are high. granted electricity that would normally be completely wasted is saved to a point, but its a 10 to 1 loss on energy.

during a lot of the summer season and especially in early fall, a higher water level in the river system is desired for fish health, but many times , the water release has to be weighed against current and future power needs.

granted, hydro will not feed 100 million EV's every night, but it will allow a much more efficient use of the power that is there.


the numbers provided here are vague memories. Puget Sound Energy gives us a power source breakdown every few months. i wish i could find one right now.

[ken1784]

Originally Posted by ken1784

For me, it looks Prius is cleaner than coal powered EV.

This is an old thread, but Toyota has the same recognition as mine.
TOYOTA: Corporate Responsibility > Sustainability Report
"if electric vehicles are powered by electricity generated from older coal-fired power plants, the total CO2 emissions on an LCA basis will be greater than those from hybrid vehicles.".

Ken@Japan

[pooja84]

I am impressed by the design of this car. Hope, performance-wise its good.