I'm shocked too.....no Chicago but they're taking it to Detroit? Hey Nissan, we're only the 3rd largest city in the country!!

I clicked on the links you provided but I could not find the specific locations. Are there addresses of Nissan dealers that it will be stopping at? Also, since I am planning on going to the Los Angeles auto show during the first week of December, I'm betting Nissan will have a Leaf at the autoshow. It might not be the same Leaf that is touring the country, but I would bet money they will have a Leaf on display at the L.A. auto show.

Hey! The 1st 3 stops are so close ... I can see it 3 times! Guess I'll be checking it out for all you's guys


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I expect they'll want to be at Hybridfest Green Drive Expo in July 2010. I mean who would want to miss that show?

I feel terrible that all the Northern Cali stops are close enough for me to make it. Guess I could see it 5 times.

Do you think there's more information, like where to see it?

I'm in Vancouver and would love to go but there is no info on where it will be. Neither site has any info on the Vancouver stop. There isn't even a decent Leaf page on the Nissan Canada website.

I'm sure our greewashed Premier will be drooling over the good press he will get in a photo-op with the leaf while he allows unregulated venting of sour gas and massive subsidies to oil companies.

The Leaf was on display over the week end, and they're scheduling a few more appearances in the near future. I highly recommend it, if you can make it. I spent about 90 minutes talking to the Nissan Leaf folks up in Santa Monica yesterday after I finished my O.T. at work. I must say, I was impressed. I'll take better pics when I see it on Wednesday, just down the street at Irvine Spectrum ... but for now, here's some pic's off the camera phone that I took yesterday:













And while I was there checking it out ... as the ol' saying goes ... "I went to the event and all I got was this crummuy 'T' shirt:



Actually it was pretty high quality. I know the pic's aren't as nice as the ones published by their PR firms, but maybe next Wednesday I'll take the super nice camera to their next upcoming event ... we'll see.

Here's the new stuff they told me. The battery sale/lease decision still hasn't been made. Even so, Nissan is leaning towards a lease, rather than a purchase. The up side of that decision is that the car costs less, and the money you'd pay for the battery lease would pretty much be the same as if you'd paid for it up front ... only it's spread out over several years. So that didn't sound as horrible as my knee jerk feeling when I'd first heard that.

They also said Nissan is building a fast charge infrastructure to supplement at-home charging. I've posted (on another thread) pic's of the Chinese EV's fast charger, where the recharge cable is the size of your forarm ... well that's what the Nissan fast-charge cable will look like. They said that if your recharge is bone dry, it'll go to fully 100% in 30 minutes max ... and less time for recharge turning on whether your remaining charge is 20% - 50% or 80%.

The other cool thing was I noted the entire under belly is a big ol' sheet - even more extensive than the Gen III underbelly. That's supposed to be part of the detail that assures a real low drag coefficiency. I sure hope Toyota is taking notes!




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Thanks Hill!

HI ALL - today, my wife and I went to the Americana, across from the Glendale Galleria. We saw the NISSAN LEAF upclose and I got warned NOT to touch the neat, blue Nissan logo. We both got some shirts and here's what i know.

#1) Estimated costs : $28,000 - $34,000
#2) 100 mile range
#3) 90 MPH top speed
#4) 5 passengers
#5) In the CA costs, it will cost approximately $3.75 to fully charge the Leaf
#6) Can be quickly charged or full charge in 8 hours @ 220V
#7) It's really nice and it looks good.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the good information. It sure isn't very cheap to run if $3.75 = 100 miles. Especially if you have to rent the batteries, too. Part of the savings will have to come from less maintenance with an EV.

I had similar thoughts about its performance. I think it will be hard to sell people on the whole less maintenance thing. Why is this one $3.75 / 100 miles? Is CA electricity that expensive??

Also, can someone explain how leasing batteries works? I don't get the concept.

it was a spokesperson that i asked and it was just a estimate from her. I'm thinking that it would be about the average. i also concur that the car is not a very economical car and that 100 miles arrives rather quickly when driving.

this would be a great around town car, but until the charging stations get a more plentiful, we would not opt to use this car for long trip endeavors. when i'm on a road trip, two things stop us.......fuel and bathroom. i also note that it's usually 250-300 miles before i stop. on the leaf, every 75 miles to stop would be a bit of a pain. 75 because that's when i would start looking.

i forgot two other items:

#8) the LEAF has a small solar panel on TOP on top of the rear spoiler. this solar panel was designed to charge/recharge the information and settings in the computer. in case you run OUT of battery, all the information would not be completely deleted.

#9) the navigation system would have icons which would show the available recharging stations near-by.

CA electricity cost per Kwh can run as high as 26 cents per Kwh ... so yes, it can be VERY costly here, turning on what part of the state you're in, and how much use is done at the very highest tier on the system. On the other hand, if you're power comes from your own solar panels (substantially), and they've amortized their self already, you'd be running your EV for free!

No one can explain a battery lease with precision as it's never been done with cars (maybe its done with 1,000 forklift batteries). A battery lease would turn on the new cost, divided over the years of the lease ... just like a car. Perhaps the better condition that the product is in at the end of the lease, the less you'd pay at the end of the lease, when the leassor turns it in for a new product.


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At least here in San Diego, baseline rates are about 12c / kWh and if you use a lot of electricity, you can get charged about 32c / kWh. Baseline rates are actually cheaper than what it costs to produce the electricity - they are currently subsidized by those who use more than the baseline rate. Rates are similar across the state for the 3 major utilities.

So, let's just assume they're using the baseline rate - $3.75 gets you about 31 kWh. Over 100 miles, that's about 310 Wh/mile which is probably a bit high, so I'd guess they are using a slightly higher rate for their electricity costs.

Anyway, 4c/mile is about half the cost of gas, so it's still cheaper to fuel. Right now gas is about $3/gallon in California - assuming 50 mpg, that's 6c/mile.

Yes, that's the best case scenario. I worry that a lot of people are going to find that plugging in an EV puts them into the expensive tiers of electricity which could make an EV more expensive per mile to fuel - at least here in CA. It will still be far cleaner, though - especially considering how low-carbon and clean electricity in CA is.

That's exactly what will happen if you don't have off peak electric rates. If there are ever enough EV's to make those rates happen, then the road taxes will start. In other words electricity for your car will have the same taxes as gasoline does and there goes your savings.

I think that's a long way off though, since these are city cars and only good as second vehicles at least here in the west, which will limit their numbers.

Right! You know why? As on November, CA has DROPED time of use (TOU) meter options, that allow for cheaper rates off peak. God forbid we should be incentivised to use power wisely ... better we simply PAY more (shaking head).

As for baseline rate, literally if you run your fridge & a couple 60watt bulbs too frequently and a few hours of TV, you over shoot baseline. Baseline is NOT even a theoretically achievable goal for most in our area. What is it ... turning on your region and season, something less than 10Kwh per day in many parts of so Cal? Good luck with using less than that around here. Yea, you can, but it aint easy for most.

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Electric Power Monthly - Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State

I did live in California and the amount that PG&E gives you as a baseline is pretty low. Someone one here can probably comment on the cutoff for their place.