Nissan Announces LEAF Zero Emission Tour Dates

I'm going to go check out the Leaf tonight in down-town San Diego.

 

Going to Nissan's site shows no Sacramento stop, and this was confirmed by a local dealer. Boo.

 

Here are a few shots we took at the Irvine, CA showing last Wednesday. That's me, drooling . . . at the car, of course


















The underbelly was trippy - looking like one big sheet of tupperware.



and check out the bulge on those headlights . . . especially noticable from the angle shot in the pic below:



Supposedly the design decreases the drag over the side view mirrors.



That's it ... other than a couple more free 't' shirts. Now, as they say, all we can do is wait and see which company gets to market first.

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The thing I worry about is battery deterioration. How long are you suppose to lease the battery. If it dies 10% a year. After 1 year the range is 90 miles. After 2 years 81 miles. After 3 years like 73 miles. That's cutting it sort of close.

For something like an iPhone, the battery is not considered defective until 50% of the charge is gone. For my commute, 100 mi is acceptable. 50 mi is not acceptable.

I'll let others try this out first.

 

That worry is why Nissan is considering the lease option. The owner doesn't have to worry about battery life, and Nissan can lease it for cheap because they will sell the battery to utility companies for grid-storage.

Remember - when the battery is "worn out" in the car, that means that the capacity has deteriorated maybe 20-25%. There's still a lot of useful life left in the battery - especially for utility type storage where energy density is not much of a concern.

 

If you go to their website each locations is listed on a map. You then click on the location and it gives details.

One of ours here in Phoenix was at a major shopping mall, one at a Fiesta bowl block party and one at Cardinal stadium where a game was scheduled for thqat night.
They even had a few test drive locations and times. I got to actallu drive the LEAF. Very similar to my 05 prius w/ my 10 Kw pluginsupply.com all electirc mode option for 30-40 miles. BUT the LEAF can go 100, regen in 2 levels and is much more powerfull.