Nissan Working Up 200+ Mile Version of Leaf Battery-Car

I think the important fact is that it is a Tesla in Toyota clothing.

 

Clothing that came out in 2006 no less. Yuck!

 

Regardless. I paid a lot less than what Tesla charged for the very limited run of Model s40. Tesla Ms40 would have cost about $55k out the door with all incentives included. I got mines at $33k.

 

Unfortunately marketing campaigns have more influence on sales figures than engineering. How else can you explain Chrysler?

 

it's frustrating that toyota can build an ev that is capable of 130 miles, and yet chooses not to put that system in a smaller vehicle that might go 150. of course, they probably lost money on every one they sold.

 

The BEV Toyota built was a little bigger than a smart fortwo, and had less range than the smart and iMiEV. The Rav4 EV was successful because of nostalgia over the original, an because it was a cheap way to get a Tesla drive train. It probably hurt 40kWh S sales.

edit: changed an is to a was to reflect the Rav4 being cancelled.

 

Toyota is successful with the new Rav4ev, really? This thing was very expensive at $50k. And could not be sold. After Honda did their $299 lease deal before Toyota started discounting. The only reason it started to sell/lease because Toyota gave a lot of money to push them out of dealer showrooms. Imagine at $320 + $4k down for 36 months unlimited miles lease contract.

Actually, it was Tesla that chose the Rav4 to put their drive train in. Toyota gave Tesla free range of their product lineup to put their EV system in.

According to Tesla, they killed the 40kWh S because it was only about 5% of their customers put in orders for this version. So they killed it after deciding to give a software limited ms60 (as ms40) to fill original order.

 

I think they made about $700M profit on the total tesla deal, Akio Toyoda also lit a little fire under some engineers. They wouldn't have made anymore selling more, and that would make the mirai look even worse than it does now.

We can guess that the mirai has cost them about $2B so far, and they should lose money on each and every one of the 3000 they expect to lease in the US in the next 3 years even with heavy government subsidies. A smaller bev would really embarrass the mirai

Sometimes decisions are made to support a product the chairman of the board really likes, and that leads to killing products with more potential.

 

Don't mind me. I'm just jealous of your range, acceleration and cargo room.

 

Compared to the in house eQ that got canceled when Toyota realized no one was going to buy a 50 mile BEV with the other, longer ranged BEVs already on the market, yes, the Rav4 EV was a success. It likely would have done better if Toyota had rolled the credits into the lease price from the beginning though.

The Rav4 platform probably gave the most amount of space with the least amount of wait for the battery, but it also had the EV cred from the original one. I know Tesla canceled the ms40 because of low preorders. I now wonder how many potential ms40 buyers that couldn't go higher up got a Rav4 EV instead. The Rav4 was cheaper, available sooner, and was being shipped out of California in the beginning.

 

Competition is good!
I look forward to test driving Nissan's longer range offering.
Frankly, 150 miles would be plenty for us.

I would like to drive something more efficient than the Model S, so the efficiency rating of each of the next gen cars will be a big factor.

 

I don't remember that about tesla free range choice on toyota vehicles. It was likely a group decision. Likely tesla didn't want to do the camry because it would compete with the future model 3, toyota likely nixed the prius. The two best selling toyotas then are the corolla and rav4. I don't know who picked between but either was going to be expensive compared to it's ice version.
Toyota and Tesla Partner to Make Electric Vehicle - Toyota and Tesla 2010 EV - Popular Mechanics
We have leaks out of the engineering meetings that toyota regularly vetoed tesla suggestions in engineering the car.

Now we come to mistakes. First this thing was rushed, and toyota did not pay tesla enough to work on integration problems after development. This caused poor customers service on toyota's part. Next Toyota announced that it did not want to sell the beast when then announced the price and distribution. Toyota never spent lots to push them out, they only distributed to a small number of dealers and dropped the price to bellow what they initially should have launched it for. If you include the valuation of the deal toyota made out like a bandit, they got to pretend people didn't want plug-ins but looked like they were trying, they got rid of the numi closing headaches, they got bev experience and zev credits, and made more on telsa stock than then spent on the cars.

Yep the eQ was a product of group think and killed mercifully as it couldn't sell against the leaf and was priced higher. Absolutely if toyota had taken 6 months longer to fix prelaunch problems with the car and priced it lower and distributed it further the Rav4 would have been a bigger success.

Think of it this way tesla was not given the time to do much engineering. Look at how long toyota is taking on the prius generation, yep 2 years was not much. Think what the tech would look like in a year on a 150 mile awd lexus NX, which is a better platform.

I don't think many moved from a tesla 40kwh to rav4[/QUOTE]

 

[/QUOTE]

I 2nd that since most owners hang out in our Facebook group.

There were a few group types.
- Got out of the Leaf because of range. Or add the Rav next to their Leaf.
- Getting the Rav4EV for the wife with a Model S already in their stable.
- Or like me... got as close to a Tesla without spending all that money.
- Found a great commuter car on a budget for the next 3 years (lease with unlimited miles).

If I could afford the MS40, a few grand could move up to the MS60. Or even MS85 for a little more. MS40 does not really make that much money sense.

 

Ken doesn't hypermile. He uses the heat & heated seats. Tire pressure is max sidewall. He drives close to the speed limit.

 

When you say Ken drives close to the speed limit, I assume you mean less than the speed limit? And side wall max tire pressure.. like we Prius owners do?

In the Rav4EV, I set the Rav up like any other car. HVAC set to low efficiency (of low/high/normal settings; with low being the middle setting), and with factory tire pressure. Drives about 5-10 mph above speed limit. And still getting the GOM indicating 115 range on 80% charge. And this is not the exception, this is the norm for most owners. The only people not getting EPA and above rating are the short commuters.

But seems like Leaf marketing is still hyping their unicorn 100 miles range when the norm is not getting there. Ken being an exception, not the norm.

 

I'll say Ken drives speed limit +5. He only hypermiles in competition or on cross country trips that are beyond the car's range. Keeping the speed at or below 55mph is necessary to get to State College from Harrisburg.

Drivers of other EVs can beat the EPA, why is it so hard to believe it can't be done in a LEAF?

I suspect those who can't beat the EPA aren't efficient drivers and don't care to be.

 

the guy who comes up with 250 miles is the winner.

 

Tesla?

 

yup, at the leaf price.