dmuramoto wrote: The question is, will they take into account the CO2 and other greenhouse gases generated downstream with the electricity?
It depends on how they want to calculate it. Would it be measured at the home meter? Or would be an average based on the efficiency of our power supply infrastructure?If so there would be no way to initiate a standard without standardized supply. Calculating load on the circuit would be more likely and I am sure the green culture has a calculator for this. With the multiple charging modes the current drawn will vary over the life of the vehicle.
Personally I do not think they would be able to go with that route since the majority of us do not know where the electricity in our segment of the grid comes from. The government is highly invested in the domestic market now and there is allot of money riding on the success of the Chevy Volt. If the Volts success were challenged by a foreign rival it may to interesting to see the response.
Nissan had gone to the levels of creating carbon neutral brushless motors and laminated lithium ion batteries that charge at a temperature cool enough to be placed under the floor. What I think will be interesting is designing a device that will charge your leaf even if you do not have a garage. I live in a condo community in the DC metro area. What seems to be the perfect market for this type of ecofriendly commuter, still lacks anything resembling an infrastructure. There are large parking lots here and I think trying to apply to the HOA for a dedicated 200v outlet would be a great time.
What stands out and may actually be the most significant impact will be the online community they want to create. If this were to work flawlessly it might help them build a name. Another feature I personally think is very modern is having an application for your mobile phone that can control the climate and will most likely give you more information about your car. I personally think they will have charging information and maybe charging stations near you.
It seems like Nissan did some homework on what makes the Prius movement so successful. The Prius folks tend to have a certain mentality that they are helping the planet with their gas/electric hybrid, they should migrate to the Leaf without a question. Nissans EV as well as it's upcoming hybrid should change the market and potentially the way we all look at the gasoline electric hybrid setup.