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The web's first forum dedicated to Nissan's groundbreaking electric car, the Nissan Leaf.
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blackteam02
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how bout that Nissan Leaf huh?!More MPG than the hyped chevy volt!! http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-...index


dmuramoto
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Good post on the Leaf. I think Nissan is on point with a more affordable car as well. But I suspect the mileage will drop if the EPA recalibrates their mileage testing at some point. The question is, will they take into account the CO2 and other greenhouse gases generated downstream with the electricity?

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audtatious
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Who knows what the EPA will be allowed to do now.

The Nissan Leaf has a dedicated site and forum as well:

http://www.nissanleafforum.com

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SteveTheTech
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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.

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Rev_D21
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Car and Driver had an article on how MPG is tested and calculated. You'd be surprised how many cars are not actually tested.

http://www.caranddriver.com/fe...ature

OCG35
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dmuramoto wrote:Good post on the Leaf. I think Nissan is on point with a more affordable car as well. But I suspect the mileage will drop if the EPA recalibrates their mileage testing at some point. The question is, will they take into account the CO2 and other greenhouse gases generated downstream with the electricity?
+1...

I'm all for not having to rely on middle east in order to run our vehicles... but to pretend its for environmental concerns is a bit far fetched... solar power, maybe - but electricity isn't generated without pollution.

dmuramoto
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Interesting--this is an older discussion, but one worth resurrecting as the Nissan Leaf's introduction draws closer. I just talked with a representative from the solar industry on potential implications of using solar power to recharge your Leaf. Perhaps he can give us some idea on how many solar panels it would take to fully recharge the Leaf during say, an eight hour regenerative cycle. Of course, to accurately calculate that, we'd need full specs on the Leaf's Li-ion storage capacity and I haven't seen any specs released as yet.

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SteveTheTech
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Hello old thread---

So as details are coming out at a more consistent pace nowadays regarding Nissans venture into EVs. According to Nissan they intend to enter this market early and strong. This will be a huge gamble given the limitations of the Leaf. Fortunately for Nissan they are not putting all of their eggs in this basket and are actively invested in efficient technologies.

Infrastructure and service will make or break this car no matter what the active range and charging times will be. There are plenty of people out there willing to take a gamble but having your car and phone connected in such a way might bite them in the rear if there is a problem with either.

I am waiting to make a final judgment until I see how they will approach the battery and its inevitable need for replacement and updates. Many of the technicians I know on the Nissan side of the fence are not very enthusiastic about the new products and confidence in the dealer pulling off the type of integration is going to be a challenge. More power to them though.

Tesla will be the company to beat in the EV game. Even if Chevy and Nissan are already on top of this market Teslas approach is similar to that of Apple. Owning the retail end could have some significant advantages...but it is still a gamble at this point. (http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/perfect-tesla-store). It seems like a gamble that could pay off big though.

What is the future Nissan or Infiniti dealer going to look like?
Will EVs cost some of my colleagues their jobs?


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