Nissan LEAF Electric Car will start at $32,780

Sale, Lease and Reservation Details for the Nissan EV

Nissan announced U.S. pricing for the 2011 Nissan LEAF electric car, which becomes available for purchase or lease at Nissan dealers in select markets in December and nationwide in 2011. Nissan will begin taking consumer reservations for the Nissan LEAF April 20, ahead of other electric cars in this price range.

Including the $7,500 federal tax credit for which the Nissan LEAF will be fully eligible, the consumer’s after-tax net value of the vehicle will be $25,280. The Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the 2011 all-electric, zero-emission Nissan LEAF is $32,780, which includes three years of roadside assistance. Additionally, there is an array of state and local incentives that may further defray the costs and increase the benefits of owning and charging a Nissan LEAF – such as a $5,000 statewide tax rebate in California; a $5,000 tax credit in Georgia; a $1,500 tax credit in Oregon; and carpool-lane access in some states, including California.

As a result of aggressive pricing and the availability of the $7,500 federal tax credit whose benefit is immediately included, Nissan will be able to offer a monthly lease payment beginning at $349, not including state or local incentives, which could further reduce the net cost of the Nissan LEAF.

The vehicle at the standard SV trim level is well-equipped with a variety of standard features, including an advanced navigation system and Internet/smart phone connectivity to the vehicle, including pre-heat/pre-cool and charging control. Nissan LEAF is equipped with energy-efficient LED headlights and makes extensive use of recycled and recyclable materials, such as seat fabric, instrument panel materials, and front- and rear-bumper fascias. Other standard amenities include Bluetooth connectivity; Intelligent-key with push button start; Sirius/XM satellite radio capabilities and roadside assistance. Safety features include vehicle dynamic control (stability control), traction control and six airbags. The SL trim level, available for an additional $940 (MSRP), adds features including rearview monitor, solar panel spoiler, fog lights, and automatic headlights.

Reservations on April 20

In order to ensure a one-stop-shop customer experience, Nissan is carefully managing the purchase process from the first step, when consumers sign up on NissanUSA.com, until the customer takes the Nissan LEAF home and plugs it into a personal charging dock.

■Nissan begins accepting reservations on April 20 first from people who have signed up on NissanUSA.com, and, after a brief introductory period, to all interested consumers.
■Consumers will be required to pay a $99 reservation fee, which is fully refundable.
■Reserving a Nissan LEAF ensures consumers a place in line when Nissan begins taking firm orders in August, as well as access to special, upcoming Nissan LEAF events.
■Rollout to select markets begins in December, with nationwide availability in 2011.

Charging Equipment

In tandem with the purchase process, Nissan will offer personal charging docks, which operate on a 220-volt supply, as well as their installation. Nissan is providing these home-charging stations, which will be built and installed by AeroVironment, as part of a one-stop-shop process that includes a home assessment.

■The average cost for the charging dock plus installation will be $2,200.
■Charging dock and installation are eligible for a 50 percent federal tax credit up to $2,000.
■Using current national electricity averages, Nissan LEAF will cost less than $3 to “fill up.”
■Nissan LEAF also will be the sole vehicle available as part of The EV Project, which is led by EV infrastructure provider eTec, a division of ECOtality, and will provide free home-charging stations and installation for up to 4,700 Nissan LEAF owners in those markets.

This major announcement gives Nissan a lead over Toyota, General Motors, Ford and others that will also be offering electric cars. Top 10 Electric Car Makers 2011 U.S. Offerings

Cleantech Blog

=> Nissan LEAF Electric Car will start at $32,780.

Nissan shortcuts to win a race to market

You need to make some technical compromises in the very early stage of the market in order to be the first mover. Will it pay off in a longer range?

Nissan, led by enthusiastic CEO Carlos Ghosn, has emerged as a surprise leader in the push toward electrification of the automobile. What is so remarkable about this is Nissan was not even part of the EV conversation two years ago. Now the company is poised to be the first major manufacturer to mass-produce electric vehicles.

The Nissan Leaf is slated to appear in a handful of test markets by the end of the year, putting the company neck-and-neck with General Motors and the Chevrolet Volt expected at about the same time. Nissan’s sudden change in focus was the result of Ghosn’s personal vision and his willingness to force it through his company from the top down. The impatient CEO recently told Bloomberg, “The engineers will always tell you, ‘Wait a little more,’ and if you keep playing this game, you never launch any product.”

Sheer force of will from a charismatic leader can accomplish great things when matched with a company that has a good reputation for execution. Cars, however, are complicated pieces of engineering, and an electric vehicle presents numerous fresh challenges to Nissan engineers. Intense pressure from the top may have created a sense of urgency, but it also appears to have driven the company to take some shortcuts.

First, Nissan overpromised on the realistic range by consistently quoting a number tied to the most optimistic benchmark, the LA4 cycle. Drivers who stick to stop-and-go traffic on city streets in temperate climates may indeed consistently see 100 miles of range, but most drivers will see significantly less in a mix of city and highway driving. Driving in California, the country’s top market for electric vehicles, involves a lot of time on highways where the 65 mph speed limit is rarely observed. The LA4 cycle Nissan quotes mostly stay below 30 mph with one two-minute “sprint” at 55 mph every 22-minute cycle.

It also appears Nissan has cut corners on the most critical aspect of electric vehicle technology — the battery pack. The key engineering trade-off Nissan has made is opting not to include active thermal management, where the temperature of the pack is controlled by an HVAC system similar to what cools the passenger cabin on a hot day. Instead, Nissan has opted to use only an internal fan that circulates the air within the sealed pack to evenly distribute the heat, which escapes by passive radiation through the pack’s external case.
Thermal management in lithium-ion battery packs is critical to the long-term performance and quality of the battery. The manganese oxide pack is sensitive to high temperature and the primary consequence is that the pack will degrade more rapidly than one with active thermal management. This problem will be worse in hotter climates such as Phoenix, which Nissan has selected as one of its launch cities.

Mark Perry, Nissan’s director of product planning for the United States, dismissed the importance of active thermal management.

“We don’t need thermal management for the U.S., but we are looking at the technology for Dubai and other locations like that…. We’ve gone on the record saying that the pack has a 70 to 80 percent capacity after 10 years,” he told Wired.com. Pressed on whether that is realistic for a passively cooled manganese oxide pack, Perry said yes.

“If it wasn’t our pack and it wasn’t our engineers and we weren’t working on it for 17 years … we wouldn’t make the statement if we weren’t confident in our ability to do so,” he said.

But we heard a different story from Paul Hawson, a Nissan product planner who worked on the Leaf, when the automaker brought the Leaf to the Wired offices in November. Asked why Nissan chose not to use active thermal management, Hawson explained the engineers experimented with it but found it required a central tunnel on top of the pack. That would intrude on cabin space, splitting the rear bench into two seats with a hump in the middle. Nissan, he said, decided to use only passive cooling to preserve passenger space.

Asked to confirm that, Perry insisted Hawson had misunderstood the question and said, “We don’t make sacrifices in performance. The electric vehicle is the number one priority at Nissan.”

General Motors has taken a different approach with the battery in the Chevrolet Volt. Although it uses a similar lithium manganese chemistry, GM opted to use an active liquid cooling system. Doing so ensures optimal power and lifespan, said Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the Volt.

“Thermal management [with lithium manganese batteries] has bookend issues to manage: minimized power at low temperatures and life reduction at high exposure to higher temperatures,” he said. “If you want to replace your battery every four to five years and someone is willing to pay for [a replacement battery], either the customer or the manufacturer, a modest or minimal HVAC system may work.”

The Volt actively manages both low-temperature and high-temperature conditions.

“Additionally, we cycle the battery in a much friendlier way than our BEV competitors which need an 85 percent state-of-charge window to get their miles and this EV range begins degrading after day one of usage,” Posawatz added, referring to the fact that the Volt only cycles through 8 kilowatt-hours of the pack’s 16-kilowatt-hour capacity, which also contributes to longer life. Even with these conservative engineering approaches, Posawatz said, “our 10-year target still yields a battery with 70 to 75 percent of the capacity at the end of life.”

Nissan’s confidence on this matter aside, early purchasers of the Leaf should consider taking the company up on its offer to lease the battery, which would leave any financial risk of early battery degradation where it belongs — with Nissan.

Wired Autopia,

via http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/nissan-leaf-2/

Nissan Selects AeroVironment for Home EV Charging Stations

Nissan North America (NNA) selected AeroVironment to supply electric vehicle home-charging stations and installation services supporting the introduction of the zero-emission, all-electric Nissan LEAF later this year. Nissan announced this supply agreement at the North American International Auto Show.

The AV Nissan EV station. Click to enlarge.

The Nissan LEAF five-passenger electric car will be powered by a lithium-ion battery pack that will provide a drive range of 100 miles on a full charge, as measured by the LA4 test cycle. AV’s Nissan-branded charging stations will be available at the sale of each Nissan LEAF as part of the vehicle’s total driving system. The home-charging stations are designed to provide a safe and reliable charge when installed with a connection to a 220-volt line. It will take eight hours to fully charge the Nissan LEAF from a fully discharged state.

AV’s nationwide network will offer pre-installation home assessment services prior to vehicle delivery, and will install the charging stations.

Green Car Congress

via Nissan Selects AeroVironment for Home EV Charging Stations.

Nissan lubab 5-ukselist e-autot aastaks 2011

Fotol: Nissan Mixim kontseptsioon

Nissan-Renault koostöö Better Place võrguoperaatoriga on juba ammu teada. Nüüd on Nissani šeffid taas veidi suud paotanud. 5 ukseline väikeaauto peaks Ameerikas turule jõudma 2010. a. lõpus. The Motor Reporti andmetel saab auto ühe laadimsega sõidetud 160km ning hinnaks kujuneb ca 30k USD.