Nissan didn't hesitate to gloat about its ability to book
8,000 Leaf pre-orders in just nine days during a
pre-pre-order for those who specifically requested early access to the automobile, and now the outfit's looking to make good on plans to have 25,000 orders in place by December. If all goes well, the all-electric car will be "widely available" in 2012, with a semi-wide release slated for next Spring. Naturally, the buzz is already fueling demand, and the automaker has today opened up a public reservation system online for those unwilling to take chances on availability come 2011. If you're interested, you can actually reserve your
Leaf right now with precisely zero clothing on -- you heard right, there's no need to even visit a local dealer. Simply hand over a $99 refundable deposit and wait, but you best get your story in line before being pinged by Nissan. The
Wall Street Journal has it that pre-orderers will have to "convince Nissan they are up to the task of owning an electric vehicle based on their driving patterns, living arrangements and other factors," and if you call Nunapitchuk, Alaska home, you can bet you'll be shoved to the rear of the line. But hey, we always heard it was best to pull the trigger now and ask questions later.
[Thanks, Jim]
posted May 16th 2010 9:12AM
It's about time!
@Stevenk: I just don't see this outpacing the Volt. Say you run out of electric power? On the Volt, it'll switch to gasoline at 200 MPG. What's the solution here?
@blenderman345 The Volt doesn't simply switch to gasoline, but rather, anytime whilst driving that the car needs more power than it's getting from the electric motor the gas generator will turn on and provide what's needed. So depending on the driver's driving style, it's possible that the gas-powered generator would be utilized during every drive, though it is more efficient.
@MeVirtually
Um you have this wrong. The volt will ONLY use electric if it's available. Once that is depleted, it switches over to a gas generator.
@MrX8503 I'm with yall I like the idea of an all electric car, but battery tech isn't there yet. Nissan says 100 miles but look at the people who are testing the electric mini when they have heat or ac on they are getting about 60 miles even those mini says it has a 100 mile range. That's why till you can go about 200 miles I'll be buying cars with a range extender like the volt. I've when saving for one since 2008, only 7 more months to go.
@blenderman345
You don't get 200mpg with the gasoline engine running.
You are getting an estimated 200 mpg when the electric is running.
The engine only gets like 32 miles to the gallon.
The nissan leaf gets a 367 mpg estimate.
Witch is a lot better than 200 mpg than the volt can run on a charge.
@a falling stone how can an electric car that you can't put any gas in get miles per gallon? Gallon of what? The volt gets a combined 200 miles per gallon including the 40 mile all electric and if you used a whole tank of gas. The gas engine gets about 50 mpg by itself there is no load on the engine it's self since it doesn't provide power to the wheels. The engine is there to provide electricity to the electric motor
@blenderman345 That's not really a big deal because the range on the Leaf is greater than what 95% of drivers do on their daily route. Yes, it won't work for long road trips (until gas stations start having electric charging stations), but you can always use your other car or a rental for that. Also, with tax rebates, the Leaf is going to start in the mid $20ks whereas the Volt is going to start in the low $30ks with the tax rebates. That is a huge jump. This is going to outpace the Volt for sure.
@rowehc
Read before you post. "estimate" its what it would cost to charge it in the price of fuel.
It costs a average gallon of gas to charge the leaf.
The volt has a great system to go long distance. but I could save much more in my day-to-day operations.
@a falling stone "You know how long this thing would need to last to pay off the $32,000 starting price? You will _never_ save enough to even get close to paying that off."
You don't need it to pay for the whole car to be a better alternative. It just needs to pay for the extra costs that of being new technology. So its $35k for the Leaf, but an equivalent spec and feature traditional gas vehicle is say $26k (ballpark, made-up figure), then it really only needs to make up for a $9k difference in price. In your scenario that would be in a little over 3 years at $2900 in gas savings per year. Very few cars average 30MPG of MIXED driving. People don't drive highways all day long.
Not to bad if you ask me...
@thenutty1 crap, wrong comment.
@Dest
How will it work when "gas stations" have electric charging stations? I don't think anyone is going to want to wait hours to charge their vehicle up at one of these stations.
@Wowzers
It takes 28min to quick charge to 80%
@Wowzers www.betterplace.com
@Stevenk And then we remember the vastly superior gas mileage that those in overseas from the U.S. have been experiencing for decades. Consumers in this country have had the ability to acquire much more powerful and efficient engines for years, we just did nothing to try and make them available here. Your prius' get about the same mileage as your average European vehicle that runs fully on petrol as they call it.
That said, our gas is generally much cheaper here than in other nations.
If you are going for emissions...that is another battle altogether. Though the cost in terms of emissions from a power plant to charge a fully electric vehicle is generally more than the emissions from an equivalent non-electric.
you will all finnd out both the volt and leaf wont even come close to there estimated mpg ratings....electricity costs money too....google the average cost per Kwatt and then do the math,it will prob work out to be half of the listed mpg.Work at toyota for 20 yrs,there hybrids cant be beat along with there reliability.Toyotas hydrogen fuel cell will be out soon......but those mpg est are way off.
I want one of these really bad! It would save me a lot of money.
Plus the features are cool!
@ERROR
You are such a cool bad ass. I wish I was as cool as you!
@a falling stone
I'm curious what folks electrical bills will be with one of these...
@fhlh
Much much much less than their previous gasoline bills!
@a falling stone You know how long this thing would need to last to pay off the $32,000 starting price?
You will _never_ save enough to even get close to paying that off.
Worst case scenario...you drive 40 miles per day, 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year, at 15MPG, and gasoline averages $3.50 all year. That is $2912 a year in gasoline costs (or $1456 a year for most 95-current cars that average 30MPG).
Assuming that you do not have to pay for electricity (which is cheap) and that you don't have to replace the battery (extremely expensive), it would take 11 years to recover those costs (or 22 years for a $1,000-10,000 30MPG used car made in the last decade or so).
@YuriTenshi
How is 12,000 miles a year a worst case scenario? that seems like the typical driver (10,000 - 12,000 a year). i know people who have to drive much more than that, they will save a lot of money with that car.
On top of that you are looking at the issue the completely wrong way. you dont simply compare the price of the car to the money saved on gas. a lot of people need a new car anyway, so they are trying to decide if they should buy car A or car B, both similarly priced, or where the leaf being slightly more expensive would still save them money.
@direxnipe even if you drove 24000 miles a year it would take 5 years to make up the cost difference of purchasing a cheap commuter car with good mpg. The average person owns a car 3 to 5 years so you will never make any money back. Also the more it's used the faster the batterys will wear out and I doubt you won't have to replace them in that timeframe driving that much. They will get weaker every recharge.
No thanks, i'll stick with my BMW.
@Stevenk Not that I disagree with (either of) you but you might consider looking into Schizophrenia
@d0mth0ma5
Lol!
@d0mth0ma5 How do you look INTO Schizophrenia? HA!
Just kidding. But, seriously this is hilarious.
@Stevenk BMW offers an electric car? That is AMAZING.
@ERROR At least mine will start
@ERROR Overcompensate much?
REAL MEN can drive a bike and still be real men..
@ERROR
Actually, real men have penises, a car doesn't add to your 'manhood' so stop acting all big and strong just because you own a car which is at least twenty years old. Also, if you want to show how strong your car is, why don't you post a video of you crashing it into a wall?
@ERROR
So you wanna throw your 4 barrel Hemi Double Pumper SS Shelby Edition down against an Mercedes SLS? Cuz, Bra, I'm pretty sure there are videos on the Innerweb of it spanking the titties of even the Enzo. Surely you don't think your Buick Elektra is going to beat an Enzo?
@Error
You make a hell of a troll.
@ERROR
You have small penis syndrome.
"When you're ready to begin, let's get started."
Is it just me or does something seem a bit wrong?
and when is it coming to Canada??????
COME ON!!!!
@kingofwale If you take a look at the sign up info, you can either choose USA or Canada as countries.
If not for the 100 mile limit, I would buy it! $30,000 seems too much, especially if you don't own the battery...
@Engadgeteeer. I suspect that this is why they are 'vetting' potential owners. they likely have list of cities that firmly support an all electric car with recharge stations etc. And more important which don't.
So if you are in BFE with no stations they aren't going to let you buy one because you would be totally screwed. But if you are in like LA will there are tons of stations all over the place and growing (or so I have been told) you can join the queue.
@Engadgeteeer
You DO own the battery. The original plan was to lease the battery but they decided against that.
You look at this car, then peer at other urban people mover designs like the Smart and have to ask pointed questions about automotive design intentions.
Are you willing to drive around in a car that is so fundamentally ugly?
Does the high tech under the sheet metal outweigh the insensitive exterior design by such a broad margin that it's worth your pile of Benjis?
Some people don't care about the external design so much, but is that who Nissan is targeting this, or are they trying to appeal to early adopters or high tech enthusiasts? Or are they clueless?
@BuzzMega
Ugly, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think my Prius is one of the better looking cars on the road. I find cars by BMW to be ugly. That being said...that doesn't make a BMW a bad car (although most of their owners appear to be bad drivers incapable of using a turn signal).
I purchase my cars for utility. If I want beauty I purchase art or otheraesthetic items.
@KenEsq I, too, have a Prius, but much of the attraction was its simple, "urban transporter" styling. The original Prius intrigued me, but looked like Toyota's weasel styling group hit it in the face with a butt ugly stick.
The second and third gen Prii have a very comfortable blend of utility, tech and tomorrow about them.
I agree that beamers run from good to plain to terrible. And their drivers (at least here in LA) seem to be 50% more aggressive and highway-dangerous than the average. (http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/D200Gallery.html)
chevy volt destroys this...
Yeah, I don't want hackers to take control of my brakes. No thanks.
@Steven
Ummm...that has nothing to do with an electric car...that has to do with computer controlled breaking/accelerating systems that have been in use in 'regular' cars for over a decade.
Sounds like a passing fad to me. I will stick to my Land Rover :-)
The oil industry is the powerful force in the universe. They control the world and everything in it. They'll make sure the all electric cars will fail.
@acedrums With the current design of electric cars I'm sure they'll fail on their own.
@acedrums The oil industry has been infiltrating designers in the car industry so noone buys these ugly things...
Can they start making the cars look "normal"??