Nissan’s much hyped and ground breaking electric car, the Leaf, has been reserved in huge numbers much above anybody’s expectations as latest reports made by Nissan suggest. The Automaker has given around 14,000 reservations of the car even before a nation-wide campaigning programme kicks off in fall this year.
The reservations could be made for $99 each, which is refundable based on the customers request as well as failure on the service part as to non-installation of a charging station at the customers requested site. Nissan’s proudly stating that 99 percent of these customers are entirely new to Nissan products, which reveals that the Leaf has bring in a lot of new audience to the brand.
The car is claimed to do a run of 180km on a single charge and features compact Li-ion batteries and a 90KW motor. It shot into the limelight for its claimed and tested driveability and range. By the end of 2010, Nissan plans to sell it full stream in North America and other select markets.
Popularity: 2% [?]
I place my order for this in April 2010 ($99.00 reserve) for the early purchase plan. My Company Electrician and I eagrly await to get the information from Nissan for us to do the installation of the Charging Station. I fimly beleive this is to be a great step for transportation in the next 20 years. I think by the Year 2030 everyone will be shocked how quickly it has changed!
Very pleasing to hear that one of the giants in the “zero emissions revolution” is reeling in those figures. I believe to those figures could be more.
What we need is early government backing (the UK government subsidies we come into play in 2011 hence no “hype” from the UK at present) and the infrastructure to handle the hordes of “the green era” enthusiast.
I for one has had the pleasure of driving the leaf following an invite from Nissan at the O2 arena in London. I must say it is a truly amazing vehicle, the speed is absolutely the “norm” of the average 1.6 to 2.0 litre petrol propulsion engine. The exterior resembles a vehicle of our time, the interior… well, what can I say it just looks brilliantly stunning!, with some state of the art technology and the vehicle feels really comfortable.
Due to price tag, subsidiary issue and INFRASTRUCTURE not fully in place I think I will give it a miss for this year, however there is company by the name of ‘Evoasis.com’ whom after talks with mayor Boris Johnson and members of our government are tackling this problem by converting some of our old petrol stations into electric charging stations, which has lounges and a variety of features that will keep one busy as one waits a mere 30 minutes or less to charge ones vehicle.
More details of Evoasis’s planning and schedule developments at Evoasis.com