The Nissan Leaf Drive Electric Tour is in Atlanta this weekend, and I just came back from a test drive. WOW! This is worth checking out if you live near the tour route: next stops are Knoxville, TN, Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, finishing up in DC (March 18-20).

My primary point of reference is my 2009 Honda Fit Sport AT, although I have also done test drives of a 2009 Honda Insight and Prius. Leaf visibility is very similar to the Fit, and much better than either the Insight or Prius (both of which have horrible rear corner visibility). The Leaf doesn't have the magic rear seats, so it doesn't have as much cargo capacity as a Fit, but the interior, especially the seats, is less spartan than the Fit. Exterior looks are another matter entirely, with "fugly" probably being a charitable description (although not nearly as weird as the Nissan Cube).

While I love the Fit's cargo capacity and handling, its ride and noise leave something to be desired. Without the sounds of a small gasoline engine, the Leaf was as silent as I would expect a luxury car to be inside, and road noise also seemed very low (not that I got much chance to experience different road surfaces on a 2-mile loop). 0-60 acceleration is probably about the same as the Fit, but without the Sturm und Drang of shifting gears and revving the engine to 6000 rpm; 0-30 acceleration is around 3.5 seconds (207 pound-feet of torque for the Leaf, vs 106 for the Fit), and when I floored it, I was pushed back in the seat, and broke traction when crossing a bit of gravel. Ride and handling through an obstacle course felt pretty good (the 600 pound battery pack is very low), although the steering was a little slower than I am accustomed to.

When I test drove a Prius, I couldn't wait for the drive to end; the Insight was a little more fun/responsive to drive, but didn't thrill me. If I were looking for a second car for commuting right now, the Leaf would be very high on my list. Range is ~100 miles, which is enough to get to almost everywhere I travel regularly, but of course rules out long highway trips.

 

Looks like a very good car for me. I'm doing low to mid 20s on the fit. That's with a lot of short trips and turning the engine on and off more than 12x per day. Does my driving habit kill the targeted 100 miles per full charge of batt? Will it even hurt the battery in the long run...?

 

What you describe is the scenario in which the Leaf should work best. Like the Prius, the Leaf has regenerative braking (in "Eco" mode), so stopping recovers a significant amount of the energy expended in acceleration.

Aside from burying a Fit in city acceleration, the things I really liked about the Leaf were the near silence and the ride -- both of which are fatiguing on the Fit (although I have owned cars that were worse). On these aspects, the Leaf feels like you're in a limo, compared to a Fit. If only the Leaf weren't so damned ugly. That said, if it's a hit, I see nothing to prevent Nissan from building a sports car, say a convertible roadster along the lines of a Miata, on the same platform. Lower the CoG without the high hatchback body, cut maybe 500 pounds off the weight... Now that would be fun!

 

I have to agree. being the car of the year, nissan just brought me to an extreme driving experience. in comparison with the GTR, this one is a semi-electric car powered by 24KW lithium-ion battery and consumes less fuel...For me, this vehicle deserves possitive feedbacks from drivers out there....

 

I wonder if they'll ever come out with an EV car covered in high efficiency solar panels all over the entire body.

Would 1 day of intense sun here in Florida even be enough to make a big difference in the charge level?