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The Nissan Electric Car:Is the Nissan LEAF going to bring electric cars to the mainstream? Well when I was researching the Nissan electric car, the LEAF, I instantly noticed the first huge advantage of a mainstream manufacturer making an electric car, the abundance of information on it!
Most of the time when I research an electric car I find so many vague facts and half truths that I start to wonder if they exist at all.
This is the first car that I can get information on through a local dealer and not some website in America or a speciality dealer I have to travel hours to see!
 The Nissan LEAF is a hatchback 5 seat electric powered car and is designed to compete with a 1.6l engine car according to Nissan.
This is the type of car most families have as a second car in Ireland and I think the range won’t be a great problem as if people buy it as a second car it usually won’t need to be driven more than the 160km range in one go.
Even if they buy it as a city car it would do a pretty good job and you won’t stand out in it as for an electric car it looks pretty good, as there have been some brutal looking ones!.
 It has all the electric car trimmings like regenerative braking, an aerodynamic body and even more like low voltage LED lights which Nissan don’t even have on any of their other cars yet.
The Nissan electric car can also connect with your with an app on your phone to see how much it’s charged, so you can check up on your car while you sit in the coffee shop relaxing.
Sat Nav, climate control, cruise control and a rear parking camera all come standard on the Irish version of the car as there is only one model coming to Ireland.
These all seem like power draining and mostly unneeded devices but that’s the way they went so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
 The Leaf is going to have a 140km/h top speed and a 160km range which is quite good although this figure usually halves in the real world unless you really try to get the most out of it by driving like a granny.
It has a fast charge of 80% in 30 minutes and, good news if you live in Ireland because the ESB (electricity supply board) has announced that it will install home charging points for free to the first 2,000 electric vehicle customers.
So now for the more technical parts, it’s going to have an 80kW AC motor and li-ion batteries supplied by Automotive Energy Supply Agency (AESC), which is Nissans venture with NEC electronics. The batteries have 90kW output and the motor supplies 230Nm of torque.  Well the Leaf won’t be out in Ireland until February 2011 but it’s going to be out in the USA in December this year.
It’s going to cost $25,280 after a $7,500 tax incentive in America and €29,995 here in Ireland after a €5,000 government tax incentive.
According to the dealers the average running cost for the Nissan electric car should be €232 a year, which according to Nissan is 80% less than a “traditional” vehicle.
They are also are keen to add that there is no leasing the batteries and if you buy/lease the car then you buy/lease the car as a whole.
 I think the Nissan Electric Car is certainly a one I could like as it can instantly replace the car I drive at the moment (a diesel Peugeot 207) and it even sounds like it would be a lot fancier and have better acceleration.
The only drawback would be the price as it’s quite a lot for the class of ICE car it’s trying to compete with. The great thing though about Nissan making an electric car is the kick up the ass it’s after giving the government to start putting in charging points throughout the country! Even the ESB have started to get on the charge point situation and there’s a plan to put in 135 charge points in my city alone. Hopefully I’ll start actually seeing them soon but even having a plan is a start! 
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