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The Nissan LeafTest Driving the Nissan Electric CarI recently visited Windsor motors in Cork to test drive the Nissan Leaf electric car. The Nissan Leaf is the first all-electric production car from a major manufacturer and it is creating quite a bit of BUZZ, so I had to get my hands on one! Hopefully I can try one out for an extended period of time in the future but it seems to be quite a challenge even for me to get one here in Ireland at the moment!So on the first day we showed up to test the car, unfortunately by the time we got there it had already run out of charge! There are so many people looking for a test drive that by the time we got there it was finished for the day. There is a fast charger in most Nissan dealerships with the Leaf now but when we were there it had yet to be set up. A quick charger can charge the batteries to 80% in 30 minutes but a normal charger of 220/240V would take about seven hours. 
So we went home and came back the next day to a fully charged Nissan Leaf ready to test.
One of the first things you notice is the big touch screen where the radio should be.
It is packed with features such as sat nav, energy use statistics, battery range, and a pretty cool rear camera which comes on when you’re reversing.
It can also show you where all the nearest charge stations are on a map which can be quite handy when you are running low on juice in an unfamiliar area.
The leaf uses an electronic handbrake and once that is off you just pull the little knob where the gear stick usually is back into drive and off you go. Straight away you can feel the difference in acceleration. As I took off down a straight stretch of road I could feel such a smooth instant acceleration that you really do not get from an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car. The 80kW electric motor in the Nissan Leaf produces 280Nm of torque to give you that great acceleration. 
What I could also feel was how the Nissan electric car is so much like any other regular car.
When you are cruising along at a steady pace you start to forget about the fact that you’re in a state of the art electric car and it feels like just any other automatic Nissan.
This can have its advantages and disadvantages too.
The drive from the car is not the best as it feels a bit more soft than sporty which would be my preference.
However this may appeal to more drivers as Nissan seem to be making a point that the Leaf is just as luxurious as any petrol or diesel car around.
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New!Leave a CommentI have been writing my opinions here on the site since 2008 trying to find the perfect electric vehicle. However I would always like to read your thoughts on all-electric vehicles and comments about the site so........ You can also leave comments about any page at the bottom of each page. |
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In the back seats you may notice that your feet rest a little higher than in the front.
This is because the batteries are kept under your the seats and the footrest.
There are 48 modules of laminated li-ion batteries which can output more than 90kW of power.
The low position of the batteries gives the car a lower centre of gravity and helps the ride of the car.
Nissan claims that these batteries will still have 70-80% capacity after 10 years.
Unfortunately most people around seem to see it either as a novelty or else as a risk at the moment with many people fearing it will become obsolete in a year or two like an extremely expensive old iPhone.
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