The Nissan Leaf is the first electric car to go on sale as it goes on sale later this year. I do not want to hear any rubbish about the G Whizz at this point because that thing (let's not call it a car shall we) is absolutely terrible and even so, the EU doesn't class it as a car, they class it as a Quadricycle. Anyway the Leaf will be the first CAR to go on sale and as such I think that I need to write about it.
The big thing about electric cars is the range. The Leaf has a claimed range of 90 miles which isn't bad for a lithium Ion battery car, obviously nothing on the Honda FCX Clarity Hydrogen electric car but that's not bad for a battery. There is one problem with this claimed range and it's that the cars never do their claimed ranges in the same way petrol and diesel cars don't do their claimed economy figures. More often than not they only achieve 45% of the predicted range. Whether this is going to be the case or not with the Leaf is yet to be seen.
But let's move on to happier and more interesting subjects, like power for instance. The Leafs motor produces 107bhp and 207lbs/ft of torque. This isn't bad to be honest. Translated into performance figures however and it's hard to understand. It gets the 0-60 sprint done in just over 10 seconds which isn't that quick for 107bhp and it's top speed is just under 100mph. For 107bhp and 207 torques that is nothing less than abysmal. Quite how this happened I don't know. My only guess is that Nissan made a conscious decision to gear the thing up that way so that the car doesn't drain its power too quickly. But if that's what they wanted why give it 207lbs of torque? I don't know.
What I do know is that like most electric cars it's terrible to look at. At least that's what I think. I won't tell you what to think about it and leave you to make your own mind up. I think the front is too angular for a hatchback car. It creates a sort of wedge effect. An effect that gets enhanced by the lack of any grill (it doesn't need one after all). The other thing is that it has a big bottom. Now I'm all for big bottoms if you know what I mean, but not on a car. It's my main gripe with the previous Renault Megane, the one advertised with the shaking asses advert. I don't like it when the back sticks out the way it does on the Leaf.
The interior is also not great. I think it's trying to be too modern if that makes any sense. I'm staring at it right now and to be honest I don't like the black and white dash. It's too bright for my taste and too much of a contrast. In honesty there's not that much wrong with the layout. It's very functional and well laid out, very Japanese. The dials are very clever, the power indicator is a good idea as it shows how much power you're using. A good idea so that you can aim for economic driving. The energy left indicator looks just like a normal fuel indicator but it has a big miles left indicator to accompany it. Truthfully, it's the colour scheme that I dislike the most.
Add everything together and the Leaf is a car that I'm not opposed to. I'm just not bothered by it, don't like and don't hate it. It's a car that I'm likely to forget about unless I see it around and think "oh it's the new Leaf"
Now for the good news. I have recieved a laptop for my birthday which means that it'll be easier to get online and blog. Before I was wrestling the family computer away from family and usually the blog came second to coursework. As a result I only had little time to blog. Now that isn't the case and I'll be able to blog far more often. Good news, don't you think?
In any case here's an image of the Nissan.
No comments:
Post a Comment