What Is The Nissan Leaf Car
The British-built Nissan Leaf which offers 2.5p a mile motoring has become the first all-electric vehicle to be crowned European ‘Car of the Year’ for 2011.
Judges said the pollution free ‘green’ car, which can be charged from the domestic household mains, was the first electric vehicle to match conventional petrol cars and didn’t drive like a milk-float.
The ground-breaking Leaf goes on sale in Britain and Europe from the beginning of next year and is scheduled to be built in Britain at Nissan’s Sunderland plant, which employs 4,900, from 2013.
Billed as the world’s first mass-marketed, affordable, zero-emission vehicle for the global market, the Leaf beat 40 contenders to win motoring’s most important accolade.
Deliveries in Japan and the United States begin this December. The first UK customers will get their Leafs in March, priced at priced at £23,990 - which includes a £5,000 'green' Government discount, funded by the taxpayer to help kick-start the market in electric vehicles.
Powered from the domestic mains for 2.5p a mile motoring, the Leaf is the ultimate pollution-free ‘plug and play’ car. And it has none of the carbon dioxide - blamed for global warming - or oxides of nitrogen and sooty particulates you get from diesels.
The Nissan Leaf is powered by a compact electric motor in the front of the car, which drives the front wheels.
With charge stored in a bank of 48 Nissan-developed laminated lithium-ion batteries, the electric motor develops 109 horse-power, enough for a maximum speed of 90mph. Acceleration from rest to 60mph takes 11.8 seconds.
It has a range of more than 100 miles between charges, which the company says makes it a practical proposition for many urban drivers.
There’s no London Congestion Charge to pay because, as a zero emissions car, it’s exempt.
And maintenance costs are up to 15 per cent less than a conventional car.
The vehicle is fully equipped with features such as air conditioning, satellite navigation, parking camera and advanced on-board IT and telematics systems.
The owner can even monitor the car’s state of charge and the remaining battery capacity, as well as arrange to heat or cool the interior of the car remotely via mobile phone or computer.
A fast charger unit, as some councils, supermarkets and electricity generation companies are preparing to install - achieves an 80 per cent recharge in half an hour.
The Car of the Year jury is made up of 58 senior motoring journalists from 23 countries charged with choosing the most outstanding new car to go on sale in the past 12 months.