Nissan Partners With Province of Nova Scotia & Nova Scotia Power

With the leaves starting to change colour and steadily falling to the asphalt, this seemed like a fitting time for Nissan to introduce another kind of leaf to Nova Scotia’s roads: their all-electric LEAF 5-door hatchback.

It was announced yesterday that Nissan Canada will partner with the province of Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Power to introduce the electric vehicle to the province.

“This announcement adds the Province of Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Power to a growing list of like-minded partners equally as committed as Nissan to promote and encourage the adoption of zero emission vehicles as a way to combat climate change,” said Allen Childs, President of Nissan Canada Inc. “As a manufacturer we provide innovative vehicles that Canadians love and want to drive, but our partners play an important role in helping build the infrastructure support for electric vehicles that will make a roll-out of the Nissan LEAF, and other electric vehicles in Nova Scotia possible.”

Indeed a key partner in promotion and building infrastructure is Nova Scotia Power who also announced their purchase of 10 Nissan LEAF’s for its ShareReady Electric Vehicle program. The program will help NS Power to study and understand the impact of electric vehicle use in Nova Scotia.

Here’s hoping I can snag a LEAF sometime soon for a review!

[Nissan Canada]

Top Gear Tries Electric Cars Again, Fails

I must say, Top Gear might very well be the best show ever made. Seriously. No car show has ever received the viewership or fanbase that they have and no car show has ever been able to lure people otherwise uninterested in cars before. With that said, a good chunk of the reason why Top Gear is able to attract such a wide variety of viewers is because of the dynamic between hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, but also because it’s wildly entertaining.

The latter should be considered when watching the above clip. Clarkson and May decide to have a go at the Peugot iOn and the Nissan LEAF – both full on electric vehicles. However, to ensure that it’s still entertaining they decided to see if they could trek across the country is said vehicles. Since most electric vehicles are designed to be city dwellers, this is obviously an attempt at entertainment. And knowing them, they succeeded.

May and Clarkson found themselves at the University of Lincoln as they stopped to ask where they could charge their cars. Inevitibly no one could point them to a charging station because there weren’t any. So then the duo decided to just drive around looking for a charging station until the cars ran out of juice and had to be towed.

This really seems like more of a middle finger to Tesla, who has filed a lawsuit against Top Gear and the BBC for allegedly rigging the test of their roadster which gave the impression that the car is useless because you have to charge it too often. Even though Tesla wasn’t involved in this video, it’s clear that Top Gear are not fans of the electric car industry in general. However, James May has actually written a column saying that electric cars aren’t all that bad and can work in certain instances. Obviously in this instance, they aren’t ideal.

[The Lincolnite]

Shots Fired: GM Takes Aim at Nissan LEAF

The race for the best selling electric vehicle is starting to get a bit messy as GM is throwing a few shots Nissan’s way.

Mark Reuss recently spoke out on his opinions of the Nissan LEAF.  Says Ruess:

“[The Leaf] has a finite range and requires infrastructure and charging to run it, where the Volt is really an extended-range electric vehicle. The Volt can really be the only car you own. You better be living within a certain range for the Leaf. … It’s a lot different market, a lot different car and a completely different driver.”

Not too bad, right? A well thought out, logical answer. But Reuss unfortunately didn’t stop there when maybe he should have. He continued:

“I’m not sure if I’d put the Leaf in the hands of my three kids. Say, what if they can’t charge it? What if they get to school and can’t charge it? The Leaf is a single-purpose car”.

Not good enough for his family? Ouch. Reuss’ comments come on the heels of the recent sales release stating that the LEAF outsold the Volt in the month of April. Coincidence or carefully timed remarks?

This isn’t the first time GM has stacked the Volt up against another fuel miser. Their CEO recently said he “wouldn’t be caught dead” in a Toyota Prius and that it was a “geek-mobile”.

Sticks and stones, or will this turn people to GM showrooms?

[Nashville Business Journal]

Green Wars: Nissan LEAF Edges Chevy Volt in April

The electric car race is getting tight between the Nissan LEAF and the Chevrolet Volt. The duo have been on sale for a few months now and in March it looked as though the Volt was taking a very early lead with 608 units sold compared to the LEAF’s 298 units sold in North America.

Last month, however, it seems Nissan has gained some sales as the LEAF beat the Volt. Nissan sold 573 versions of the LEAF and GM sold 493 Volts. That brings the total count to 1,044 units sold for Nissan and 2,029 Volts sold for Chevrolet since their respective debuts in 2010.

The Volt and the LEAF aren’t officially on sale yet in Canada, however both have already been taking orders. The Volt’s Canadian pricing was also recently announced at $41,545. If you live in Ontario you’ll qualify for an $8,230 rebate from the provincial government and if you’re in Quebec, the provincial rebate is expected to be $7,769.

[Nissan, General Motors]

Nissan LEAF Has 7 Second 0-100 Time?

The Green Car advisor is shedding some light on just how fast the world’s first mass produced electric vehicle can go.

After rumours of its time being in the 5 to 13 second range, they were able to consistently get 7 seconds. That’s not bad at all, considering it takes a 4 cylinder Toyota Camry 9 seconds, a Toyota Prius, 9.8 seconds and the LEAF’s direct competitor, the Chevy Volt, 8.8 seconds.

On top of that, the LEAF apparently has a top speed of 150 kph. That number could and should be a bit higher, but it means the LEAF is definitely usable on the highway.

Can’t wait to try one for myself!

[Green Car Advisor]

Can You Hear Me Now? Nissan Debuts LEAF Sounds

The Nissan LEAF is likely going to be the first mass produced all electric vehicle and initial reports have it pegged as being quite successful as pre-sales are all sold out.

There are undoubtedly lots of good things about the LEAF (using no gas at all and no emissions being the biggest), but like everything there are a few downsides. One in particular is that the Nissan LEAF makes no noise at all when in motion since it is all electric. If you’ve ever driven a hybrid on electric mode only, you know that it is eerily quiet and takes some getting used to.

This may not seem like such a big deal, but it probably is a big deal if you’re blind. The blind rely heavily on their other heightened senses (such as hearing) to know if they are in danger of being hit by a vehicle. Obviously they can’t get out of the way of something they can’t hear.

So to combat that, Nissan has added a fake sound track to the LEAF to help the blind. The sound kicks in a lower speeds. And it sounds like some sort of rocketship from the future. Odd, but kinda cool. The LEAF makes a different chiming sound when in reverse (hear it after the jump).

That is all fine and good, but the problem with fake sounds is that it doesn’t take long for them to get immensely irritating. You only need to be the owner of a cell phone to know what I’m on about. You eventually just turn everything to vibrate.

Well with the LEAF, you can apparently turn off the sounds as well, which I suspect most people will do once the novelty wears off. But what about the blind people?!

The Federation for the Blind has complained to Nissan about this. Nissan has since made it so that the sound re-enables for each trip. Not sure if that will work or not.

In any event, very interesting stuff.

[New York Times]

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High Initial Demand For LEAF

Nissan has been officially taking orders for its new all-electric game changer, the LEAF, for the past few days. In 65 hours is has received 6,635 customers sign up to reserve one. A $99 refundable deposit is required to reserve a LEAF.

Demand was particularly high within the first three hours as 2,700 eager beavers couldn’t wait to reserve one.

So far people from Tennessee, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle and the Phoenix/Tucson region in Arizona are the ones mostly signing up – exactly Nissan’s targeted market.

Nissan also added that they have introduced six other colours for the LEAF, should the standard blue you see above all over the internets not tickle your fancy. Oddly enough, green is not an available colour. Perhaps Nissan figured that would be a bit too cliche?