Here's the Nissan Leaf - the Newest Electric Car - By the Numbers
By John O'Dell August 3, 2009
Nissan Leaf concept's snazzy white leather upholstery isn't likely to make it to production, but the rest of the interior,including soft-touch buttons, is pretty much what will be in the finished car when the new EV hits dealerships in select U.S. and Japanese locations late next year.
We still don't know exactly what it'll cost -somewhere from $25,000-$30,000, batteries not included (they'll be leased), is our best guess, but we can give you some other numbers about the Nissan Leaf EV.
We know from a conversation in Japan last week with several Nissan executives that the company can make as many as 120,000 of the Leaf EV after new battery plants in Europe and the U.S. are up and running and has every intention of doing so.
Look for initial sales/leases in the U.S. and Japan to top out at around 50,000 in 2011, the EV's first full year on the market - that's the annual capacity of the only plant - its in Japan - now making the laminated lithium-manganese batteries (left) for the Leaf.
Nissan says it will travel up to 100 miles on a single charge.
Top speed is 90 mph.
The motor is rated at 80 kilowatts (107 hp) maximum power and 280 Newton-meters (207 lb-ft) maximum torque.
Charging time to 80 percent is just under 30 minutes with a three-phase, 220-volt rapid charger.
That falls to 7 or so hours for a full recharge with a single-phase 220-volt line (the kind found in most households with electric ovens, clothes dryers and/or water heaters; and 11 hours-plus with a common 110-volt household line.
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A trap door on nose of the Leaf EV opens with the push of a button on the dash to reveal twin charge ports; one for rapid charge, the other for standard 220- or 110-volt cables.
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The battery pack has 48 modules, each containing 4 of the laminated, flat-packaged lithium-manganese cells, for a total of 193 cells.
It weights about 220 kilograms (485 pounds), abut half the weight of similarly sized cylindrical (flashlights, digital cameras) lithium batteries.
It puts out more than 90 kilowatts at peak demand, and has a 24 kilowatt-hour capacity.
Energy density of the pack is 140 watt-hours per kilogram (2.2 pounds).
Power density is 2.5 kilowatts per kilogram.
Each battery pack costs about $10,000.
The Leaf is a 2-wheel drive vehicle, and they're up front.
It will seat 4-5 adults (that means four normal adults or five smallish grown-ups, or four normal and one really, really thin person).
It has five doors (including the rear hatch, or lift-gate).
It's the product of an EV program that Nissan's worked on - with varying degrees of intensity - since 1947.
Notice we didn't say its the culmination of that that program.
Its the first but won't be the last Nissan EV - the company has two more planned for 2012, when dales will go global - and more after that.
The standard EV-IT system will connect the car with a global data center 24/7 so drivers will always know where the nearest open and operating public charger is and how much range they've got left and where that will take them, among other things.
And finally, it is:
175 inches long (14.6 feet; 4,445 millimeters);
69.7 inches wide (5.8 feet, 1,770 mm);
61 inches high (5.08 feet, 1,550 mm); and has a
106.3-inch wheelbase (8.86 feet, 2,700 mm).
Nissan hasn't disclosed the weight of the car, with out without batteries.
There's more coming, and we'll post it as soon as we get it.
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"$25,000-$30,000, batteries not included (they'll be leased),"
That would make it an expensive shell.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the concept, but some people need to stop comparing the price to vehicles that include a battery.
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