Nissan Schedules Leaf EV National Tour, But No Test Drive Opportunities
By John O'Dell October 23, 2009
Tired of just looking at the pictures of Nissan's upcoming new electric car? Hankering for a good old fashioned eyeballs-on-metal, look-for-yourself at the real thing?
You'll still have to picture yourself inside one: Nissan says test drives of the Leaf EV won't be available during national tour.
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Nissan plans to help you out with that.
The automaker will be staging an 11-state, 24 city (one of 'em in Canada) pre-sale tour of the five-passenger, 100-miles-per-charge Leaf hatchback it plans to launch in the U.S. and Japan next year.
No drives, though - the car on tour will be the only left-hand drive prototype that exists and Nissan doesn't want to chance breaking it, a spokeswoman tells us. (Our photos here are off the only right-hand drive Leaf prototype, which was unveiled in Japan in August.)
Initial sales of the Leaf in the U.S. will be limited to large markets and regions where utilities and government authorities have executed agreements to facilitate installation of private and public EV charging stations.
But the sales territories are expected to expand as - the automaker hopes - people in other areas demand a charging infrastructure of their own. Nissan plans a global rollout of at least three EV models in 2012.
The Leaf tour in the U.S. will begin Nov. 13 with a four-day run in Los Angeles and end up in New York City on St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) after a five-day stand there.
Nissan says that people will be able to look, touch and ask questions, and will providing all the necessary information about the tour on its Leaf Website.
Here's the basic schedule, so you can see when the Leaf will be in your vicinity.
Southern California
Los Angeles: Nov. 13-17
Orange County: Nov. 18
San Diego: Nov. 19-21
Northern California
Berkeley/Walnut Creek: Nov. 23-24
San Francisco: Nov. 25-29
Santa Rosa: Dec. 1
Sacramento: Dec. 1
San Jose: Dec. 3-6
Pacific Northwest
Seattle: Dec. 8-12
Vancouver, Canada: Dec. 14-15
Portland, Ore.: Dec. 17-23
Southwest
Phoenix/Tucson: Dec. 30-Jan. 5
Las Vegas: Jan. 6
Midwest/East Coast
Detroit: Jan. 11-13
Knoxville/Chattanooga, Tenn.: Jan. 16
Middle Tennessee: Jan. 19-21
Washington, D.C.: Jan. 26-28
Raleigh, N.C.: Jan. 29
Orlando: Feb. 1-2
Texas
Houston: Feb. 5-6
New York
New York City: Feb. 9-14
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