Posts Tagged ‘nissan leaf’

The Gulf oil spill is the largest in United States history and it’s far from over. 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of crude are still gushing from the ruptured Macondo wellhead each day, threatening marine life, coastal habitats, and fishing and tourism jobs from Texas to Florida.

Oil pools in a marsh along the Mississippi River (Photo: NY Times)

By the numbers, this is a catastrophe of the highest order.

Number of lives claimed in the initial explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig?  Eleven.  Number of gallons that have already leaked into the Gulf?  18.6 million to 29.5 millon.  Total estimated cost to plug the leak and repair all the damage? $30 billion and counting.

Here’s another number that may upset you: two.

Two is the number of options you have if you want to buy a new car that is not powered by oil.  Not ten or twenty or thirty.  Just two.

Of the 300-plus highway-capable vehicles on sale today, only the Tesla Roadster and Honda Civic GX can be purchased by a regular consumer from a regular dealership and then driven around without burning any gasoline or diesel.  And sadly, both of those models come with strings attached.

The Tesla Roadster is an all-electric sports car and the poster child for a growing zero emissions movement.  Avoiding oil-slicked marshes doesn’t come cheap or easy, though.  The Roadster costs over $100,000 and can only be found in a handful of cities around the world.  If you really want an electric vehicle but don’t have a mortgage-sized budget, you’re going to have to wait a few more months until the Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt start production.

Your other option for sticking it to Big Oil is the Civic GX, a version of Honda’s ever-popular compact car that runs on compressed natural gas.  In addition to being oil-free, natural gas burns much cleaner than gasoline, allowing Honda to boast that the Civic GX is the cleanest internal combustion vehicle ever tested by the US Environmental Protection Agency.  Like the Tesla Roadster, however, the Civic GX is only available in select markets.  You’ll need to be in California, New York, Utah, or Oklahoma to pick one up.

If you want to get more extreme, you could convert your old car to run on fry oil from McDonald’s.  You could also become a commercial fleet operator and drive a CNG-powered taxi or truck.  Or you could take acting lessons, become a Hollywood celebrity, and then pull some strings to get a high-profile ride in an experimental test car, like the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that Jamie Lee Curtis is cruising around in these days.

Point is, there are precious few options available if you want to shake your own personal oil addiction.  And even if you do manage to stop burning gasoline or diesel in your automobile, it’s still hard to escape Big Oil and the fossil fuel paradigm.  The natural gas that powers your Civic GX comes from an energy company, like BP.  And unless you’ve hooked up your California-bound Tesla to a windmill or solar array, you’re still loosely connected via the power grid.

Like BP’s ongoing oil spill, the lack of options here is frustrating.

So, you’ve decided that you are ready for smooth, clean electric mobility. You’ve chosen the 2011 Nissan Leaf as your next vehicle. The next question is – should you lease or buy your Nissan Leaf?

Nissan has made it quite easy for drivers to get in on the Leaf action. First step is that you will want to reserve your spot to purchase or lease your vehicle. The next steps include getting a home assessment for charging your Leaf and having the home charger installed. Nissan has a two-minute video that explains how the process works.

The final step involves purchasing or leasing your Nissan Leaf. The MSRP for the Nissan Leaf is $32,780. However, the federal government has a $7500 consumer tax rebate towards the purchase of electric vehicles. This drives down the purchase price to as low as $25,280. If you typically pay at least $7500 in federal taxes, then purchasing a Leaf is your best option.

You may also want to consider tax credits available from your state governments towards the purchase of your Nissan Leaf. Both California and Alabama have implemented an additional $5000 tax credit towards the purchase of an electric vehicle. It is likely that many more states will adopt similar legislation in the near future.

If you typically pay less than $7500 in federal taxes (and/or less the $5000 in state taxes), leasing a Nissan Leaf may be a better option. Nissan will absorb the federal tax credit to be able to offer the Nissan Leaf at a very affordable $349/month for a 3-year lease. This is a very smart move for Nissan, as many young and first-time car leasees will also want to take part in the electric car action.

Leasing a Nissan Leaf may also be an option to consider is you are interested in trading Leaf 1.0 in for a possible Leaf 2.0. No word yet on what a Leaf 2.0 may offer, but one can imagine perhaps a larger battery pack that will allow you to drive farther. (That said, many drivers of the first and only generation of Toyota RAV-4 electric vehicle – which has the same 100-mile range as the Nissan Leaf – report high levels of satisfaction with the range of their cars even after ten years of ownership.)

And, if you still needed more reason to get a Nissan Leaf, many state and local governments are also providing funds to cover the cost of having a home charger installed (which can run around $2000). For some, this means that whole process of owning of a Nissan Leaf and home charging unit could be as low as $20,000.

Keep in mind that these local, state, and federal funds are geared towards helping the first wave of electric vehicle owners. Just like early hybrid owners reaped the benefits of discounted prices and carpool lane stickers, the first wave of electric car owners get to take advantage of the early adopter “freebies.”

Dr. Shannon Arvizu loves driving clean, green machines. You can find out more at MissElectric.com.

As we reported last week, Nissan has opened an online system to reserve a place in line for the upcoming Leaf electric vehicle.  Although reservations cost $99, Nissan notes that the vehicle is off to a healthy start with 6,635 takers after only 65 hours.  Nissan reports that 2,700 of those reservations came in the first three hours alone.

In Japan, which has a much smaller automobile market than the US, the company received an impressive 3,700 orders in the three weeks after it started taking reservations on April 1st.

Nissan boasts that pre-orders in Japan and the US have so far exceeded their expectations.  The automaker recently announced a $1.4 billion expansion to its Smyrna, Tennessee manufacturing plant to build both the car and its advanced lithium-ion battery pack.

The company notes that because of the battery pack’s bulky size and hefty weight, it makes more financial sense to build electric vehicles close to the markets in which they are sold, a plus for proponents of ‘buy local’ policies.

The Leaf will come in two trim levels and the upper “SL” trim level is so far leading the lower “SV” trim level by three to one.  The SL model costs an additional $940 and includes extras like a backup camera, solar panel spoiler, fog lights, and automatic headlights.  The vehicle has an estimated range of 100 miles in real-world driving conditions.

The Nissan Leaf will go on sale later this year and will be first released in areas where Nissan has government partners who are already helping to build a public charging infrastructure and ensure that there are no surprise zoning restrictions for charging units installed at customer homes.  California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Tennessee will lead the way and Nissan plans to expand sales to the rest of the country in late 2011.

UPDATE: To clarify, the 6,635 early reservations have all come from the roughly 115,000 people who had signed up to be on the Leaf’s email list.  Nissan will begin offering reservations to the general public on May 15th.

Just in time for Earth Day, Nissan has announced a priority reservation system for their upcoming electric vehicle.  The Leaf’s 115,000 registered fans can secure their place in line nearly a month before the general public is allowed.  Reservations require a $99 placeholder fee that is fully refundable.

Though Tesla was first to market with a modern highway-capable electric vehicle, Nissan has a significant advantage when it comes to price.  The Tesla Roadster starts at $101,500 compared to the Nissan Leaf’s $25,280 (yes, batteries are included).  A federal tax credit of $7,500 is used in both cases to reduce the vehicle’s base price, though additional state and local incentives can reduce the price even further.

Nissan is getting extra creative by preemptively rolling that same $7,500 federal tax credit into a very aggressive lease deal.  Customers will be able to lease a Leaf for 36 months for only $349 per month (with $1,999 down payment).  Three-year leases on Toyota’s Prius range from about $330-$540, depending on the level of optional equipment, putting the Leaf within easy striking distance of the popular hybrid.

The attractive lease deal is a clever move on Nissan’s part because it allows skeptical consumers to try out the Leaf in the real world without the need for a long-term commitment.  If owners find that the 100-mile driving range is too limited, they won’t have to worry about finding an eco-minded buyer to take the car off their hands.

Nissan doesn’t think that demand will slacken, though.  The Japanese carmaker is already hard at work on several new electric vehicles to sell alongside the 5-seat, 90-mile per hour Leaf and has been partnering with state and local governments to develop an extensive network of public recharging sites.

Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s CEO, cites research indicating that more than eight percent of automobile owners in Europe, Japan, and the US want for their next vehicles to be powered solely by electricity.  “We are very optimistic,” he said at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this year.  “We may have to rush to build capacity for cars and batteries.”

Earlier this afternoon, Nissan began taking reservations for the upcoming 2011 Nissan Leaf, due in showrooms in December of this year.  Nissan hopes to fill 25,000 “pre-orders” in the next few months, practically assuring itself a successful launch.  As of this week, they had 115,000 people signed up to receive exclusive information about the car, including special invitations to order the vehicle prior to public launch.  And while Nissan is somewhat hush-hush today about the general responses they’ve received today, it seems that Twitter is showcasing that excitement with dozens of people tweeting their reservations. View the latest Nissan Leaf tweets here

Not wanting to be left out, I decided to reserve my very own 2011 Nissan Leaf.  And while I’m not totally sure it’s a car I want to buy in December, I wanted to “feel” what it would be like to *maybe* get one.  I was a little (very little) excited to get the email inviting me to drop $99 and my name for a place in line to buy one.   The invite was was supposed to arrive between 1pm-6pm eastern.  My email didn’t arrive until 5:30pm est, so I must have been on the bottom of the barrel, dirt bag list. Maybe they do a lottery again for who gets to buy and when.  Good old back of the line.  The email looked like this…  oooooh, I have a place in history.

I clicked on “Reserve Now” to see what was on the next page.  Nissan asked me a bunch of irrelevant survey questions, then presented me with a form to fill out.  I entered my name, ID, password, address, etc.  Next came the the “qualifying questions” :

Pick a Color – Ummmm, silver.

How Far Do I Drive? Well we know this is a qualifier.   Better say it’s 50 or less or I won’t make the cut.  I drive 20 miles so it’s the truth

What Type of Driving? Okay, keep it mild or they won’t let me go nuts on the car.   I’m a short commuter.

Where will the car be parked? This is a big qualifier.  I better say my own garage (which is true) so I can get my own charging station.  I bet this one places where on the order list you go.  Shouldn’t they ask “what type of set up will you have in December 2010?”  The car delivery is a ways off, so why not ask what people will have.

Qualified   We’re a good fit. While the questions were pretty intuitive, it’s good that they made sure their early adopters had the right set up and expectations going in.  Okay, now I have to fork over $99.  I can get my cash back any time.

Ahhh…. my official confirmation number (I changed it in photoshop) .  We are now standing in line for our Leaf….  Now, I don’t get the vehicle for 7 months+.  I’m not even sure I really want it by then.  Seems to me the Chevy Volt is much more up my alley.  Frankly, it’s far better looking and I have comfort in knowing that GM has a longer standing history in electric vehicle (EV) technology.  To me, the Leaf is homely and not very cool.  After a few years, I may just be the fool who’s driving around in a tin electric tin can with junk range, while all my friends are whizzing by in Teslas and Fiskers.  Hmmm….  My wife and I will decide what to do as launch gets closer, but for now, I’m happy to be in line.  I need to go to Chevroletvoltage.com and see if I can reserve one those bad boys.