The Nissan Leaf, a mildly futuristic four-door hatchback, arrives as so much a pioneer that the systems necessary to keep it moving down the road are still being put in place.
The Leaf’s equivalent of those unfinished tracks is a public charging infrastructure, the lack of which is probably the most serious limitation of all purely electric cars. For owners whose trips are within 30 or 40 miles of home (or who can use a charging station at the workplace), this presents no problem.
Fast-charging stations, a necessity for longer treks, are few and far between now, but a network of them are planned to begin operating within the next year or so. Leaf buyers who buy the optional $700 Quick Charge Port will be able to use a direct-current fast-charger to replenish their batteries to 80 percent of capacity within 30 minutes and continue on their way.
With the battery topped off, the Leaf — a midsize car as defined by the E.P.A. — has a range of 100 miles, Nissan says. In my testing, I never dared to drive the car that far, mostly because its dashboard range meter said it would not be possible.
At a starting price of $33,630, the Leaf is by far the least expensive battery-electric car produced in significant numbers; with a 24 kilowatt-hour battery, it qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit as well as incentives offered by various states. The Leaf will be sold initially in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington; by the end of 2011 it will be offered in all states.
Nissan’s determination to keep the price within reach — the lithium-ion battery pack is a major part of the car’s cost — was one factor in the Leaf’s modest range. Building in a battery pack big enough to drive 245 miles on a charge helps push the price of the two-seat Tesla Roadster past $100,000.
Other than range concerns, the Leaf was fascinating to drive. It starts with a push button; the procedure makes no sound. You can tell the car is on when the dashboard lights up. Flip the little shifter button into gear and you’re off.
There’s no exhaust noise because there is no gas engine to produce exhaust. And no transmission whine because there’s no transmission. And very little wind noise.
Nissan takes pride in developing its own high-efficiency electric motor and e-powertrain; the 600-pound 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack delivers higher energy density, the company claims. The pack is air-cooled, which makes it lighter and less complex than a liquid-cooled design, as found in the Chevrolet Volt.
Like the batteries in a laptop computer, which use similar chemistry, the Leaf’s lithium-ion cells will lose some capacity over time. Nissan calculates that the Leaf’s battery pack, which carries an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty, will lose 20 percent (30 percent, if fast-charging is used often) of its power over the next decade of use.
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