World Economic Forum: In Davos, Women Sell Leafs While Others Go Naked

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Patrolling the interwebs for TTAC-worthy content, we find a woman selling Nissan Leafs on the streets of Davos. Rachel Konrad, formerly spokesperson of Tesla, is now the Communications Director of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Her boss Carlos Ghosn is a fixture at the World Economic Forum, which ends today in Davos. Rachel is using the fact that Davos has received more snow than in the 42 years before to praise the virtues of the Leaf in winter weather. At the same time, three topless women steal her thunder and get arrested.

Ms. Konrad says that the Leaf is perfect on slippery roads, because there is no lag between touching the accelerator and the car getting torque. Also, an electric motor is impervious to the altitude sickness that besets the ICE. Ms. Konrad forgets that people think something else when they see snow and an EV: Won’t running on battery be just awful when it’s cold?

Thankfully, her Japanese colleagues at Nissan just came back from Hokkaido, which is a stone-throw from Siberia. There, they covered that topic. Here is the video.

Back to women of Davos. Three women from the Ukraine demonstrated how easy it is to get attention: They took their tops off. Works all the time. After they climbed a fence and attacked a female police officer, they were arrested. A massive media contingent then set out to pixelate video and to close-crop photographs. Jobs creation in action!

Nevertheless, in a prude company (or in prude company), watching the following report from snowy Davos may get you in hot water.

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  • Wstarvingteacher Wstarvingteacher on Jan 28, 2012

    It's more than just lights and a heater that reek in an electric car. Batteries suffer from cold weather and lost power rapidly unless they have been developed more while I was sleeping. Not considering anything else, a volt would be preferable to a leaf because it can be charged without plugging it in. I never thought I would prefer anything about a Chevy over a Nissan.

    • See 2 previous
    • Savuporo Savuporo on Jan 29, 2012

      @savuporo There are no "lithium-ion" batteries. Which chemistry are you talking about ? Li-MnO2? LiFePO4 ? What type of anode construction ?

  • Stuki Stuki on Jan 29, 2012

    savuporo, Are the latest batteries impervious to the cold? I though pretty much all chemical reactions slowed down as temperatures dropped. Am I completely off, or is is just that in newer batteries, the effect is much less dramatic, to the point of being negligible?

    • See 1 previous
    • Rpn453 Rpn453 on Jan 31, 2012

      @savuporo Gas engines lose very little range in the cold, even without a block heater. If you want to cure our ignorance, you should provide some numbers. As it is, you've used multiple posts and paragraphs to tell us nothing about any sort of battery's actual cold weather performance. As someone who lives in a cold climate, I'd be interested in knowing. I've found very little information during past searches.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Jan 30, 2012

    What happens to a Leaflet in the snow with its high beams on? Does its battery become 'poor because of you'?

  • Rpn453 Rpn453 on Jan 31, 2012
    Ms. Konrad says that the Leaf is perfect on slippery roads, because there is no lag between touching the accelerator and the car getting torque. At least we know she's a true automotive enthusiast! Most people wouldn't even notice how badly modern electronic throttles tend to lag.

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