Made In America Nissan Leaf Now In Production

by Derek Kreindler

January 10th, 2013 12:33 PM

made in america nissan leaf now in production

Nissan will make good on its $1.4 billion DOE loan, and finally start building the Leaf EV right here in America. In addition to the Leafs going off the assembly line, Nissan will also build the battery packs at a separate plant next door. Nissan hasn’t set production targets for the Smyrna, Tennessee plant, though Leaf sales have been flat over the last year, despite projections of them doubling.

#ElectricCar #ElectricVehicle #EV #Nissan #NissanLeaf #Tennessee

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Blowfish on Jan 11, 2013

dont think prius are so hard on batt, since it will re-charge soon as engine ran, leafs EV only charge up when physically plugs into an outlet.

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- Herm on Jan 13, 2013
  
  Prius batteries have proven to be bulletproof.. Honda Hybrids?, not so much. A Prius is probably the most reliable car sold in the US today..
  
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Zoey212 on Jan 11, 2013

Finally Nissan has started the production of their much awaited EV cars.The car has been a subject of attention since Nissan had declared that it would introduce auto parking mechanisms using 4 sensory cameras along with its other features.Nissan had been in a lot of hassle to launch this car but seems like they have finally made their breakthrough. http://jeffsmbz.com/

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BrianL on Jan 11, 2013

This is exactly what the Leaf need, more production capability!!! *face palm*

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Polar Bear on Jan 11, 2013

The massive media coverage of this car shows that publicity alone can't sell a product. The Leaf is too little too soon. Double the range and cut the price in half and the car will sell in numbers worthy of the hype - which should happen in about 20 years.

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- Phxmotor on Jan 14, 2013
  
  Battey fans make me laugh. They believe in things that are simply ... not... true. Twice the range at half the price... that's good one.. the long and short of it...when it comes to batteries... is this: Batteries are a mature product... batteries are not an immature technology just waiting for more research money (and time). Ever since Thomas Edison, 105 years ago handed Mr. Mallory the alkaline battery and then the next month Mr. Edison made an apology to the 25 EV mfgrs who had waited 3 years for "the better battery". In his apology Mr. Edison admitted that batteries were good for flashlights and even for submarines... but that was about it. As far as being good for cars Mr. Edison finally admitted that try as he did... and even with the great battery breakthrus he did make, that batteries are not going to get "much better", and that the 50% of cars in the USA that were electric would soon loose market share in favor of gasoline or ethanol powered vehicles. This is why Mr. Edison made his famous act of encouraging Henry Ford (at the company banquet of the Detroit Edison Electric Power Plant) to "keep at it" in his gasoline engine car. In Mr. Edison's famous quote, he told Mr. Ford that batteries would always be a bigger problem than the EV makers would ever admit. Let's not forget that in 1906, when this conversation took place, the Baker Electric car (Henry Ford's wife's favorite car, by 1913 when it was the only car she would drive) had a range of 70 miles. Not all that much different from todays Evs with todays advanced batteries... is it? My point? It's simple; any and all claims that batteries will be able to double their ability to hold Kwhs... and do it at half the cost... is pure fantasy. A123 just went bankrupt... how can this be? Maybe because Mr. Edison was right? After working in the mines during and after college I know one thing about basic minerals... the very components in all batteries are basic minerals: ... and that when more of a mineral is needed, lower quality ores must be tapped. Tapping lower quality ore costs more...not less... to process... hence; when more of a basic mineral is needed by the marketplace... the cost goes up, not down.(!) My point? Simply that economies of scale apply to many things in business, lower costs if more efficient assembly lines are set up. lower costs because of more sales with less advertising (per unit sold)... and there are a few other examples that result in lower costs when higher volumes are reached. BUT. when a full half of the cost of an item (like a battery) is in fact the materials used... and when these basic materieals costs go up instead of down when more of the material is needed, then the idea that larger volumes will naturally result in lower costs is simply not true. Battery makers... since the time Thomas Edison... when he invented his "betterBattery" have always made claims of being able to make a battery having more storage at a lower cost... they always promise that this battery will be available "in a few years"... and as we all know... this promise is made every few years...and then again after a few more years. A123 is the latest casualty of this false belief. Edison heard the argument in his day... we are hearing it again today... we will again hear it fifty years from now. Batteries can not get much better than they are now... it's the same as gasoline can't be made to hold much more BTU's than it can hold now.Same thing for batteries. A sad state of affairs, but its true.
  
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- RJM on Jan 25, 2013
  
  @phxmotor The timing was excellent for my reading phxmotor's observations. I have been listening to a series of lectures on research into Nanotechnology. The most recent explained that using a silicon scaffolding to support the Lithium ions will lead to a storage capacity about 10 times (per pound) that of the current graphite system. Problem is that the influx of ions expands the volume of the silicon significantly. Just like a sidewalk that has been frozen and heated repeatedly, the expansion of the silicon leads to deterioration of the scaffolding. Nano tech to the rescue! Researchers at Stanford are working on producing the scaffolding in fine strands. The strands are attached to the electical contact similar to bristles on a brush, giving flexibility to expand and contract. If successful (big "if"), we could be looking at a big jump in range. Assume 5x capacity rather than 10. I own a Leaf (third car in the family). We get 50 freeway miles per 80% charge with a cushion. If that could be boosted to 250 miles, my wife's range anxiety could be significantly calmed.
  
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