Find Reviews by Make:
Wanting to know if the Nissan Leaf will look more conventional in its second iteration? Power and range more your concern? Can you wait until this summer?
Autoblog reports news of the next-gen Leaf will likely come this summer, despite recent announcements from Chevrolet and Tesla regarding their own respective low-cost electric offerings piquing curiosity regarding Nissan’s EV.
The only statement to come thus far? Per Nissan North America corporate communications chief Brian Brockman during the 2015 Chicago Auto Show, “things are in the works.” He adds that the silent treatment until the weather warms up is out of concern for the potential of cannibalized pure EV sales, an issue no other automaker has to worry about.
13 Comments on “Second-Gen Nissan Leaf Announcements Coming This Summer...”
Read all comments
Why couldn’t you just take that technology and build a plug-in Altima?
Or better: a plug-in/hybrid Altima?
“Why couldn’t you just take that technology and build a plug-in Altima?
Because LEAF is a name that carries a lot of weight, as perhaps the most-recognized brand in EVs today. I’ve worked in marketing in some capacity most of my professional life, and you don’t mess with success when you’ve got a product like the LEAF that is both selling well (for what it is) and generating a lot of customer good will. Nissan LEAF customers are among the most satisfied with their vehicle purchase, anywhere — or so I read once.
But as long as we’re discussing hypotheticals about putting this technology into a PHEV, I’ve got one better than the Altima: A plug-in hybrid Versa/Versa Note. The bump in reputation that car would receive by having a value-priced PHEV with its name on the trunk lid would be palpable.
STOP BUILDING STUPID SMALL CARS.
Build a decent plug-in Altima and watch the money pile up.
The Tesla only succeeds because it’s spacious enough for 5 people.
Actually, they are working on a plug-in hybrid – the next generation GTR.
I expect improvements similar to what GM is aiming for in the Bolt, ~200mi of range and ~$30K price tag. Each generation of EV is getting closer to viable, it’ll be interesting to see how the market reacts.
If it follows GM’s path of mainstreaming the styling & increasing range (to 200 mi) while maintaining price, the Leaf should become quite popular. It probably won’t repeat the magnitude of success of the Prius, and because of Tesla, it won’t be the default notion of what a EV is. However, I do expect the Nissan brand to get a perception bump just like Toyota did. I definitely think the risk Nissan took with the Leaf will pay off.
old people rejoice! get excited! its finally coming!
Much is already supposedly known:
– It will look more mainstream.
– It will have at least double the claimed range, meaning 150+ miles.
– It will be price competitive, $30-35k.
– It will be available in 2017.
As a 12 Leaf driver, here’s my response:
– Too late; I’m probably buying something else this year when my lease is up.
– I don’t trust Nissan’s range claims.
– Nissan has to distinguish its 2.0 car from the competition, either on price, range, or utility. Tesla will have the looks.
– Nissan’s dealer network needs to embrace the Leaf. It outsells every Infiniti model, and ought to get some love in the hinterlands, not just in areas where EVs are popular.
“It outsells every Infiniti model, and ought to get some love in the hinterlands, not just in areas where EVs are popular.”
I call it the Chicken-or-Egg Conundrum. EVs aren’t popular where there is no charging infrastructure — your so-called “hinterlands” — and charging infrastructure is a hard sell to businesses and governments in areas where EVs are scarce. It’s a vicious cycle for those of us in rural areas.
If our government was serious about weaning a sizable part of the populace off fossil fuel-powered transportation for daily commuting, then the proposed $10K rebate on EV purchases would have been nixed. Instead, the President ought to push for continuation of the $7,500 credit combined with tax credits and/or federal grants that would pay for charging station installs at businesses and government buildings in rural areas.
I, too, am skeptical of the range claims by Nissan, though.
http://www.technologytell.com/in-car-tech/12090/president-wrong-ev-credits/
No, we don’t need more charging stations, we need 200-mile EV’s that can be charged at home. A way to ensure investments in battery tech is to encourage EV purchases so that carmakers can make the business case for re-investment.
Charging stations could never support the number of EV’s required to make a difference in transportation fossil-fuel use, and (at the very least) improve air quality in city centers – a 200-mile battery would obviate the need to charge during the day (for many commuters).
Besides, people just LOVE to say that the President is wrong, even when he’s making perfect sense, once all of the pros and cons are weighed.
The President wants to increase the EV credit from $7,500 to $10,000 and change it from a tax credit to an on-the-spot rebate. Only the latter half of that makes sense, because otherwise, the credit only benefits those who would otherwise pay more than $7,500 in taxes anyway.
I don’t typically like getting political in my coverage of EVs, but this is one area where I had to say the whole idea, at this point, was wrong-headed. Encouraging sales of EVs that can’t get around large swaths of America because the EVs don’t have adequate range for the nonexistent charging infrastructure is the modern-day equivalent of putting the cart (EVs) before the horse (access to electrons).
Point being current-generation EVs needed a mix of government investment in the EVs themselves — e.g. the $7,500 tax credit or even the rebate Obama proposes — AND government investment into charging infrastructure. Had we seen that, then growth of EV market share might have been much more robust than what we’ve seen because EVs would not have been status symbols for the urban-dwelling among us — rather, they could have been cheap commuter machines for ALL of us.
Meanwhile, I continue waiting for next-gen EVs to achieve some combination of improved battery range and reduced cost that I’m not sure is coming. When an EV is obtainable at a small premium over a similarly sized gas-powered car (let’s say a LEAF at $20,000 or a Versa Note at $17,000) and it can handle, say, 200 miles a day, then it’ll make a strong case for my dollars. As it stands now, however, an EV is not practicable for my routine.
Still with the Mr. Limpet mouth.
I’ve seen all of two in Chicago, compared to at least 3 dozen Teslas. Thought everybody was broke here, guess not. Please make it look better .. or stick the power plant in an Altima.