Category Archives: Nissan

Nissan Leaf

City Driving: Does It Make Sense To Buy A Nissan Leaf?

Leave a comment

If you commute to work and back each day, there’s one car you will no doubt come across on your travels. The Nissan Leaf is Japan’s flagship electric vehicle. It’s a compact hatchback that looks like a “regular” car and doesn’t sport any unusual styling.

It’s also one of the best-selling electric vehicles of 2015 – a trend that’s set to continue. But, if you’re trying to cut down on your commuting costs, should you consider a Nissan Leaf? The answer is “it depends.”

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Here are some reasons why it may make sense to trade your gas guzzler in for a green Nissan Leaf:

It boasts zero emissions

Carbon emissions may not be at the forefront of your mind, but they should be! Even if you’re not an environmentalist, there’s one train of thought to consider. Vehicles that aren’t good for the environment will get taxed a lot more in the future.

That means the car you drive today could cost you a fortune to keep on the road in the future! Electric vehicles offer zero emissions. As such, many governments encourage people to buy such cars by charging low tax or even none at all!

Financial reasons aside, the Nissan Leaf is a green vehicle. It won’t emit any nasty carbons into the atmosphere, especially when it’s idle. If you abhor petrol and diesel fumes, you’ll love the Nissan Leaf!

It’s perfect for city driving

Electric cars are usually suited to those that do a lot of local, daily driving. So, if you commute to work on the other side of town, the Nissan Leaf is the car is for you.

First of all, it offers plenty of range from a single charge. Of course, if range anxiety worries you, there are some things you can do to increase your range. For instance, only fit good tyres to the car such as the Bridgestone Potenza ones. And you can adjust your driving style for economy rather than speed.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Nissan Leaf does around 84 miles to a single battery charge. So, let’s say your place of work is five miles away from home, and you do around 20 miles of driving on the weekend. You’d only do 70 miles of driving a week, and you only need to charge your battery once a week!

It’s compact size makes it easy to park

In a busy town or city, it’s often hard to find a suitable parking space when you’re out and about. The good news is that parking is no longer stressful when you drive the Nissan Leaf.

It’s a compact hatchback and can fit into even the tightest of spaces! Plus, there’s plenty of technology to lend a helping hand. For example, the car comes with an “Around View Monitor” that gives you a 360-degree view around you. That’s thanks to the cluster of cameras that give a bird’s eye view of your surroundings.
In a nutshell, the Nissan Leaf is your perfect partner for city driving. It might not be the world’s most luxurious car. But, it’s a car aimed at those that want to lead a greener and more frugal lifestyle.

Nissan

5 Reasons Why You Should Drive a Renault Zoe Dynamique

Leave a comment


Image From Autoviva

What do you do if you want to buy a car that’s cost effective, trustworthy and clean while avoiding a hybrid? Well, there is really only one answer, or one good answer anyway, and that’s the Renault Zoe Dynamique. Renault decided to go all out and make a car that was entirely electric and affordable to ordinary drivers, and the results have really paid off. Here are 5 reasons why we think the Zoe Dynamique is a car every driver should consider.

It’s Electric!

Most electric cars today are out of the reach of most ordinary consumers so this is a really big deal. Hybrids are great and everything but a fully electric car places the Zoe on another plane entirely. And you don’t have to make great sacrifices to go green either. It can go 130 miles after a single charge, but this can be reduced by some factors like weather and temperature.

It’s Incredibly Smooth and Agile

Gearless driving is just one of the great benefits of driving an electric powered car. Not having to shift the gear stick every so often allows for a dramatically smoother drive than any fuel reliant car. Once the battery is charged there’s no holding you back, you’re can cruise to whatever speed you like (within the limit of course!) and feel no shake or wobble. The Zoe Dynamique really does make you rediscover the true pleasure of simply driving in a way only an electric car could.

It’s Very Affordable

Right now you could log onto lifestyleeurope.co.uk and buy a Renault Zoe Dynamique for little more than £10,000. The prices of the Zoe are even more impressive when you factor in the costs you’ll save each week by not buying petrol. It’s a great saving in the short term but an even greater one in the long term. And if you’re buying one new it will cost about £13,000 when you’ve factored in the plug-in car grant offered by the government.

It Has Great Tech

Renault don’t do innovation half-heartedly. Along with the electric engine you get a whole host of other new gadgets and technologies should you choose the Zoe Dynamique. You get Renault’s multimedia system which you can download your own apps for. It also has bluetooth, climate control, touch screen controls and a navigation system. There’s really nothing more you could ask for on the tech front.

It Looks Like the Future

It’s not just the car’s lack of carbon emissions which point to the future, the Zoe Dynamique also looks like it’s just arrive from the future in a time machine. That white, vibrant interior is especially cool. It’s right that it should look this way because, as all hybrid/electric car manufacturers know, the futuristic look sells cars. It’s the kind of car that will catch the eye of any pedestrian strolling past as you drive by in your silent electric wonder.

Ford Focus Electric, Mitsubishi iMiev, Model S, Nissan Leaf

Electric Vehicles Available Now

2 Comments

Since 2008, we have been covering the electric vehicle market, and things have certainly changed since then.  Back in the day, an electric vehicle startup, Tesla Motors, perked international interest with the Tesla Roadster.  Then dozens of concepts, specialized automakers, and eletrofitters rolled in. I remember when it was only the little guys like ZAP, Think, Tesla, Zenn, etc. We’ve seen exotic supercars and concepts like the Eliica, Aptera, and Lightning GT, and low speed, neighborhood electric vehicles like the BG-100 and REVA. Some came to fruition, some did not.  This international attention  garnered the interested of the major automakers like Ford, GM, Nissan, and Mitsubishi.  These majors not only created concepts, but have begun delivering electric vehicles in mass.  Here are a few fully charged, highway capable 2012 models for the masses that you can order for delivery right now. In the US, these all qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit.

The 2012 Ford Focus EV is one of my favorites because, from the outside, you can’t even tell that it is an EV. The Ford Focus EV is built on the same glider as the third generation ICE model. The EPA rated its range at 76 miles per charge and a fuel economy of 105 MPG equivalent. Production began in December 2011, in Wayne, Michigan.

I had a chance to drive the first model of the  Mitsubishi i-MiEV at the 2010 New York Auto Show. I preferred it too the Mini-E, because it had more natural coasting and braking, and the battery was tucked under the carriage instead of being jammed in the back hatch area. On the Japanese test cycle, the vehicle has a 100 mile charge, but the EPA, the harsh critics they are, rated it at merely 62 miles. Over 20,000 of these little buggies have been sold worldwide. Prices vary widely regionally and so do tax incentives. In the Japanese market, the i-Miev is only $23,000 after subsidies, in Europe and the US it’s about $30,000, and $50,000 in Australia.

I have already spotted a few 2012 Nissan Leafs  in the wild already.  Although, I don’t know why so many people choose the seemingly trademark, “blue ocean” color.  The EPA rated this hatchback at 73 miles-per-charge. After tax incentives in the US, the price is solidly below $30k at $27,000.  Nissan is claiming an increase in range and a pretty significant decrease in price in the next model year.

We are all still wrapping our heads around a company from Palo Alto, California won the Motor Trend Car of the Year with the 2012 Tesla Model S. Not Detroit, Japan, or Germany, but essentially a company founded by a guy who made his first millions from PayPal. The award really means something though: that technology, innovation, and thinking outside the box in the automotive world can really evolve the industry in ways not possible through traditional thinking. Motor Trend states the $50,000 supercar (after US tax credits) “smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius.” This simply was not possible before.

Nissan Leaf, Vauxhall Flextreme

Electric Cars – The Future has Arrived!

2 Comments

Electric cars. For years they’ve been a pipe dream; an experiment, something for Jeremy Clarkson to laugh at. By 2012 however, that could all change, with the imminent release of a couple of vehicles…

Earlier this year, Vauxhall offered its Ellesmere Port staff an opportunity to see the new hybrid car, the Ampera, ahead of it going into mass production, and Nissan’s Leaf is being debuted in the US and Japan at time of writing.

When these vehicles hit these shores however, picking one up might well be worth the money if you’re looking to buy a new car: Nearly every single European country are offering to subsidise electric vehicles in some way or another, and they’re keen to try to tempt people to switch to a newer, more environmentally friendly vehicle, as the technology within them is likely to represent the way transport will be powered in the future – although admittedly not for some time yet.

By 2020, Nissan Motor Company estimate that no more than a tenth of the traffic worldwide will be electric powered – and even this paltry number is considered optimistic by many people within the industry, who think that electric vehicles are likely to be a niche product for the foreseeable future as the general public refuses to change. Nissan are very keen to focus on the upsides of hybrid and electric vehicles however; when asked about how far the Leaf can travel on a single charge (Otherwise known as range), spokesmen for the company focused on the fact that you would never need to travel to a petrol station instead of discussing the fact that with the aircon on, the Leaf can only be expected to do around 80 miles in motorway conditions. Vauxhall’s Ampera contains a small petrol motor that keeps the battery charged, and whilst this is not a completely emission free system, the amount of fuel (and the emissions produced) are miniscule compared to a standard petrol car.

The Ampera recently completed the longest journey in the UK by an electric car, making a 160 mile journey under its own power from Luton to Ellesmere Port.

So where is electric motoring going in the future? Right now, it’s very difficult to predict. Electric cars are only just now starting to be seen as a credible alternative to “old-fashioned” petrol propelled vehicles, especially as anything more than a city runabout. Part of the reason the adoption rate has been quite low is the fact that every element of motoring would need to change to accommodate them – from car insurance to fuel, garages and car rental.

It is clear that electric cars are going to take some time to fit in, but one day electric vehicles will have to become a contender to petrol vehicles, and when they do it will be very interesting to see the changes they bring…

Nissan Leaf

How the Nissan Leaf is Made

3 Comments

This is an educational video about the production of the Nissan Leaf. The battery, inverter, and electric motor modules are manufactured in Zama and Yokohama, Japan. The parts go to their Oppama plant, where the modules are plugged into the Leaf chassis. The Nissan Leaf rolls off the same production line as Nissan’s regular cars, but they basically “mount a battery instead of a fuel tank, and a motor instead of a gasoline-fueled engine.” Nissan hopes to produce the modules locally, while shipping them off to be assembled into Leafs in countries around the world. Everything looks very high tech and efficient for auto manufacturing, Detroit should take notes.

Nissan Leaf

Nissan Leaf on Top Gear

2 Comments

This is a pretty vanilla review of the Nissan Leaf. Robert Llewellyn makes a nice point about carbon dioxide emissions, that many laymen fail to consider. When comparing the emissions of an electric to a petrol powered vehicle, you have to consider that the combined emissions of the journey from the oil well to the pump, not just the emissions from the tailpipe. It is only fair if you measure the electricity source emissions.

(Video may be taken down later)