Since its initial announcement (with some disbelief until it actually hit showrooms), I've been highly impressed with the Leaf. Or rather, the fact that it exists. However, aside from a few neat features (smartphone-accessible controls, onboard system for finding charging stations, headlight housings that channel air around the side mirrors), I think it's ahead of its time in a bad way. Or perhaps just trying too hard to be both an entry-level car and a snazzy Prius-like technological powerhouse.
Maybe most people expect an electric car to be fancy, "showing off" its electric nature with a variety of, well, electric gizmos. Personally, I'd expect an electric car to acknowledge the fact that we can't yet build one with a remarkable range, and to do everything it can (or omit everything it can) to extend it. The Leaf's big digital display panels, automatic headlights, and a full-on navigation system are
not my idea of electric frugality. It could probably stand to lose some weight too, but there's no escaping the curse of excessive safety features these days.
The paradox is that Nissan went to lengths in other areas to improve efficiency and range -- reducing aerodynamic drag with the trick headlights and a plastic undercarriage, LEDs in the headlights to reduce energy usage, solar panel on the spoiler -- yet basically negated it all in appeasing the average consumer's "need" for unnecessary creature comforts. And unlike the Tesla Roadster or Model S, the Leaf
isn't a premium car. It's an expensive economy car half-heartedly trying to mask the fact that it's powered by electrons.
Even if the drain from those flashy extras is minimal, I'm sorry, but ~100 miles on a good day just isn't enough, especially with recharge times measured in hours. You can
assume Leaf buyers will understand what they're getting into, and that the majority of driving will take place in cities...but I'll believe that when I see it.
What I
have seen, like
homeforsummer mentioned earlier, is people thrashing around in their Priuses like they're magical MPG multipliers. I expect to see much of the same with Leaf drivers, particularly with the "pep" I read about in Road & Track's review (which talked about dusting other cars at stoplights). I'm waiting until I see my first Leaf stranded on the side of a freeway...or an owner desperately waiting for a recharge at a gas station/business in the middle of nowhere.
City driving isn't without its threats to electric cars, either, what with the possibility of miles of sprawl between home and work and time-draining oceans of traffic (or battery-draining on days that require AC or the heater).
I have nothing against electric cars as a concept, and the Leaf is pretty neat, but I think it's too soon. On the other hand, even good electric cars will never be adopted if we don't get the ball rolling early, so there's that.
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On the topic of manmade climate change, here's a graph to consider.
The website it came from is probably a little more legit than wikipedia. If I'm reading it right, the dark blue percentages are the contribution by humans:
Elsewhere on that page, it backs up the 3-5% manmade CO2 figure
Adamgp mentioned.
In an Autocar test I have of the Tesla, their "track thrash" range, where they spend a day figuring the car, was about 120 miles (unhelpfully the test on their website has "no data" for all their economy tests, when in the magazine there's a host of data) and they managed over 200 in mixed driving as far as I can remember. If you're interested, I'll dig out the mag (it's around somewhere) and give you all the stats.
I believe it to be a game-changer in so much as it's a genuinely capable car that also happens to be electric. Like the Tesla, it's out there banishing ideas of golf carts, G-Wiz nasties and other neighborhood EVs that are responsible for much of the image problems suffered by electric cars. That it's even fairly affordable (top-end Prius money isn't bad for a full EV) is even better.
