From Green Right Now Reports
Could Nissan’s marketers have planned this any better?
Just as the carmaker is in the midst of a national tour of the Leaf, its much ballyhooed new electric plug-in, competitor Toyota finds itself in a tailspin over mysterious sudden acceleration events that now affect even its energy-efficient darling, the Prius.
The Prius, the nation’s best-selling and highest mileage hybrid car, looked to have a fruitful future, until this week, when it was implicated along with other Toyota brands in a safety scandal that grows larger with every news cycle.
The Leaf is not a hybrid, but part of the new generation of all-electric, plug-in vehicles (EVs) that will go head to head with hybrids already on the road. Due in showrooms this coming fall/winter, the Leaf is riding the leading edge of this new technology. It will offer excellent mileage as well as zero carbon tailpipe emissions (the car will still have an energy footprint related to its electricity use, which could be clean or fossil fuel energy, depending on where it is charged).
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DOE loans Nissan $1.4 billion to build new LEAF and batteries in Tennessee
[caption id="attachment_8581" align="alignright" width="217" caption="(Photo: Nissan)"]
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From Green Right Now Reports
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that the Department of Energy has made a $1.4 billion loan to Nissan North America that will pay for the modification of the automaker’s Smyrna, Tenn., manufacturing plant to produce the new all-electric Nissan LEAF.
In addition to producing the zero-emission EV at the existing plant, a newly built plant will make the lithium-ion battery packs to power the next-generation car.
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Tags: · EV, LEAF, Nissan, Smyrna Tennessee
Get answers about Nissan’s new Leaf
From Green Right Now Reports
Nissan has opened a chat room to discuss it’s newly unveiled all-electric vehicle (EV), the Leaf, with potential customers.
The car company’s also publishing more pictures of the family sedan, due out in 2010 and revealed this past weekend in Japan.
Many of the questions, predictably, center on the infrastructure to support electric vehicles. For instance, how does an apartment-dweller recharge the thing? There’s not a great answer for that, just yet; apartment building owners will have to get on board and provide parking lot charging stations. Nissan replies that urbanites might find some help at public facilities.
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Tags: · charging stations, Electric vehicles, energy efficiency, LEAF, Nissan
Nissan unveils ground-breaking all-electric ‘LEAF’
From Green Right Now Reports
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today unveiled the boldest product it has ever launched — the Nissan LEAF. The company is billing it as “the world’s first affordable, zero-emission car.”
Powered entirely by a lithium-ion battery — there is not even a tailpipe — the Nissan LEAF will be a medium-size hatchback that will seat five adults and has a range of more than 100 miles. It will go on sale in late 2010 in Japan, the United States, and Europe.
“Nissan LEAF is a tremendous accomplishment – one in which all Nissan employees can take great pride,” Niss an President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a statement at the company’s new global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. “We have been working tirelessly to make this day a reality – the unveiling of a real-world car that has zero – not simply reduced – emissions. It’s the first step in what is sure to be an exciting journey – for people all over the world, for Nissan and for the industry.”
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Tags: · All-electric vehicle, Carlos Ghosn, LEAF, Nissan Motor Co.
