2011 Nissan LEAF
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If you’re one of the many thousands of would-be Nissan LEAF customers that have had their orders delayed due to a surprising lack of cars then you’ll be pleased to hear that Nissan has a plan to remedy the backlog. So far, around 3,000 LEAFs have been built at Nissan’s Oppama factory. Until additional production lines in Smyrna, Tennessee and Sunderland, U.K. are brought on line, this single factory will continue to be responsible for matching global demand for the all-electric family hatchback. So how will Nissan bring production up to speed in order to satisfy the...
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Why The 2011 Chevy Volt Won North American Car of the Year
Earlier this week the judges in the North American Car of the Year announced that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt had won the coveted NACOTY prize. At the press conference kicking off the start of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, the NACTOY team announced that the 50 or so automotive journalists representing a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Cars Connected To The Cloud: The All-Electric 2012 Nissan Leaf
In a move that shows off the latest push among automakers to bring cars to the digital age, Airbiquity and Hitachi Automotive Systems showcased a connected services technology system for electric vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. The system, which is debuting in...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
2011 Nissan LEAF: Deliveries Now More Than a Trickle
Last month, Nissan became the first major automaker to deliver an all-electric car to a U.S. customer. In the month of December however, only 10 LEAFs were actually delivered to customers, whilst Chevrolet delivered somewhere between 250 and 350 2011 Volts to customers. Now it looks as if Nissan is...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Our Popular Stories of 2010: LEAF, Recharging, Myth Busting
We’re just two days away from 2011, the year many industry experts are terming the year of the electric car, but 2010 hasn’t been a slow year for electric cars. We’ve seen new models launched, records broken and even the Pope show an interest in going electric. But over the course...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
CA Electric Car Rebate Will Run Out Mid 2011, Advocate Warns
California has always been kind to drivers of alternative fuelled vehicles with special privileges in High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, reduced parking and even additional purchase tax credits. However, the $5,000 Californian state rebate for those purchasing electric vehicles may soon run out...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Uh-ho, Nissan. You’ve come out with one of the best five-seat all-electric production cars we’ve ever seen and your pre-order figures are impressive. But as your rival Chevrolet is eagerly rolling out 2011 Range-Extended Volts we’re starting to hear more and more stories that your own rollout isn’t as rosy as we’d hoped. So what’s going on? And is the apparent trickle of 2011 Nissan LEAFs reaches customers are consumers going to get bored and shop elsewhere? Anything As Long As it Plugs In Remember the days when Aptera was planning to be the first...
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Is There a Business Case for Electric-Car Battery Lease or Swap?
As 2010 draws to a close, we now have shipments of the 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2011 Chevy Volt to customers around the United States. With the advent of these vehicles, is there still a business case for Better Place? To refresh your memory, Better Place is the venture between Shai Agassi and...
Jason Hendler -
First 2011 Nissan Leaf Delivery, To Northern Californian Buyer
The first page of a new chapter in green-car history was written yesterday, as Nissan formally handed over a 2011 Leaf electric car to Olivier Chalouhi of Redwood City, California. He was the very first person in the U.S. to order the all-electric vehicle, and the first to take delivery. Leaf...
John Voelcker -
Who Buys Electric Cars: Greens, Geeks, or Gloaters?
As any businessman will tell you, understanding your market is the key to selling your product. So as automakers worldwide ramp up electric car production ahead of a mass launch of plug-in vehicles they are seeking the answer to one very important question: What sort of person buys electric cars?...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
No Engine, No Brand Identity? Electric Cars And Branding
Let us run a few engines past you. A warbling flat six. A growling V8. The howl of an inline four changing cam profiles. The smooth buzz of a rotary. How about some names now? Hemi. Vortec. Powerstroke. VTEC. Renesis. Ecoboost. Noticing a pattern? The first list is clearly engine layouts, and the...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Nissan Leaf Electric Car Named Car of the Year in Europe
The 2011 Nissan Leaf all-electric car has been designated as Europe's 2011 Car of the Year, according to reports in Autocar and other media outlets. While the Leaf won our GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award, the bulk of similar U.S. awards went instead to the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
John Voelcker -
Over the past couple of months AllSmallCars.com and our sister sites have published a lot about electric vehicles. In fact, AllCarsElectric.com is completely dedicated to electric car news, events and reviews. Earlier this week, I reported on the 2011 Nissan LEAF and the official EPA rating in terms of MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Equivalent). Our partner site, GreenCarReports.com and senior writer John Voelcker also reported on it, but with a slightly different spin—one that asks why the EPA felt the need to relate mpg to an electric vehicle when they could have kilowatt-hours per mile...
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Did We Err On The Leaf, Or Is GM Volt Boosterism Bashing It?
Last week at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, we announced that the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car was the winner of the GreenCarReports 2011 Best Car To Buy award. That same week, a flurry of other media outlets almost uniformly gave their "car of year" awards to the 2011 Chevrolet Volt...
John Voelcker -
LEAF Task Force: Nissan's Electric Car Soldiers Of Fortune
In 2011 a crack task force was sent to the United States by a Japanese manufacturer for a car that's making headlines. These men were promptly trained to be experts in their field. Today, wanted by thousands of owners, they survive as a rapid response unit. If you have a problem, if no one else can...
Antony Ingram -
EPA Officially Rates 2011 Nissan LEAF with 99-MPG
No that isn’t a typo; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated the Nissan LEAF with a 99-combined mpg. If you are looking for how that breaks out into city and highway, the EPA has stamped the LEAF with a 92 city/106 highway mpg rating. If you are going to ask us how they calculated...
Jonathan McGrew -
Idiocy: EPA Rates 2011 Nissan Leaf 'Gas Mileage' At 99 MPG
So it's come down to this, has it? The U.S. car-buying public is apparently so stupid that the Environmental Protection Agency has to rate the efficiency of an all-electric car that burns no gasoline in ... miles per gallon. [facepalm] That's the only possible reaction to the news this afternoon...
John Voelcker -
Everybody Hertz Sometimes: CODA Lifts Mood With Rental Contract
You have to feel a little sorry for CODA automotive. A few months ago the Santa Monica firm was striding towards a December launch of its 2011 Sedan. Then as a prequel to announcing its first all-electric car would be delayed by nearly 9 months its Senior VP of Sales and Marketing left, closely...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
We took a look a few weeks ago at the five electric cars we reckoned you should do your best to see at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Our list included the 2011 Nissan Leaf, 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Coda Sedan, the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV and the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Our opinion hasn't changed - these are still probably the most important EVs at the show as they're cars that will make up the bulk of EV sales over the next few years. However, there are other electric stars at the show too, so here's a full, alphabetical run-down of all the EVs at this year's L.A. show. 2011 Chevrolet Volt You...
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Cheap Insurance For EVs? LEAF May Benefit, Will Others?
With all the talk of purchase price, charging costs, tax incentives, congestion charging exemptions and maintenance costs for EVs, there's one financial area which often gets overlooked - insuring them. With so few EVs on the road it's been difficult to gauge whether they'll cost more or less than...
Antony Ingram -
Nissan To Deliver Only 5 Leafs In 2010, More Delays Imminent?
Uh-oh, Nissan. There’s been word a-brewing on car forums for that the carmaker is experiencing delays in delivering the much-anticipated all-electric Leaf, which is slated to start arriving next month. But only five Leafs will arrive in the U.S. next month — one for each of the five...
VentureBeat's GreenBeat -
GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy 2011 Nominee: Nissan Leaf
The 2011 Nissan Leaf looks like a conventional compact hatchback with unconventionally sinuous styling. It seats five, has all the usual safety features, and we particularly like the way the navigation system is integrated into the rest of the car’s information systems. But the significance...
John Voelcker -
How Does Nissan Recharge Some Leafs? With A Diesel Generator
We love it when people send us photos. Especially photos of things that manufacturers aren't necessarily keeping front and center for the cameras. The photo here is a "range extender" that Nissan uses to keep its 2011 Leaf electric cars fully charged for media events. The picture was taken (by a...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Prepares To Support Customers With LEAF Troubleshooting Task Force
As Nissan gets ready to launch it’s zero-emissions all-electric LEAF next month, the company isn’t taking any chances on the service they provide their early adopting customers. According to news our of Astugi, Japan, Nissan is setting up a rapid-reaction task force in the United States...
Jonathan McGrew