Originally Posted By DAR <a href="http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090812/CARNEWS/908129995" target="_blank">http://www.autoweek.com/articl...08129995</a> Some basic stats: Chevy Volt 230 mpg $40,000 Nissan Leaf 367 mpg $25,000-33,000 I'll say this the designs are better than the Prius. And these are much more practical than that stupid Smart Car.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Sort of an apples and oranges comparison since the Volt is a plug-in hybrid and the Leaf is an all-electric. No mention of the driving range for the Leaf.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Leaf? They're seriously calling a car a "Leaf". Hopefully that's just a working title.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Yes, how do you rank "miles per gallon" if there are gallons in those miles? Dang, car ads are going to have even more asterisks and very fine print. Wonderful.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I hate to say it, but I can foresee GM coming out with the Volt and overpricing it; a little while later Nissan brings out theirs, prices it more realistically, and cleans GM's clock. The trouble with the Leaf, apparently, is the 100 mile range before one must recharge. Fine for most daily use, but not good for vacation or anything over 100 miles. And someone is going to have to come up with a solution for us city dwellers who park on the street and don't have a garage with an outlet TO plug into when we get home at night. I guess recharging stations might start popping up, perhaps along with gas stations?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I hate to say it, but I can foresee GM coming out with the Volt and overpricing it<< Yes, I must say that the $40K sent me into serious sticker shock. But then again, paying more than $15K for any car not dipped in pure gold seems clinically insane to me, so I am clearly behind the times.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< And someone is going to have to come up with a solution for us city dwellers who park on the street and don't have a garage with an outlet TO plug into when we get home at night. >>> One alternative for commuter cars is to charge them at the other end, i.e. at the workplace. This could be something provided by the employer if they also provide parking, or something that a commercial garage provides for an extra fee. All-electric cars are not practical for someone that doesn't have a regular way to charge them. But they don't have to be. Every car on the market doesn't have to fill every need.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Every car on the market doesn't have to fill every need.<< True, but really, does anyone need to be driving a car called a leaf? I mean, come ON. A leaf. Leaf is a good name for embarrassing feminine products trying to be tastefully descrete, but not for a car.
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 Check with your state DOT...I know in WA some of the stimulus funds that were received are going to add charging stations for electric vehicles in our larger cities. They should be ready to go by mid-2010. I guess more and more cities and states have similar projects in the works.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Naming a car the Leaf is basically saying that you don't really want to sell it to anyone with a Y chromosome and who doesn't own anything made of hemp.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <One alternative for commuter cars is to charge them at the other end, i.e. at the workplace.> In dense cities like NY, Boston, or SF, that would be difficult too, as many businesses just have their floor of a building, no "ground level" stuff. It's not an impossible problem - charging stations at parking garages comes to mind.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer The infrastructure would probably have to be pretty extensive to provide enough stations for the cars for the amount of time they would need to be plugged in. And would they have pay stations to cover the cost of the electricity?
Originally Posted By Mr X Here in Japan apparently they are working on new "quick charge" technology...it's not there *yet*, but one of these days charging up your electric car will be no less of a hassle than filling it up (and perhaps even in the same locations?).
Originally Posted By ecdc >>And someone is going to have to come up with a solution for us city dwellers who park on the street and don't have a garage with an outlet TO plug into when we get home at night. I guess recharging stations might start popping up, perhaps along with gas stations?<< Maybe it'll be like a laptop and you can just buy an extra, extended battery. Pretty sweet actually - people pulled over on the highway, hood propped open, lugging a giant battery replacement to slip into the engine.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Why can't they just pop a few solar cells into the roof?<< As of now,, the excess weight would literally outweigh any advantages to be gained from the solar power. At least "Leaf" is a better name for an electric car than "Impact."
Originally Posted By TomSawyer As fir as I'm concerned, the name "Leaf" is pretty bad. It needles me to the point that I want to pull put my pistil and shoot someone. I'd like to needle the sap who planted this idea to find out what branch of marketing thinks this is a good idea. I'd spruce up this dim bulb's way of thinking so he could cedar error of his ways. I pine for the days when a leader would bark orders to his seedlings to root around until they came up with a name that he could cell. It's time for me to bolt, so I'm going to bough out of this topic.
