On that note...
Please visit this link
http://goo.gl/w7pjy to watch me plea for votes to win a new Nissan Leaf. You will need to enter your email address and then watch for an email from Nissan with the subject of "Nissan LEAF – confirm your vote!", Click the link in that email in order to validate your vote or it will not count. If you do not see the link to validate your vote you may need to "Load Images" to see the link. Rest assured that your email address will only be used to confirm your vote and no one else will be contacting you because you entered your address.
The EVent was held at the South Center shopping mall and the traffic was a bit crazy on the Saturday afternoon while I was there. There were a number of rooms/tents setup and a Nissan tour guide lead groups of visitors through the rooms before everyone had a chance to interact with 2 plugged in but not charging Leafs.
The first room had a mock chassis with the battery box laid out. It was interesting to see that the pack was laid out as a set of relatively small modules. It appeared that it would be easy to replace a given module in the pack should it prove weak or faulty. As opposed to the hybrid battery packs which while they also have modules the modules are not as easily individually serviceable. In this room they also had an example pedestal and wall mount charger. On the walls were a number of photos of past Nissan Electric Vehicles. The guide seemed knowledgeable and did not dumb down or incorrectly explain any of the technical details.
The second room was about some of the technical creature comforts of the Leaf, including the "Car Wings" system similar to GM's OnStar. The guide explained that this system could be used via apple moble device apps or any web browser to schedule charging to start or end and to also pre condition the cars cabin but starting up the heater or air conditioner. Also on the walls in this were were a number of interesting graphics expressing the fuel efficiency, quietness, range, Carbon impact and other properties of the vehicle. In the main building animated versions of these graphics were playing in a loop and I found them all rather interesting.
The final room had an interactive web application that would calculate a route and show the range remaining. I was actually presently surprised when at home I used this same app to calculate my not so short commute plus visit to the SEVA meeting which showed plenty of range to spare.
You can check out this range app here at the following page:
http://www.drivenissanleaf.com/Open/100Mile.aspxFinally we were let loose to explore a pair of cars that were "running" so we could interact with all the systems on board, try out the seats and trunk and whatnot. The navigation system seemed great with it's built in charge station and available range views. Both cars were "plugged in" but not charging so they could not be accidentally driven off. That is to say that the charge port was connected, but the chargers were not online.
Finally it was time for the drive, which was disappointingly only about 3/4 of a mile long and lasted only 2 minutes or so. In that short time however I had a chance to "punch it" a few times and try out the eco-mode a little. It was as quick and peppy as you would expect any production EV to be. As the guide mentioned the Leaf is the fastest car in the entire Nissan line from 0-30mph. It was quieter than the EV1 which had a distinctly audible EV whine, the Leaf on the other hand could barely be heard at all. In the end my short test drive only made me want to test drive it much more. I really want to throw it through some corners and take it out on the interstate some time.
L8r
Ryan (SEVA Webmaster)
ps. Please share my plea for votes with all of your non SEVA friends!
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