Nissan LEAF test drive report -- 日産LEAFに試乗してみた

 Nissan Rentcar currently has a promotion rate for LEAF, which allows you to hire one of these pure electric vehicle for Y5,250 for 12 hours or Y6,825 for 24 hours. For car guy like myself, this is difficult deal to turn down. So, here I am with LEAF!!!

 Isn't this good looking? This sexless appearance states very well that this car is nothing like others!

The moment I pushed "start botton", I realise the difference! Very cool, indeed.

Acceleration of electric vehicle is amaizing. In case of petrol engine, it is very rare to get peak of torque. You really need to push pedal to floor. For electric vehicle, you get peak torque immediately as you accelerate. Within seconds, you reach 60km/hr. This smooth and extremely fast acceleration is nothing you can imagine from "green car" and reminded me of "magic carpet". Unlike hybrid car of Toyota or Honda, Nissan LEAF's ride is extremely good. Hybrid cars tried to cut weight as much as possible, which resulted in stiff ride. I think Nissan did great job on this point. Its smooth suspension and good handling reminds me of VW Golf or Audi 3. LEAF would get good rating even if this were equipped with normal petrol engine.

 When I hired this car, range shown was 190km. As I tried to accelerate hard so many times  to test this magic carpet, it did not go as much. When I reached my destination, range was 151km.

 Finding charge station is easy. By pushing botton three times, navigation system shows charge station nearby. In greater Tokyo area, you cannot be more than 10km away from nearest quick charge station. However, trick is that they are not open for 24 hours as many are installed at dealerships that is open typicaly from 9am to 7pm. They can be closed on Tuesday or Wednesday. So, if you are planning long drive, you really need to do your work before you take off or you can run out of your battery at middle of nowhere at midnight........Big problem!

 After 106km, I decided to stop by one of Nissan dealership for recharge.

 Under the hood looks like this. Engine like silver parts is probably a DC/DC converter. The shape is exactly like 4 cylinder engine, which is probably allowing Nissan to asseble LEAF on same line as other normal petrol enigne vechicles.

In 30min, my battery level incrased from 30% to 90%.

Boot is quite spacious. 

On my way back, I  went very tough on highway..... I did 66km plus 47km remaining(113 km in total), 25% less than initially shown range of 150km.
With one time charge, LEAF did 172km plus remaining 47km in total. I did not use air conditioning at all this time. If I used, I would have got 10% less range.
Unlike petrol engine, accuracy of range was very good, which removed some anxiety.

So, is this a buy?

Let's not think about driving range for a moment.

Then, I say YES!

This is extremely fun to drive.

Prius? Insight? They have given up so much for fuel efficiency. You get more mileage at a expense of driving pleasure....How sad!

LEAF is fun to drive and yet you pay nothing for petrol.

For 3,000,000 yen, you get future in your hands with ride quality of Audi 3. 

Now, you do need to consider driving range, right? 

then.....

This suddenly becomes difficult question.

If you only use your car in your town or if you can own two cars, then LEAF can be great choice!

Is this green car? I do not know......

Electric vehicle and nuclear power generation can not be separated. 

Now, in Japan, in order to charge extra one of these, we need to burn extra fossil fuel somewhere at bay of Tokyo....

I took above picture at one city of Ibaraki which is know as "hot spot" in order to measure radiation dose. 

My Geiger counter was showing 0.90 micro SV/hr........