The Car Hub

The Nissan Leaf, a new electric car from the Japanese company is going to cost motorists over £24,000 for the privilege of owning the basic model. This price makes it more costly by over £2,000 than its main rival the Toyota Prius.
The Leaf is scheduled for long term production at Nissan’s plan in Sunderland, North East England, following an initial production run in Japan, it will be produced on the same production lines already in use making the Nissan Note.
For all those motorists who would like to be more environmental friendly by driving an electric car what does the high price tag of the Nissan Leaf say to them?
For comparison purposes some experts state the Leaf should be compared with a fossil fuelled car of either a 1.0litre or maximum 1.2litre turbo engine.
At present on the market there is already a very competitive range of fossil fuel vehicles, with very good environment credentials, which are up to £10,000 and more cheaper than the Leaf, e.g. the Seat Ibiza 1.4TDI Ecomotive, Ford Fiesta 1.6TDCI, Volkswagen Polo 1.4 Bluemotion and Mini Cooper 1.6D, the first three all emit less than 100g/km of carbon dioxide while the Cooper just edges upwards to 104g/km, so apart from all those who have good wedges of the folding stuff tucked away in banks and bonds, who will be the buyers?
Something else in the sales package which is not so encouraging is Nissan also stating that the battery pack life is an expected 5-10 years, which is no guarantee it will provide that long a service while a replacement pack could be as costly as putting in a new engine, not the most encouraging sales patter considering a normal petrol engine should have a life of more than double that period of time.
Nissan’s sales patter for their Nissan Leaf also states running costs should be cheaper than a comparable fossil fuelled car in the long term but the question has to be asked who is going to buy (say) a second hand 3 year old Leaf with a possible battery pack replacement looming.
If the supporters of environmental change and the motor manufacturers want to convince the public that electric cars or hybrid cars are more environment friendly than their fossil fuelled cousins should they be producing figures to show the comparable carbon dioxide generated in producing the all-electric or hybrid vehicles as against the comparable cost of petrol and diesel models they produce, surely we should have access to this vital piece of information.
The popularity of the electric car is reportedly gaining momentum worldwide but to have mass appeal the cost of an electric car has to be within the reach of the majority which is not the case with the Nissan Leaf.
Bill Williams