Nissan unveils world's first mass-market electric car, the Leaf | Hacker News Reader

Nissan unveils world's first mass-market electric car, the Leaf

guardian.co.uk

23 pointsnewacc28 comments

I'll bet all these hybrid and electric cars would be adopted by more people if they stopped assigning them fruity little names like "Leaf."

You think any man wants to ride around in the Leaf?

Is this some kind of mis-channeling of PG's last essay?

Did you see the photo of the car? It's not targeted at the Hummer crowd. It's also being sold in Europe. I'm not saying it's a great name, but I can see the association between leaf and concern for the environment. And it's a small car. The name to me seems to go along with its design and purpose.

I would also say names may not matter as much as we think they do, or at least that it is fluid and malleable over time. I.e., Nissan or Toyota probably didn't sound all that cool in the 70s or 80s either.

I.e., Nissan or Toyota probably didn't sound all that cool in the 70s or 80s either.

Speaking of names (and new Nissan models), I just watched the Top Gear coverage of the GT-R. It performed on par with some of the fastest supercars in the world (and faster than most of them), and also caused Jeremy Clarkson's back to give out while he was driving it. Richard Hammond joked about how of all the cars Clarkson has driven, he was crippled by a Datsun. I thought it interesting that he chose to use "Datsun" as the derogatory brand for the joke, rather than Nissan. I wonder if that name change and subsequent brand recognition loss was a net positive or a net loss, since it meant they could disassociate from the low end, low performance, and very small, autos of the Datsun years.

Well said. Further, why do Hybrids go so far out of their way to look like Hybrids? How about making one that looks like a car?

I'd happily drive a Prius if only it didn't look so Priussy. It just screams "I'm a smug jackass driving a Prius!" I'm all about saving the planet and all, but I don't want to look like I'm rubbing everybody's face in it.

Because they're all dealing with relatively similar problems with weight and drag.

The flip side of 'why do hybrids have to look like hybrids' is the Chevy Volt. That car's final design looks as bland and unremarkable as the last few revisions of the Malibu. Is that really a better alternative?

Of course not, I want a manly name like for example some of the names used by the vehicles in the National Electric Drag Association.

Peruse this list of manly electric car names. http://www.nedra.com/record_holders.html

You're absolutely right. I'd much prefer something more manly, like ... the Canyonero. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCzCXyQ-bv0

word association: leaf - green. Think about it. My own criteria for a car revolve around comfort, low maintenance costs, and ease of parking. It can be called Brian for all I care.

I've been half-heartedly shopping around for a car. I've been living for 2.5 years without one since selling my Nissan 350Z when moving to the valley from Austin. One of the reasons the shopping is half-hearted is that I think I kinda want an all-electric vehicle, and there aren't really any realistic electric vehicles available (my primary purpose would be for driving from Mountain View to San Francisco and back every week or so). The other reason is that I think that what I really want is another Z car.

What I'm saying is that I've loved my Nissans in the past, and if this comes to the States at a reasonable price point, it could very well be my next car.

I'm in the same situation. I don't want a gas guzzler so I'm waiting around for the electrics. I might get an electric motorcycle first though since new car models tend to have problems in their first year so I imagine the first year of a completely different kind of car is going to be rife with headaches.

Basically it's the same as my phone situation. I don't want an iPhone because of Apple's management of it. I prefer owning what I've paid for and having another company tell me what I can and can't do with my own property doesn't sit well with me. I'm waiting for a viable substitute to be available, something like the HTC Hero.

For me, the most important sentence was near the end:

"The Leaf car battery can be charged to 80% capacity in about 20 minutes, compared with almost three and a half hours needed for the G-Wiz."

Seems totally reasonable for an intra-city commuting vehicle. I can't see why something like this (even with a 100mi range) wouldn't be popular in NYC, LA, or Boston.

EVs can only charge that fast with a special high-power line or a dump pack.

You can get at most 1440W from a 120V 15A outlet (80% max allowable according to NEC) or 5760W from 240V 30A. No matter what magical battery technology you have, you can't charge faster if you don't have a bigger input. You can get range/hour of charging by dividing the power by the wh/mi; the Nissan is probably 100-200wh/mi, so 7-14mi/hr from 120 or 28-56mi/hr from 240V

The title is a bit misleading. Nissan just hopes it will be the first. Mitsubishi is planning to have their iMiev out at about that time or sooner as well. Actually, just about every car company is saying they'll have an electric out by 2011 these days.

Wow, the Leaf has a strong 'face' with a smirk:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/08/nissan...

It's almost like one of the Pixar 'Cars' or the characters in the Chevron commercials from a ways back.

When I was a real little kid, maybe 8 or 10 or so, my mother took me shopping for a new car and I distinctly recall bursting into tears at the sight of the first one she liked because I thought it looked mean. I've always wanted to hear the inside scoop on whether cars intentionally anthropomorphise so well or if that was just one of those happy accidents.

It's a pretty safe bet that designers take it into consideration, and intentionally play it up in some situations.

The BMWs, I feel, are a good example of that with a pretty feline look (to me at least), or gaze maybe.

I mostly get that feeling from the headlights and front.

Yeah I agree that they do now, I am just curious about how it came to be that way.

http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/future_cars/mazda_3_2010.html

The new Mazda's always crack me up when I see them for the same reason. I wonder if it's a conscious design decision.

This one really does it for me... http://epicponyz.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/presidenheadlam...

Sorry :)

I've always wondered if it wouldn't be easier to use the grid to power cars instead of thousands of tank trucks on a daily basis to fill our gas stations which at the same time consume more gasoline.

From the practical point of view, we should use the oil to generate electricity, not to run our cars. Until we find a way to replace oil with nuclear, fision or whatever, then the grid remains intact we only change the source. And cars remain electric without any change.

See? blame BigOil for stomping his boot on the head of progress...

We are just now at the point where battery technology makes this possible. It's not like 'BigOil' has been preventing this... liquid petroleum based fuels have so far offered the most practical solution for powering a vehicle, and this is only now starting to change.

I'm sure you are aware of this, but just in case, there are good reasons why this hasn't taken place and most of them have to do with battery technology. The basic problem is that the current crop of batteries take too long to charge on residential current and don't hold charge long enough. Their weight is also a big issue.

Somehow, the combination of "grid", "tracks" and "electricity" popped out to make me think you were calling for a National Slot Car Network.

Electric cars running on little slots in the road, with every car having a rigid steel rod fit into it and two metal pads on springs that ride on electrified rails embedded in the pavement.

I'm down, so long as we get to install those cool handheld trigger things in the cars.

Filling your gas tank is equivalent to ~0.5megawatts; your house is 50kilowatts (usually a 240V 200A service), so we can't use electric cars in the same way we use gasoline cars. They're only useful for trips around town, which is what, 90% of miles driven?

"gas tank is equivalent to ~0.5megawatts", just to be more clear, could you say how many hours of driving are you assuming the gas fill will last, since your measurement is in terms of power?

I think he's saying that gas gets into a tank at the electricity equivelent rate of about half a megawatt.

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