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Nissan LEAF Electric Car aims to leapfrog hybrid technology
Nissan LEAF All Electric Car
Posted 08/21/2009 in Articles by Christopher
When Nissan unveiled the all-electric LEAF August 2nd 2009 , CEO Carlos Ghosen declared it the world's first affordable, mass-market zero-emission car. If the company is able to deliver on its target date, Nissan will have a legitimate claim to the title and a decisive first-mover advantage.
Designed specifically for a lithium-ion battery-powered chassis, Nissan LEAF is a medium-size hatchback that comfortably seats five adults and has a range of more than 160km (100 miles).
In what is quickly becoming a noisy marketplace of competing claims for green cars, Nissan’s announcement is notable for two reasons. The first is their decision to develop an all-electric rather than a hybrid. Other companies’ strategies assume that the combination of an internal combustion engine and generator (genset) will be cheaper to produce than a battery of equivalent capacity. This consideration is probably more important to manufacturers than addressing the oft-cited “range anxiety”, the reluctance of consumers to purchase a car whose travel range must be punctuated by eight hour recharge intervals.
The conventional notion is that the ability to use gasoline fuel gives the vehicle essentially unlimited range.
GM President Bob Lutz has frequently cited the statistic that 78% of American’s drive 40 miles per day or less. An equally important statistic is that over 66% of households with cars own two or more. On the infrequent occasions when a range of more than 100 miles is required, most Americans already have an extended-range vehicle.
By committing to an electric-only solution, Nissan gains six important competitive advantages:
- The Leaf becomes a true zero-emission vehicle when powered by renewable sources. With residential rooftop solar already competitive with top-tier pricing, and becoming cheaper every year, this is no empty claim. With the purchase of rooftop PV panels, consumers can lock in fixed pricing for personal transportation fuel, as well as make a meaningful personal commitment to the environment. For drivers in condos and apartments, green utility investments or purchases accomplish the same thing without the need to install local equipment.
- Nissan puts their cost of auto production on the downward sloping trend of solid-state battery manufacturing. By partnering with NEC to produce their own batteries, they have direct control over the cost of the most expensive single component of the electric vehicle. Although battery manufacture is not currently on par with Moore’s law, the most expensive part of a lithium ion battery is in fact the control electronics and packaging, so it is clear that this downward slope will be quite reliable.
- Inevitable breakthroughs in battery chemistry and fabrication techniques are much more likely to outpace any possible cost reductions in the design and manufacture of increasingly complex internal combustion engines which must meet increasingly stringent emissions requirements, no matter how infrequently they are run.
- By focusing R&D efforts on getting battery productions costs under the cost of an equivalent genset, Nissan has an opportunity to establish a significantly lower cost of production, earning higher margins and being able to consistently win the consumer price competition.
- The all-electric Leaf will be much cheaper to maintain than internal-combustion hybrids, which despite lower use will still need oil and coolant changes, spark plug and filter servicing and inevitably, repair and replacement.
- If Nissan can demonstrate the range, performance and reliability of the pure-electric car before any of the other major automakers, they will establish the same leadership position for all-electrics as Toyota Prius has for the series-parallel hybrid, namely to be almost synonymous with the term.
The Nissan LEAF is slated for launch in late 2010 in Japan, the United States, and Europe.