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Nissan’s RE-LEAF Concept Is A 100% Electric Emergency Response Rally Car source: https://hiconsumption.com/nissan-re-leaf-emergency-response-vehicle/ As electric vehicles continue to gain traction in the consumer market, they’re also becoming increasingly popular amongst governments and private organizations. From the black cab to the police car, EV’s are proving to be far more than an eco-friendly alternative to their petrol-powered siblings. With the announcement of its latest prototype, Nissan is poised to bring electricity to emergency vehicles. Dubbed the “RE-LEAF,” this 100% electric disaster response car takes the Leaf passenger platform and outfits it with a slew of life-saving essentials. For instance, it ditches the rear seats of the production car in favor of a roomy storage area for essential equipment and a bulk-head cage to protect the drivers. In the trunk, it’s been fitted with a pull-out desk and an integrated energy management system, allowing for efficient, coordinated responses in the field. On the exterior, the RE-LEAF features a set of weatherproof plug sockets enabling 110- to 230-volt devices to be powered directly from the car’s battery. But to get the Leaf into disaster-stricken environments, Nissan needed to make some changes to the ride. As such, the RE-LEAF has been raised by 70mm, fitted with a skid plate, and given a set of beefy all-terrain tires.

Watching This Nissan Leaf Get Hurled Into a Pole at Speed Will Make You Flinch source: https://www.thedrive.com/news/31067/watching-this-nissan-leaf-get-hurled-into-a-pole-at-speed-will-make-you-flinch After watching this Nissan Leaf get thrown sideways into a pole at roadway speeds, you'll want to make sure you're paying attention in the real world. However, while the impact itself is tremendous, the fact that the electric vehicle's lithium-ion batteries escaped without bursting into a ball of fire is even more impressive, proving that the car's integrated fail-safe systems work as engineered. DEKRA, which stands for Deutscher Kraftfahrzeug-Überwachungs-Verein, or German Motor Vehicle Inspection Association in German, teamed up with the University Medical Center of Göttingen for a high-speed, side-pole crash impact test to exhibit how safe electric vehicles and their powertrains are. To prove that they’re just as safe as gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, DEKRA crash-tested a Nissan Leaf and its distant French subcompact cousin, the Renault Zoe, at 75 kilometers per hour (47 miles per hour), which is significantly faster than the standard side-pole crash test speed. The resulting footage, as you can see, is pretty spectacular. Upon closer inspection, you can see how destructive the impact was as the pole broke through all the way to the passenger seat. Needless to say, had there been a driver present, it’s unlikely that person would’ve survived. With the recent proliferation of electric vehicles, concern for the structural safety of their battery packs also became a point of concern after EVs began utilizing large lithium-ion battery packs. When ruptured, the battery packs can erupt into a massive ball of fire, resulting in a dangerous rescue situation for first responders. This happens when the liquids inside the battery cells come in contact with the integrated electrodes, causing a short. It results in sparks, which then ignites the lithium-ion fluid, a highly flammable material. To prevent this, engineers integrated fail-safe systems that disconnect any flow of electrons through the battery pack to avoid the initial and potentially fatal short. Automakers and engineers have worked to fortify the battery packs so that even in some of the most extreme collisions, they're less likely to rupture. From the test, the research bodies were able to prove that their homework has certainly paid off and that electric vehicles are indeed as safe as their conventional ICE-powered counterparts. But if there’s one other takeaway from the video, it’s to never slide sideways into a pole at high speed.

Read this from a friend's FB posting... $88K and no COE required! Given the current COE climate, would this create an avalanche of orders?? http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/...301-331015.html

Law enforcement teams, firefighters and medics across Europe are adopting the all electric Nissan Leaf as a key frontline emergency support vehicle. Emergency services in Portugal, France, U.K. and Switzerland have deployed Leafs as community support vehicles, with a number of other countries considering making the switch to battery power. The first force in the world to go electric was Portugal's PSP (Pol

Nissan has introduced the 2013 Nissan Leaf facelift for the Japanese market. The most important update is on the electric drive train, which consists of a new electric motor, an inverter and a DC/DC converter. It is now 10% lighter, giving the car an 80 kg advantage over the outgoing model. Among other upgrades, Nissan engineers also improved the regenerative braking system to maximize power regeneration. All these improvement enables the EV to travel up to 228 km on a full charge, which is more than sufficient to drive up to Malacca. On the exterior, the new Leaf gets 3 new colors, namely white, dark Metal Gray and Brilliant White Pearl. It will also get re-designed alloy rims in either 16 or 17-inch width depending on the grade that you choose. Blue reflection LED headlights are available as well. For the interior, upgrades include genuine leather seats, BOSE

[extract] Eight zero-emission Nissan Leaf EVs have joined the Portugal

[extract] A taxi service company by the name of Taxi-E started the first electric taxi program in Amsterdam towards the end of 2011. The initial batch of vehicle consists of twelve Nissan Leafs. Some six months later, this fleet of twelve green warriors has clocked up around 250,000km. As the service is greatly appreciated by the Dutch citizens, Taxi-E plans to expand the number of EVs in their fleet, although the actual figure is not specified. The company

As you all probably know by now, Top Gear isn't the most reliable source of information on 'Green' cars because of their inherent hatred towards them making them more prone to giving biased reviews. However, whoever said Top Gear was about pure facts? Its hilarious! Obviously, Clarkson and May were using EVs for a rather incredibly stupid but entertaining challenge; they were going for a cross country 'trek' which i assume is what these EVs were 'made for' if you catch my drift. Clarkson was in the Nissan Leaf which as you know if you have been reading this blog, it won the 2011 World Car of the Year. I actually wonder how it did that since 2011 isn't even over yet. Anyway, James May was driving a Peugeot iOn which is basically just a Mitsubishi i-MiEV till his ran out of juice as well. How coincidental. I wouldn't be surprised if it was staged but who really cares? Its all for entertainment sake anyway. I know there are lots of people who despise Top Gear's style of info-tainment but I'd say just let the boys have some fun eh?

A big congratulation to the Nissan Leaf as it has defeated the Audi A8 and BMW 5-Series to earn the title of 2011 World Car of the Year. In 2010, the Volkswagen Polo took home this award. The award shows once again the importance of electric vehicles and the trend will continue in the next years. Fuel efficient vehicles are slowly becoming the core product of large automakers and a bet that can transform many companies. Deemed a "gateway to a brave new electric world," the panel of 66 automotive journalists were impressed by the Leaf's pure-electric powertrain and promise of zero-emission motoring. According to Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, "It is a great joy that the world's first, mass-marketed electric vehicle, the Nissan LEAF, has won the prestigious award of 2011 World Car of the Year. This accolade recognizes Nissan LEAF, a pioneer in zero-emission mobility, as comparable in its driving performance, quietness and superb handling to gas-powered cars." In the less efficient realm of the industry, the 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia was named World Performance Car of the Year, and the sleek 2011 Aston Martin Rapide was given the World Design of the Year crown. Aston Martin Rapide Ferrari 458 Italia

[extract] Ford is poised to take on the Nissan Leaf EV with the all-new Focus Electric that was revealed recently in production guise. This is Ford

- A Leaf Now after writing about hybrids and then reading about the Nissan Leaf I am of the opinion that totally electric cars (not hybrids) of the near future (anything less than 5years from today) are actually going to be troublesome for most of us. Firstly, if you read their specs they have the range of about 2 feet on a single charge. Really. A supposed 160 kilometers range (like the Nissan Leaf) is actually useful if you work within a radius of 20km and you don't do any outside appointments. This is because in our climate, humidity, heat and traffic will mean that batteries will not last as long as cooler climates and a theoretical 150km mileage could be much less. If you travel a lot, which this writer over here does on a daily basis, a totally electric car isn't practical at all. And not all drivers are sensible drivers. Last week I witnessed a Toyota Prius which was piloted by someone who absolutely was trying to overtake every other car on the highway. I don't think any hybrid or totally electric car will save the world if Lead Foot Larry was doing the driving. Secondly, a fully electric car will be a pain if you have to open the socket cover on an electric car, take a power cord and plug in to recharge every time it goes flat or every time you reach home. Most of us already find it tedious going to the gas station to queue up, pop open the filler lid, reach for the pump and them pump petrol or diesel into the car at least once or twice a week. Now, with an electric car, we are supposed to do something dreary and totally dull almost everyday. Unless electric cars have a battery life of your average cellular phone, which is at least three to five days between charges, most long haul drivers will keep away from electric cars. Maybe it could work in a country like Singapore, where most commutes are short distances, most of the time. Thirdly. Have you heard your blender or your vacuum cleaner lately? They sound utterly and terribly boring, even if they may be noisy. Their electric motors spin at thousands of revs per minutes but they just sound monotonous. How interesting would a sports car be if it were powered by a blender? Look at the Tesla Roadster, yes its green, yes its fast (to a point) but it is so quiet but if the electric motor were to make a sound, it would sound like those appliances or a large version of the R/C car you bought for your kid last Christmas. They would just go 'wheeeeeeeeeee' and nothing else. One of the points of actual sports car driving or ownership is the aural thrills it would give you. If you've heard a Zonda, or a SL55 or a 911 GT3 RS or even a F430, all of which I have had the opportunity of hearing their exhaust notes on song, you'd never want a silent car, ever. The sound made by all of these cars, you will never find in a Tesla or even a Prius. Or maybe they should make all electric cars sound like those pod racers in Star Wars. Especially Sebulba's pod racer. Or then again, make it sound like a TIE fighter. Then I'd buy an electric car. Go watch Star Wars and choose your favourite sounds for your electric car's noise making speakers, if they ever installed speakers to liven up electrics/hybrids. It actually would make people buy them if it sounded like something from Star Wars. - Let's put speakers on quiet electric cars like the Tesla and make them sound like.... -.............. this. So does that mean that I will never go green? I hereby promise to keep the potted plants on my apartment balcony alive by watering them so that they absorb carbon from the atmosphere, buy a British Racing Green coloured car, put paper/aluminium/glass waste in their respective bins and then save up and buy a C63 AMG as it has catalytic converters in its exhaust system that will actually clean the air that it consumes to make that beautiful Messerschmidt-like AMG V8 sound. - an 'environmentally friendly' car I'd buy.