Nissan Leaf sells out in U.S.

[Bucky]

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - US consumers looking to get Nissan's all-electric Leaf will have to wait another year, after dealers sold this year's entire shipment before the zippy sedan even hit showrooms, the Japanese automaker said Monday.

Nissan dealers have collected more than 20,000 orders for the Leaf, and the bulk are wealthy "early adapters" on the west coast of the United States, said Carlos Tavares, chairman of Nissan's management committee for the Americas.

The next step will be to convince "pragmatists" that an electric vehicle will save them money, he said.

The Leaf will be introduced later this month and Nissan is in the midst of installing charging stations at more than 40 US dealers.

Leaf sold out

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

This being autumn and the seasons (all four of them) being vitally important to the Japanese pysche, I hope this Leaf doesn't end up turning into an ochiba....

[Tsuru]

It does look like a very tempting vehicle for day-to-day commuting and shopping, but as always the problem is the requirement for hours of charging once its batteries are depleted. An electric car with a gasoline generator would be a much better option. The little generator can keep running at its optimum efficiency RPM and the car itself is powered by an electric motor. The Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera is a much more interesting vehicle in this way, even though it turns out it also has a planetary drive system like the Toyota Prius.

In any case, they are both infinitely better looking than the Prius. This Nissan looks like it was based on the old Renault Megane, with the ass and all.

[FG Lurker]

It does look like a very tempting vehicle for day-to-day commuting and shopping, but as always the problem is the requirement for hours of charging once its batteries are depleted. An electric car with a gasoline generator would be a much better option. The little generator can keep running at its optimum efficiency RPM and the car itself is powered by an electric motor. The Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera is a much more interesting vehicle in this way, even though it turns out it also has a planetary drive system like the Toyota Prius.

I'm really looking forward to getting a full-on electric car for city use. I've even toyed with the idea of building one myself, something along the lines of what these guys do.

In any case, they are both infinitely better looking than the Prius. This Nissan looks like it was based on the old Renault Megane, with the ass and all.

I do not understand why Toyota is incapable of producing an original and attractive automotive design. With the Prius it's almost like they set out to purposely make it as fugly as possible... A Japanese mechanic recently told me that Toyota purposely designs cars to be boring. They design cars to be acceptable to the vast majority of people -- the lowest common denominator I guess.

[Taka-Okami]

I'm really looking forward to getting a full-on electric car for city use. I've even toyed with the idea of building one myself, something along the lines of what these guys do.


I do not understand why Toyota is incapable of producing an original and attractive automotive design. With the Prius it's almost like they set out to purposely make it as fugly as possible... A Japanese mechanic recently told me that Toyota purposely designs cars to be boring. They design cars to be acceptable to the vast majority of people -- the lowest common denominator I guess.

All electric/hydrogen cars do is move carbon emissions to the source - power stations. If not gas or coal fired then onto nuclear. I don't know which of those is worse.

The fact is that the only way to reduce emissions is to reduce the population, but you never hear about that in the news. The only thing you hear about is these new whiz bang new products available for the 'consumer'.

How many more fucking Nuc or gas/coal fired power stations will they need to build to power everyones electric cars. For fucks sake!

[Fullback]

Nuclear power has about 98% less carbon emissions than gas and oil fired generating facilities. Since Japan uses about 40% nuclear power, that's a significant reduction if EVs become more mainstream.

What is exactly is "worse" about nuclear power?

[Taka-Okami]

Nuclear power has about 98% less carbon emissions than gas and oil fired generating facilities. Since Japan uses about 40% nuclear power, that's a significant reduction if EVs become more mainstream.

What is exactly is "worse" about nuclear power?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-there-a-place-for-nuclear-waste

What to do with shit that is dangerous for like 200,000 years. Wonder what the Japs do with theirs? Probably buring it on a nice fault line.

Best not to live down wind of a Nuc plant. Suckers!

Not to mention, we are nearing 'peak uranium', so nuc aint the solution

[Tsuru]

I am sick and tired of people bringing up Chernobyl every single goddamn time nuclear power is discussed as an alternative to fossil fuels. The Chernobyl reactor was an archaic Soviet device with fucking graphite blocks as neutron moderators for fuck's sake. The first thing the Germans did after the Wende was shut down all the East German soviet reactors because they were simply considered to be too dangerous.

Western reactors, even of the same generation as the Chernobyl reactor, are infinitely safer. A friend of mine is involved in developing new types of nuclear fission reactors which are yet to enter service, and when he is talking about reactor safety, I listen. I have the utmost confidence in the reactors that are being developed and built to provide a solution to the energy crisis. I have actually seen with my own eyes a small 2MW reactor core as it was operating, emitting its pale blue light, and it was perfectly safe from where I was standing thanks to the several meters of water between me and the core. (Just don't touch the dust floating on it)

About the waste question: I don't know how nuclear waste is handled at your end, but over here we cast it into concrete and stack it up at the bottom of a disused salt mine. Good enough for me if it means we emit 98% less CO2 for the same amount of energy.

[Fullback]

Yes, I agree. It's ridiculous, Tsuru. All the deaths, injuries and damage from coal, gas and oil generation cycle and sourcing is staggering, but people with no knowledge whatsoever of engineering or science always wring their hands about it.

And they're strangely adamant and unwilling to read, learn or listen.

[FG Lurker]

Yes, I agree. It's ridiculous, Tsuru. All the deaths, injuries and damage from coal, gas and oil generation cycle and sourcing is staggering, but people with no knowledge whatsoever of engineering or science always wring their hands about it.

And they're strangely adamant and unwilling to read, learn or listen.

It doesn't fit into the "world is about to end" beliefs that people like Taka-Okami hold.

[FranciscoDeXavier]

either way i prefer sun and wind and wave power, by a long way eheheh

[Tsuru]

Those only work to offload or complement a "real" power source and only up to a point as the total amount of power in watts you generate needs to be exactly the same as the amount of power which is used by the consumers and lost in the network at any time. Otherwise you experience fluctuations in voltage or outages. With all of these examples this is impossible without at least a way of buffering the power you generate, like in the form of a large water reservoir to convert excess electric power into potential energy in the form of water pumped up to a height above normal. Batteries could in theory do this as well, but are a bit impractical, inefficient and costly to do this effectively.

The only true alternative power sources that work in the real world are ones which are abundant, where you can count on having a certain maximum output at any time and where you have direct control over the amount of power you want to generate from it. Therefor the only real alternatives for burning fossil fuels are hydro-electric, geothermal and nuclear (fission as well as fusion).

[ketchupkatsu]

Tsuru,

How about molten salt as a buffer if you're using a solar thermal energy system?

In a proper insulated reservoir, it should maintain temp to smooth out any power loss because of less than ideal conditions.

[Coligny]

I am sick and tired of people bringing up Chernobyl every single goddamn time nuclear power is discussed as an alternative to fossil fuels. The Chernobyl reactor was an archaic Soviet device with fucking graphite blocks as neutron moderators for fuck's sake.

And don't forget the safety systems were shutdown on purpose before the accident to perform a test.

It's not a nuclear accident while in normal operating use. It's an accident while joyriding a nuclear powerplant. Not exactly the same.

[Taro Toporific]

Sales for the Leaf have been underwhelming, so Nissan is doubling-down...

Nissan plans to sell cheaper Leaf
Financial Times via motoring.asiaone.com | 21 Oct. 2012
Nissan plans to offer a lower-priced version of its Leaf to help spark sales of the electric car, which is selling well below the company’s earlier forecasts.
The move comes against a broader backdrop of disappointing early sales for plug-in cars, despite billions of dollars of loans, grants and consumer subsidies offered by governments in recent years to promote the fledgling sector.
Nissan sold fewer than 12,000 Leafs in the first half of this fiscal year...below its goal of selling 40,000 of the cars for the full year...
More...

unsold-Leafs.jpg

Above: An endless horizon of unsold Nissan Leafs---The excess inventory sitting on the docks of Long Beach, California.

{Disclaimer: In the US, I now own a Nissan Altima Hybrid ("Teana" in Japan), which seems merely an OK vehicle.}

[Coligny]

unsold-Leafs.jpg

Above: An endless horizon of unsold Nissan Leafs---The excess inventory sitting on the docks of Long Beach, California.

With japanese license plates ? without the white vinyl to protect the hood during tranport ? and steering wheel on the right ?
(plus often cars are send to dealership with iron wheels)

{Disclaimer: In the US, I now own a Nissan Altima Hybrid ("Teana" in Japan), which seems merely an OK vehicle.}

f'cking aparatchik... at least you buy French...

[Taro Toporific]

unsold-Leafs.jpg

Above: An endless horizon of unsold Nissan Leafs---The excess inventory sitting on the docks of Long Beach, California.

With japanese license plates ? without the white vinyl to protect the hood during tranport ? and steering wheel on the right ?

Hmmm, you are right. I just grabbed the first photo of Nissan Leafs stacked up in a storage lot I could find. Oops.
Sorry about my mistake, but the photo was smallish, low-resolution and cropped.

After some digging, I found the original, full-sized, AP photo that shows bunch of licensed Leafs parked in Tokyo's Odaiba (for who knows what reason).

120418_electric_cars_ap_328.jpeg

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

unsold-Leafs.jpg

Above: An endless horizon of unsold Nissan Leafs---The excess inventory sitting on the docks of Long Beach, California.

With japanese license plates ? without the white vinyl to protect the hood during tranport ? and steering wheel on the right ?
(plus often cars are send to dealership with iron wheels)

{Disclaimer: In the US, I now own a Nissan Altima Hybrid ("Teana" in Japan), which seems merely an OK vehicle.}

f'cking aparatchik... at least you buy French...

You have got way too much fucking time on your hands....

[Coligny]

Re-reading that thread from the start with all the pronuke wanking is hillarious... in a not so funny kind of way... (but don't bring up tchernubyl though...)

[Coligny]

unsold-Leafs.jpg

Above: An endless horizon of unsold Nissan Leafs---The excess inventory sitting on the docks of Long Beach, California.

With japanese license plates ? without the white vinyl to protect the hood during tranport ? and steering wheel on the right ?
(plus often cars are send to dealership with iron wheels)

{Disclaimer: In the US, I now own a Nissan Altima Hybrid ("Teana" in Japan), which seems merely an OK vehicle.}

f'cking aparatchik... at least you buy French...

You have got way too much fucking time on your hands....

1- you'd be AMAZED by the amount of free time I have...

2- BUT, there is no link between this and the fact that i can spot some detailz a bit faster than the rest of the geriatric posters from dis' board...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

2- BUT, there is no link between this and the fact that i can spot some detailz a bit faster than the rest of the geriatric posters from dis' board...

I don't think anybody else needs to look for them...

[Coligny]

I wasn't looking, it just striked me as odd... Sorry if living in a harbour town with shitload of cars being shipped daily passing in front of me on car carriers I know how they look like before reaching showrooms getting ready to be loaded on RollOnRollOff ship...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Sorry...I shouldn't be picking on you.

[Coligny]

Bad day ?

Need a hug ?

e707f434-c688-4d27-904c-43269196e368.jpg

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Thanks!
Needed that!

[Mike Oxlong]

More electric car charging points in Japan than gas stations

Green-car skeptics take note: Japan now has more electric vehicle charging spots than gas stations.

The country’s No. 2 automaker Nissan says there are now 40,000 charging units—including those inside private homes—across the nation, compared with 34,000 petrol stations.

While gas stations have multiple pumps and can service many more cars, the figures underscore efforts to boost green-vehicle infrastructure in Japan, long a leader in a sector that remains tiny globally.

Nissan is betting on growing demand for electric cars, while rival Toyota said it has been swamped by orders for its first mass market hydrogen fuel-cell car, the Mirai sedan.

Fuel-cell cars are seen as the Holy Grail of green cars as they are powered by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, which emits nothing more harmful than water from its exhaust.

But a limited driving range and lack of refueling stations have hampered development of the green-car sector, which environmentalists say could play a vital role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/tech ... s-stations

[Russell]

Yep, I saw this news, but I cannot help but wonder where those charging points are.

I rarely see them...

[Coligny]

Yep, I saw this news, but I cannot help but wonder where those charging points are.

I rarely see them...

Every house whose owner has a leaf and a powercord going from the living room to the leaf...

Standard japanese accounting...

[Russell]

Yep, I saw this news, but I cannot help but wonder where those charging points are.

I rarely see them...

Every house whose owner has a leaf and a powercord going from the living room to the leaf...

Standard japanese accounting...

But yeah, you're probably right.

[matsuki]

Yep, I saw this news, but I cannot help but wonder where those charging points are.

I rarely see them...

Every house whose owner has a leaf and a powercord going from the living room to the leaf...

Standard japanese accounting...

But yeah, you're probably right.

Exactly:

—including those inside private homes—

Why stop there though? If every power outlet is now a "power station," i expect to see Leaf owners disconnecting jihanki and hand dryers all over the place to plug into "power stations."