Tokyo Writer Test Drives Nissan Leaf All-Electric Vehicle

When your car starts up and you don't hear anything, that's the sound of the future. And the sound of silence from Nissan's new Leaf electric vehicle is almost deafening.

During the first journalist test drive of the production version (only four exist right now), the Leaf zoomed off with only the whoosh of wind and tires betraying its speed.

In fact, I found it deceptively easy to clip along at 60 mph without even trying -- solely because there was no engine growling under the hood and no telltale transmission shifts.

The uninitiated electric-car driver -- meaning all of us -- is likely to keep pushing the pedal instinctively, waiting for that engine rumble. Instead, the Leaf glided noiselessly and effortlessly around Nissan's proving ground outside the Oppama plant, where production will begin in October.

Engineers say it goes from 0 to 62 mph in a little under 10 seconds.

The car is so quiet that Nissan feels obliged to equip it with some new bells and whistles -- literally.

In electric cars, pushing the ignition button normally would elicit no sound because there's no gasoline to ignite. But Nissan solves what would have been a slightly unnerving phenomenon by adding a startup chime.

And to warn pedestrians that a stealth car is coming, Nissan composed another synthesized tune reminiscent of a jet engine hum that kicks in at low speeds, when tire noise isn't a factor.

But here's the good part: You can't hear it in the cabin.

Unfortunately, Nissan also has given the Leaf the forklift-inspired "beep-beep-beep" alert when the car is put in reverse.

ENLARGE Nissan’s Leaf: 0 to 62 mph in less than 10 seconds -- and few decibels. Photo credit: HANS GREIMEL

The test drive wasn't without glitches. I couldn't get the car's joystick shift knob into neutral -- and neither could the engineer sitting next to me, despite numerous attempts.

Another demonstration to show how to start recharging the Leaf remotely through a mobile phone was scrapped when the iPhone they were using couldn't connect with the server.

But the hands-on experience did unveil a few insights:

-- A solar panel on the roof recharges the regular lead-acid battery that runs the car's electric devices, such as windshield wipers and windows.

-- The recharging cable is stored in a backpacklike bag tethered to the side of the trunk.

-- There is a large circuit-breaker switch on the back seat floor for emergency power shutdown.

The Leaf is Nissan Motor Co.'s gambit to leap to the front of the industry in environmentally friendly cars. The car, powered by in-house lithium ion batteries and an electric motor, can go 100 miles on a full charge.

But the question is whether customers will accept a certain amount of range anxiety in exchange for a clean, peppy, futuristic car.



Source: Automotive News