Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf (also formatted "LEAF" as a backronym for leading environmentally-friendlyaffordable family car)^[11] is a compact five-door hatchback electric car manufactured by Nissanand introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, followed by various European countries and Canada in 2011. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official range for the 2016 model year Leaf with the 30 kWh battery is 172 km (107 miles) on a full battery charge, while the trim with the smaller 24 kWh battery is 135 km (84 miles), the same as the 2014/15 model year.

As of December 2015, the Nissan Leaf is the world's all-time best selling highway-capable all-electric car. Leaf global sales passed the 200,000 unit milestone by early December 2015, five years after its introduction. As of December 2015, the top markets for Leaf sales are the United States with over 89,000 units, followed by Japan with about 57,000 units, and Europe with over 49,000 Leafs. The European market is led by Norway with over 15,000 new units, and the U.K. with over 12,000 units registered.

Design

The Leaf's frontal style is characterized by a sharp V-shape design with large, up slanting light-emitting diode (LED) headlights that create a distinctive blue internal reflective design. The headlights also split and redirect airflow away from the door mirrors, which reduces wind noise and aerodynamic drag. The LED low-beam headlights consume less electricity than the halogen lamps.^[24] Nissan sought to make the Leaf appealing to mainstream drivers by giving it a familiar sedan- and hatchback-like design.^[25] The bottom of the car has aerodynamic paneling to reduce drag and improve aerodynamics as much as possible.^[26] According to Nissan, the 2011 Leaf has a drag coefficient of Cd=0.29, which was reduced to Cd=0.28 for the 2013 model year Leaf

Costs

Each battery pack cost Nissan an estimated US$18,000 at the car's launch in May 2010.^[46] By 2015, the battery costs were aroundUS$300/kWh, giving a battery cost of around US$5,500^[47] for batteries not within the eight year warranty period. Nissan reported that in Europe only 3 of 35,000 leaf batteries had failed