" Howdy " from Austin
I skimmed your article and didn't read through the entire thing,since I am on vacation at the moment
but overall, it looks well written, and laid out very professionally. In fact, i thought that you just did a copy paste of some other article online.
i wanted to point out just how bad that the aerodynamics are on the Leaf.
Lexus get a stock
.25 Cd from the LS430. Nothing swoopy about this car with its upright grille, large uncovered wheel wells and overall very 'normal' looking design.
Yet the LS430 matches the Cd of even first generation Insight.
Opel designed the Opel G90 concept car which had a Cd of
point twenty two. Notice the upright blunt front end which had a somewhat large open grille, and only a slight curve to the roofline. A partial wheel skirt was used, but for the moist part, the wheels were uncovered. To the uninitiated, the car looks a like like the current Versa. in profile.
http://www.carlife.net/data/file/car...B_00071010.jpg
***ADMIN EDIT*** Killed previous image embed because of google malware warnings.
One more : The VW Fox ( a.k.a. VW 'box ) at point 31 :
As far as the headlight gimmick, I have to ask how that the EV-1 got away with not having these frog eye headlights. It was electric after all, and with much less drag at .19, the sound of the air around the mirrors would be even more of an issue.
From what I see, Nissan is simply not trying.
Thanks for posting your article.