Get your Nissan Leaf - $25,000!
 

http://300mpg.org/wp-content/uploads...f_sideview.jpg

Nissan just released it's official pricing for the Leaf all-electric car.

The MSRP is going to be $32,780. There will be a federal tax credit for electric vehicles of $7500. (That credit was lobbied by GM for the Volt. Compare the specs on the tax credit to the specs on the Volt - they are identical...)

So, the MSRP, less the US federal tax credit comes to $25,280!

Additionally, California and Georgia will have $5000 tax incentives, and Oregon will knock off $1500. (Jeesh, Oregon could have just bought me an Electro-Metro, with money left over...)

Just imagine, in California, you could get the Leaf for just a hair over $20,000, and drive in the car-pool lane all by yourself!

April 20th, 2010, Nissan will begin taking reservations from people who already signed up on the "interest" list. Nissan will begin firm orders in August, and selects markets will start getting cars in December. (Select Markets in regards to EVs usually means California, Arizona, Florida, and a few other warm, flat states. For this particular release, it most likely also includes Tennessee.)

To read the official new release, please visit:
http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electr...?item=30#/news

-Ben Nelson
300MPG.org

Let's hope this is a sign of good things to come.

Is it me, or are those headlight enclosures incredibly long?

The headlights are long, and they are designed to make the mirrors more aerodynamic. Really.

It looks better on an angle.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2009/8/nissan-leaf.jpg
Photo care of Ubergizmo, The Gadget Blog

Of course, you could do the same with fenders, for less money. But then you wouldn't attract as much attention.

The price is impressive, and it's piqued my interest. Too bad they haven't yet announced availability in New York. For that matter, is it true they're only selling a few thousand of these in the test markets you mentioned? Is this just a limited production test run, rather than an actual nationwide rollout?

Too bad the body leaves me cold. Maybe I'll wait for somebody to crash one, then transplant the powertrain into an aeromodded Prius shell. With a small-engine ICE range extender, of course.

The car is going to be a national roll-out, but it is going to start in a certain limited number of areas.

I think it's sort of like when they release a new movie in only certain markets to get the buzz going about it.

I think that, like the Volt and Prius Plug-in, they just wouldn't be able to make enough to meet demand all at once either.

I would imagine that they will also run into a few odd issues here and there (most likely fixed with a firmware upgrade) in the initial run of cars, and they want those all to happen in the places they are first releasing the cars, rather than, say, an Alaskan winter.

Part of their warm state release is their lack of battery heating, the batteries are in an enclosed box without any vents or heating elements, it does have a fan to circulate air inside of the box but that's it.

I'm glad it's coming out and all, but no matter WHAT angle, it STILL looks like a catfish.

...true, but at least it's an electric catfish! (wink,wink)

It looks like every other new car on the new car lot, every year new cars look new and weird.
I dare you to find any car that someone doesn't think looks weird.

Old Tele man -

Ha ha, sounds like the name of a band.

CarloSW2

Said the guy driving a green wedge! :thumbup:


Would would totally drive a Ford Catfish. Or a Honda Electric Eel. (The E.E.L. would have FANTASTIC streamlining...)

I remember that Bill Nye once said that fish have adapted to be very streamlined so a car that is shaped like a fish would be very efficient.

Bill Nye is a neighbor of Ed Begley, Jr., who my brother once sat next to at the airport and talked with him about my electric car. Which means I still have absolutely no relation to Kevin Bacon.

The boxfish has actually been used as inspiration for concept cars.

I guess a Boxfish would most likely be made by Scion?

Toyota Xbox, comes complete with 360, wifi connection and an inflatable bubble for anti theft!

$16,000 if you're in the SCAQMD and get selected to have your old clunker retired. I just hope all the roadster buyers don't hoover up this tax credit too. It seems like a waste to subsidize the rich.

Why do the automakers shy away from smooth wheels? Is it just an appearance issue?

Are they expecting this electric car to require massive break ventilation?

I'm sure there are appealing visual designs that could be created with a smooth or near-smooth wheel. In fact, almost everybody has aluminum wheels with slender spokes by now.

I can picture the lawsuit already. Some nice lady who didn't read the owners manual and didn't pay attention in Physics class descends a mountain uses her friction brakes the whole way down. The brakes overheat and fade, she doesn't know of any way to slow the car down besides the middle pedal, and she kills her whole family. If I were an automaker, that's why I'd be afraid to go with completely smooth wheels.

But the five-spoke wheels on the Leaf are obviously overkill for cooling the brakes, especially when the car has powerful regen brakes and a huge battery to store that energy in. I guess it's an appearance thing.

I think the car is attractive enough. The wheels? Come on, a good many people believe that an EV will catch on quicker if it isn't too odd to Joe Bag of Donuts. The wheels are similar to the more popular wheels on most everything on the market.

I hope it outsells even Nissan's most wildly optomistic projections and makes all the other manufacturers jealous enough to actually release their concept EV's.

...and, remember, all the automotive "bling" parts are exchangable, just look at a J.C.Whitney catalog or visit a local Pep Boys.

...after-market SEMA!

Oh come on, the catfish is a GM design!

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2222/camarofish.jpg
http://www.edmunds.com/pictures/VEHI...74-396x249.jpg

LOL - too much fun with Photoshop.

Thanks for the laugh. I've never seen a camarofish. What's the Cd on that sucker? LOL.

Oh, it doesn't stop there. Callaway (a tuning company) went all out with the cat-fish look!

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...wayC8/07_3.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_i...0064_large.jpg
http://shop.callawaycars.com/images/...-704047841.jpg

I suppose they liked catfish, lol!