Get your Nissan Leaf - $25,000!

[bennelson]

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

[Toby]

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

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

[NeilBlanchard]

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

[bennelson]

It looks better on an angle.


Photo care of Ubergizmo, The Gadget Blog

[RobertSmalls]

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.

[bennelson]

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.

[Ryland]

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.

[Nevyn]

Originally Posted by bennelson

It looks better on an angle.

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

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by Nevyn

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)

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Nevyn

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

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.