Leaf-Style Diverting Feature
 

Leaf headlights stick out. They divert airflow to reduce drag from sideview mirrors. Anybody try that? Unless you're shy about tacking weird stuff to your car...

I'm going to be honest and say that despite what we've read about the benefits of those headlights, I think it's more of a noise abatement/styling exercise than an attempt at drag reduction.

Nissan left a LOT of low-hanging aero fruit on the dynamic tree with the Leaf, so to be bragging about those headlights seems a bit silly.

That said... tacking something like that onto your car would be something you'd have to be able to test very carefully. Done wrong, it would mess things up and create more drag than stock.

Besides, it's much easier to just delete the passenger mirror and replace with an internal convex, and replace the driver's with something more aero friendly (or fold-able). Bonus: doing that reduces both Cd and A, where Nissan's approach only (supposedly) reduces Cd.

http://www.whdfas.org.uk/images/Lalique%20dragonfly.jpg
Illuminated automobile hood ornament by René Jules Lalique on display in the Toyota Automobil Museum Nagoya.

It's been done better. Some Lalique hood ornaments had a spinning color wheel above the light. Today we'd use RGB LEDs.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3312/...751d5498_o.jpg

Now move the smoke wand over a foot and the smoke is going to smack right into the mirrors just the way it does with nearly every other car ever made.

I'm with Metro about it being a gimmick.

Also, note that other electric cars do just fine without the funny headlights. In fact, some other EVs are even quieter than the Leaf is in the cabin.

I don't like the Leaf headlights because they are located too close to your line of sight which would blind you when driving in fog since you are looking almost down its line of sight. Ideally you want the maximum possible separation between your line of sight and the headlamp's beam.

The Leaf headlights increase the effective frontal area of the car causing more drag then needed with the goal of making the cabin quite, I'd like to see someone swap a Nissan Versa front end on to a Leaf and see how the range increases.

I don't think the Leaf headlights increase the frontal area at all.

http://www.capacicar.com/wp-content/...Front-View.jpg

The antenna on the other hand, does.

They push air out and around the mirrors, so the car acts like it has a larger frontal area.

I thought I was looking at an x-ray of a dragonfly until I read your post. Still not sure what I'm looking at.

Unless you have unlimited access to a wind tunnel ... forget about this kind of stuff. (and BMW air curtains etc.) :rolleyes:

You could get a lucky one-in-a-million strike and lower drag by accident or luck ... in which case you'd have been better off buying a lotery ticket.