Nissan Leaf. Another ugly EV.

[NiHaoMike]

They should make the wheel well covers an option package.

[wdb]

Yuk. Looks like a toad that got beat with an ugly stick. And that color is something only an early 60's kitchen furniture designer could love.

[vinny1989]

Orange4boy: Thanks, but im not sure about the smooth wheel covers i added though. Too much?

The back end reminds me of a Renault Megane. Horrible.

The electric connections under the badge in the nose - a good idea.

Hey, i like that colour. I cant blend/smudge it in GIMP, but i like the colour.

[cfg83]

NeilBlanchard -

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hi,

I don't dislike it, and I think some other angles are more flattering:

...

That's actually one of my prerequisites for a good design. A well designed car should look good from *all* angles. I don't like the wavy "4th Gen Hyundai Elantra" lines along the side. The plus side is that it looks pretty conventional. I can't tell it's an EV. It would be really neat if they offered an aero option ala what vinny1989 did in GIMP.

CarloSW2

[tjts1]

I think it looks great. I especially like what they did with the front bumper.

[swoody]

I like how the car looks overall, but I agree that the color is horrendous. I think the front pic makes it look quite like a Prius. It has the same shape headlights, lower grille, etc. I really wish they would have gone the whole 9 yards, and put on the rear wheel covers and possibly some more aero mods. Otherwise I like it

[orange4boy]

I think the main problem is the rear wheel well droop. The body contour line comes back and curves over the wheel well ending in a droopy unappealing line. It would not take much to fix that. Run the line straight back and have an intersecting line from the roof to the back bottom corner. That would clean it up enough for the rear end to make sense.

Vinny1989, I like the smooth wheel covers. The rims it comes with are meh and not aero. I'm biased though, the my egg has dem moons

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I hope that all you folks get to look at the video (now included in the ABG post) -- I think this is the best way to judge aesthetics in images (second to seeing it in person). Nissan was designing the Leaf with a definite aim:

A Question of Style

Interestingly, unlike the current alt-fuel darlings from Toyota and Honda, Nissan has purposefully eschewed a fastback shape for a more formal five-door appearance. Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's senior vice president and chief creative officer (read: styling director) admits he wanted the car to be unique, but not so bizarre as to be off-putting to most car buyers:

"From the beginning, we did not want to make the car very strange, because one of the perceptions of the EV [is that] people think that EVs are toys, or cheap... that you cannot drive high-speed, that EV means 'not real car.' But the car we have is a real car – you can drive it at 140 kilometers, you can sit four or five passengers comfortably.

By that measure, the more upright yet unique Leaf is a success – it is a slippery shape with real passenger space, yet it doesn't resort to visually polarizing aerodynamic tricks like faired-in wheel housings and to maximize aero. Instead, it has a smooth face (secreting two charging ports hiding beneath the Nissan logo), strangely prominent blue-tinted headlamps that manage airflow as much as they do nighttime vision, and a roofline whose rearmost pillar reminds us of another Nissan – the Murano. The Leaf has an almost Gallic rump that recalls that of the Versa, a design that in turn reminds us of offerings from Nissan's European partner, Renault.

They did not want it to look like a Prius/Insight, and though it has the same basic shape of those cars, it obviously looks more "normal" than they do. As I said earlier, I would prefer a lower sill line -- which would improve rearward visibility. And I hope that it can be had with steel wheels, so one can use smooth wheel covers.

I want it to work well; and as long as it avoids any "stupid" styling that hurt how it works, then I'll be happy. Form should follow function, like the Aptera. Styling should be limited to the "graphic" adjustments of the aerodynamic shape. Again, the best example of this is comparing the earlier Aptera MK-0 and Typ-1 to the current model. They changed the height, and they changed the "graphics" of things like the shape of the windows and the headlights, and while the overall shape is the same slippery form, the newer models look much better.

[groar]

vinny1989: only newer (2nd / 3rd gen) megane are ugly

I don't know about other European countries, but French people (and noticeably French journalists) do hate the Prius/Insight look (*) so in France only the C4 coupé looks like them (and people are buying it only because Loeb is World Rally champion).

I don't know if we'll have Nissan's car in France, as Renault announced to make EV the laguna and Renault-Nissan are working together on these projects.

(*) so I'm not very Frenchy in that point of view

Denis.

[cfg83]

NeilBlanchard -

Thanks for the quote. That jibes with my perception of the design, aka make it look normal to gain acceptance. And yes, I agree that the NEV electrics do have the "toy car" stigma.

What is interesting to me is that I also dislike the (successful?!?!?) Murano, so he picked against my aesthetic. If it becomes a hit, then that's fine with me.

CarloSW2