2011 Nissan Leaf

   Welcome back everyone! Today we're going green with the all electric Nissan Leaf. The fact is that gas prices have become absurdly expensive over the past couple of years, and there are a lot of options on the market designed to save us money at the pump. Ideally we'd want to have a car that operates exactly like a normal car with no dependency on fossil fuel. The Leaf is one of a couple options that's getting very close to achieving that goal.

   Starting out we look at the exterior of the vehicle. In the past all electric cars have been slow, ugly and impractical. On the exterior, though, the Leaf blends in with it's surroundings to the point where if you didn't know what you were looking at you'd think it's just another funky looking Nissan. Granted I'm not a huge fan of the massive headlights and the long vertical taillights, but overall it's not bad looking either. So far so good then, it looks like a normal car walking up to it. But what's it like on the interior? Well in a word, it's cool. The instruments are minimalist on first glance with a large screen for all the gauges and another screen for the navigation system. Touch the power button, though, and the whole interior lights up with blue LCD gauges and the navigation shows a color map with points of interest including charging stations highlighted. The "shift" knob is a stubby little joy stick with park, drive, reverse and Eco modes on it. Once you get past the gadgets though it's just a normal hatchback again. Comfortable seats, plenty of leg and head room and an adequately spacious trunk.

   All of this so far is exactly what we wanted to begin with, but how does it drive? When in drive it's eerily quiet and you become a little hesitant to let off the brake, and once you're rolling down the street it's more of the same. No noise and no gear shifts make it feel very strange at first, though not in a negative way, but once you start to get used to it, it really feels like any other car. Jump on the highway and the road noise is a little loud, but it does drive, even at highway speeds,like any other car. Amenities include climate control, blue tooth, GPS and more. Range is the biggest question on these cars of course. At up to about 100 miles per charge it's pretty good for most people. For longer trips you'll need a level 3 charger and about 30 minutes of charging time, but it's mostly targeted towards daily commuters and if you're planning on doing any travelling to speak of you'll need a second car.

   Overall I think we're well on our way towards the future. The technology's still in it's infancy but for the time being the Leaf is a good choice for most people. Downsides? maybe give the option for a base model instead of getting all or nothing, road noise is a little annoying and it's not good if you travel. That's just me nitpicking though and I think it's a very impressive machine. Tomorrow we'll be driving it's main competition, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Until then try to stay in The Fast Lane.