Nissan puts price on new electric car
Nissan’s new electric car will cost 3.76 million yen (€30,100) when it goes on sale in Japan this year.
The Leaf, which is also being built in Britain and the US, will be less expensive than other zero-emission vehicles but still out of reach for many drivers who may also be deterred by its limited range.
Deliveries of the four-door hatchback will start in December and customers in Japan will be able to place orders from Thursday.
Orders in the US start on April 20, and soon after that in Europe.
The price makes the Leaf one of the cheapest offerings in the fledging electric car market, but analysts said it was still too high to appeal to a wide swathe of buyers.
The range of the car – 100 miles on a single charge – is also a major obstacle.
“It would have to be cheaper, but the main stumbling block is range,” said Christopher Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets in Tokyo.
“For this to be a game-changer, you’d need to have double the range, and lithium ion battery technology just can’t do that right now at an affordable price,” he said.
However Richter predicted the car would definitely find a market, particularly among “people who want to be green, people who love technology and people who are status-conscious.”
“It’ll be attractive to a lot of families as a second car, particularly in the US market.”
Owners of the Leaf – the name is meant to reflect the “purifying” function of leaves in nature – would need a special kit to recharge the car at 200 volts from their homes that Nissan would help set up. Normal Japanese current is 100 volts.
A full charge takes eight hours, but a more powerful quick-charger that will be available in about 200 dealerships across Japan can recharge batteries 80% in under 30 minutes.
To help alleviate driver worries about running out of energy while on the road, Nissan will also install regular chargers at all 2,200 company dealerships in the nation.
Analysts said the Leaf may make more sense for the US market than Japan or perhaps Europe because most cars there are parked in garages attached to single-family homes, making it easy to set up recharging equipment.
In Japan, where many families live in apartment buildings and park their cars further away, a vehicle that requires regular recharging may be harder to sell.
