A Car For Christmas? Leaf vs Volt

Nissan Leaf

The Leaf is Nissan’s leading environmentally-friendly, affordable, family car. It is a trend setting type of engineered battery car. Its battery pack estimated at (£6000) which is $8,896 raises a lot of interest as well as reasonable pricing that is drawing tons of reservation. The Leaf is a tough competition with the Volt  in terms of  driving range.

The argument among Nissan folks is whether the Volt is a true EV.

The Leaf has been designed to be self-sustaining. Annual car maintenance doesn’t apply with this vehicle (except yearly brake pad inspection) and its navigation system is globally connected especially for re-charging purposes for stations. The Leaf offers more with its new technology and affordability with all things considered ( pricing for 5-car seater, driving range, and up-keep).

Good:

• This is a real EV. A 100% electric car
• 8 Year, 100,000 warranty
• $349 Lease program
• Federal, state, and other credits can knock off significant $$ on this vehicle

Other things about the Leaf:

• Like any EV, after 100 miles, your car is dead. Theses are your options; Plan your schedule with an electric station in mind for emergency cases, charge your car at home as you would do with your i-phone before you sleep at night, and simply be aware about the situation.
• Price: $32,000
• Weight: 3,500lbs

Chevrolet Volt

The Volt is a car that can run up to approximately 40 miles emissions free. However thanks to its range-extending gas generator, it produces enough energy to power the Volt for hundreds of miles. The body of the Volt is slightly bigger than the Prius with a modern look and feel interior. The Volt has a nice on board system that keeps you up to date with your fuel capacity, letting you know if you are running on electric or gas.

Good:

• Goes up to 40 miles on pure electric. After that the gas kicks in extending it to more miles.
• 8 Year, 100,000 warranty
• $349 Lease program
• Federal, state, and other credits can knock off significant $$ on this vehicle.

Other things about the Volt:

• Is this a true EV or a suited up Hybrid? The controversy remains… On 40 miles, one can say it’s an EV. The rest of the way, it appears to function as a superior Hybrid to my opinion, powered on gas. My guess is as good as yours…let the controversy remain.
• Price: $41k
• Weight: 3,700 lbs

Summary

Hopefully other manufacturing car companies can follow suit and compete to bring the best of clean energy to the United States as well as getting back to leading in  manufacturing, which interprets as more long lasting green jobs. Interesting enough there is mention that the Leaf will be produced in Tennessee (currently in Japan) in the next two years. Not that’s a good start.

Article References and pictures: Battle EV Supremacy

This entry was posted on Friday, December 24th, 2010 at 1:23 am and is filed under Green Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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