Yesterday, I had the privilege of going to the press release and test drive event for the Nissan LEAF, their all electric vehicle which will be commercially available in 2010. Seattle is one of just a handful of markets where Nissan will be introducing this vehicle before their plant in Tennessee *(I believe)* start mass producing them for the entire country.
To go along with the introduction of this family sedan EV are the nearly 1,000 charging stations provided by etec around the city to make sure that you are never too far away from some extra juice. There are three tiers of charging, the first is your regular 110 volt supply (charging it
overnight in your garage), then there is the 240 volt one which will charge it up in just a few hours. The third tier is a 480 volt charger which will "give a meaningful and safe charge" in just 15 minutes. I have not been able to find out exactly what "meaningful charge" means in terms of total battery charge, but when I do, I will update this.
The price will be between $28 and $35,000 and will be announced next year close to the date when they actually begin offering the vehicles. Being produced by such a large company as Nissan/Renault, financing for the vehicles should be easier than for the first Tesla Roadsters, which were cash up front, but now have financing of up to 75% of the vehicle.
Here is a video I took of my test drive and walking around the vehicle as well as one of the charging stations.
