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A
re you an early adop-ter? I’m not. I didn’tget a mobile phoneuntil 1998 and a personalemail until – and I swearthis is true – 2008. But thenagain it also took me a whileto get the hang o leggingsand hair straighteners.Te reason I ask is becausethis month’s car reallydemands that innovator’sleap o aith. It’s the NissanLEAF, elected ‘Car o theYear 2011’, and it is the rstmass-produced, reasonably-priced, wholly electric car;indeed LEAF stands or‘Leading, Environmentally-riendly, Aordable, Familycar’. We all know the electriccar is the uture, but wouldyou actually buy one? Now?Aren’t they a bit, well, outthere? Where would youcharge it, or a start?Nissan are going all out totry and convince us that theLEAF is a practical, viableelectric car, even or thoseo us who don’t knit ourown muesli. First, there’s
78 cars
THE BULLETIN
 
March 2011
The m
o 
t
o 
ring
column
In this month’s column,
Emma Beddington
goes green with
the award-winning Nissan LEAF and discovers a revolutionarycar that’s surprisingly familiar
the aesthetics: it looks like,well, a car. A pleasant amilysaloon. Nothing space ageor wacky about it. It doesn’tscream “Look at me! I’msaving the planet!”Next, there’s the practicalstu. What do you worryabout with an electric car?Well, you worry aboutwhether it’s going to runout o juice in the middleo a trip to the shops, soNissan are oering reeroadside pickups or therst year to put your mindat rest until you get com-ortable with the car’sautonomy (battery power).On top o that there areapproximately 120 batterycharging stations through-out Belgium.You worry about howmuch it’s going to cost you:in Brussels, Nissan esti-mate that the LEAF willcost you approximately €2or an eight-hour charge,which is equivalent to 160km. Tat compares prettyavourably to even the mosteconomical conventionalcars. On top o that, a 30minute quick charge givesyou 80 percent o the bat-tery’s ull capacity, so youdon’t necessarily need tospend hours charging thething. Another importantactor in weighing up thecost is that in an electriccar, virtually nothing cango mechanically wrong because an electric motoris a ar simpler propositionthan an internal combus-tion engine – there are novalves, no lters and no oilchanges, or a start. Andyour only maintenancecosts will be tyres and the
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