Nissan Leaf : 73 Miles from Consumer Acceptance

Article first published as Nissan Leaf: 73 Miles from Consumer Acceptance on Technorati.

So let's say you have a car company, Otto's Autos, and you just manufactured a long-awaited car that runs on an unconventional fuel source - oh, I don't know, marshmallows.  The only tailpipe emissions are smores, and ain't nobody complaining about that.

Of course, marshmallows aren't found at every traffic intersection throughout the country.  And the last thing your customers need is to sputter out on a major highway for lack of 'mallow.  Should such a thing be a regular occurrence, the ensuing PR nightmare would hit a frenzied pitch.  You (Otto, remember?) would watch your stock swiftly sink, and you may find yourself looking to dump 35,000 engines that run on internal confection .  And worst yet, eBay fees just went up.

Gotta love parables.  They help you see a greater truth without having to endure the hard-fought struggles that wisdom usually requires.  And it's a real-life one, at that.  Nissan Motor Company is dropping the mythically-hyped Leaf this winter.  Unlike the Chevy Volt, the $25,000 Leaf has no gas engine at all, giving it sole claim to the title of first all-electric vehicle to reach dealerships.

Nissan touts the Leaf's range at 100 miles between charges.  But a week ago, in stepped the EPA to set the record straight: under normal driving conditions, the Leaf's range is actually just 73 miles.  Given that range anxiety is one of the inhibiting forces stifling consumer adoption, this was a heavy blow to a public that ordinarily expects three hundred miles between fill-ups.

The American car-buying market is a stubborn bunch.  An average year's worth of driving (12,000 miles) will cost a Leaf owner less than $500 (using the conservative figure of 4 cents per mile, which of course depends on your electric utility rates), while a gas vehicle will soak you closer to $1500 (25 mpg at $3 per gallon).  The proposition, then, is this: are you willing to stop to recharge every seventy miles in order to have a car that reduces our nation's dependency on foreign oil, (marginally) cleans up the environment, and saves you a grand a year in operating costs?

The Nissan Leaf waiting list of more than 20,000 hopeful buyers seems to think you will.

But it's all about those seventy-three miles.  That number will scare the coal-powered daylights out of people.  Where does seventy-three miles get you, anyway?  To the forefront of the electric car revolution, that's where.

Image source: insideline.com