Nissan is about to launch its next generation all-electric Leaf and aside from a design refresh, a longer range is expected to be the biggest upgrade.
The range was expected to be over 200 miles in order to compete with the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt EV, but the sighting of a next-gen prototype is now casting some doubts.
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Regenerative braking is one of the most interesting and differentiating features of electric vehicles. While virtually all electric cars on the market have it, the feature is tuned differently for each vehicle.
Now Nissan promises one of the most advanced regenerative braking systems for the next-generation Leaf.
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Some automakers have disclosed sales targets for electric cars and they are kind of all over the place. Most of them are for 2025 or later and target for 20 to 30% of their total business.
When it comes to more short-term targets, they are rare, which makes a recent statement from a Nissan executive interesting.
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Ahead of the September launch of its next generation all-electric Leaf, Nissan has been gradually teasing images and features of the vehicle.
Today, it confirmed that the 2018 Leaf will have autonomous parking as part of ProPilot.
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After the Tesla Model 3, the 2018 Nissan Leaf is likely the most anticipated all-electric vehicle to be released this year. It should feature the biggest update to the vehicle since its launch in 2010.
Now it gets an official release date.
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The upcoming next generation Nissan Leaf will be the first of the Japanese automaker’s vehicles to feature its new ProPilot driver assist system outside of Japan.
Today, Nissan released a preview of the feature in a video and the first picture of the next-gen Leaf’s steering controls.
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Taxi companies and drivers are increasingly looking at electric vehicles to cut their operating costs.
Nissan calls it a “global electric taxi revolution” and claims that the Leaf is leading it as more and more taxis are using the all-electric vehicle in their fleets.
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Along with the Tesla Model 3, Nissan’s next generation Leaf is one of the most anticipated new vehicles of the year.
Today, they started a new campaign to create some hype ahead of the unveiling and start of production later this year.
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Once a leader in electrification, Nissan has since become complacent with the Leaf and the refresh has been long overdue. The 2018 version of the all-electric vehicle is expected to finally change that with a much longer range and a new design.
Kazuo Yajima, head of electric vehicles for Nissan and Renault, recently discussed the electric range expectations for the new Leaf and future vehicles on the Japanese automaker’s electric platform.
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At the opening ceremony of the 2017 New York International Auto Show, Nissan and EVgo announced that they have partnered to create a corridor of DC fast-charging stations for electric vehicles along interstate 95 between Boston and Washington D.C.
The good news is that while they are still only deploying “barely” fast-charging 50 kW chargers, they are going to pre-wire the sites for “high-power charging power output of up to 150kW”.
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Update: AEP Customers in Ohio are also offered $10,000 off 2017 Nissan LEAFs (in addition to $7500 federal) Reach out to a local dealer here
The next generation Nissan LEAF has being spotted testing recently and it’s expected to be unveiled in September and be available shortly after. Sales could be rough for Nissan ahead of the launch as customers are waiting for the next generation, but they could still move inventories with special deals.
We have learned a few new ongoing special deals across several states that are bringing down the cost of a new Leaf to just ~$13,000.
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The next generation Nissan LEAF has been recently spotted on public roads and even though it was heavily camouflaged, we can see some significant design improvements over the original design.
While an extended range is the most anticipated feature of the new all-electric vehicle, the design refresh is likely to be welcomed.
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Nissan is launching a new car-sharing service with two-seater electric vehicles aimed only at city-driving. After several trials over the past 4 years, they are now starting a new program in the City of Yokohama in Japan for the next two years with a fleet of 25 vehicles.
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A lot of organizations are currently looking into converting their vehicle fleets to electric in order to reduce their carbon footprint and save on gas and maintenance.
Now even the Royal Navy is on board and took delivery of a fleet of all-electric vans this week.
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Virtually all automakers are currently working on some form of driverless ride-sharing/taxi services. Whether it’s through investments in existing services, like GM with its acquisition and investment in Cruise Automation and Lyft respectively, or through direct development like Tesla with its Autopilot and ‘Tesla Network‘ programs.
Renault and Nissan are the latest automakers to follow with their own effort in the space. The Alliance announced today a partnership with Transdev to develop a public and on-demand transportation service using a self-driving electric car fleet.
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget in our little world focused on electric vehicles at Electrek, but awareness is still an important problem for electric vehicle adoption. A recent study of 2,500 American drivers actually listed awareness as one of the biggest problems facing the industry.
It’s why EV enthusiasts should welcome automakers spending more money to advertise electric cars and that’s apparently what Nissan is doing this week by hiring a new “EV ambassador”.
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Nissan and BMW have been partnering on the development of charging stations to support their respective growing fleets of electric vehicles for a few years now. EVgo has been building the network in the US for the two automakers and it now includes over 668 DC fast-charging stations in over 50 metro areas.
The companies are announcing today another batch of 174 new DC fast-charging station across 33 states.
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Nissan’s keynote at CES in Las Vegas was kind of disappointing. The company was rumored to unveil its first long-range all-electric vehicle to compete against GM’s Chevy Bolt EV and Tesla’s Model 3. Instead, the company only confirmed that the vehicle is coming “in the near future”.
It looks we will have to wait a little while longer, but maybe not too long since Nissan is also holding an event in Detroit next week.
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After collaborating on some development programs over their 18-year alliance, it looks like Renault and Nissan are ready for the most important collaboration yet: a common electric vehicle platform for the next generation Renault ZOE and Nissan LEAF.
While it has some interesting implications for mass production of the platform and lowering the price, you shouldn’t hold your breath since Arnaud Deboeuf, the executive in charge of the Renault-Nissan alliance, warned of a long product cycle and media reports suggest that the next generation – not to be confused with a design refresh – shouldn’t come to market until 2020.
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And that’s about it. Nissan unveiled the details of its 2017 LEAF today and there’s barely anything new other than the fact that now every trim gets the 30 kWh battery pack, which lowers the entry price to get the 107-mile range.
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As of last month, the U.S. is officially half way to the Department of Energy’s goal to have 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads. That goal was first set for 2015, but we are now obviously nowhere near the level and a year late.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz set 2020 as the new goal for the 1 million mark and with the recent sales numbers, it looks like it shouldn’t be a problem.
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Electrek has learned of a significant addition to Tesla’s design team led by Franz von Holzhausen. Last month, one of Nissan’s top lead exterior designers, Randy Rodriguez, quietly left the Japanese automaker’s design campus in San Diego to join Tesla as a ‘Senior Lead Exterior Designer’ at the electric automaker’s design studio in Hawthorne, California.
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With recent studies showing electric vehicles would cover the needs of the vast majority of car owners in the US, nationwide availability of electric vehicles has never been more important. A new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) paints an interesting picture of EV availability in the US, praising Tesla, BMW and Nissan for their nationwide availability, and shaming Honda and Toyota for their little effort in making plug-in vehicles available.
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EV enthusiasts are patiently (or not) awaiting some more details on Nissan’s rollout for its next generation electric vehicles, and more specifically on the upcoming 60 kWh battery pack that will power the next LEAF. Now the company is hinting at more performance electric vehicles coming to its lineup.
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