Nissan Introduces the Leaf EV in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES--Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan, says he has no intention for the company to lose money on the Leaf battery car, which will be introduced late next year. The company will start taking reservations in the spring.
Asked at the start of the Leaf's 22-city national tour if the car would be a profit center for Nissan, Ghosn replied in the affirmative. "It will have to make money, because, if it doesn't, the technology will be condemned," he said. "We need it to make a reasonable return on investment."
This is a daunting prospect for the Leaf--and for any battery car. The packs are witheringly expensive. If the Leaf's battery system (built in a partnership with NEC) costs $15,000 as has been estimated, then the company will have a hard time selling the car for what Ghosn swears will be "only one or two percent" more than a comparable gasoline car. That target price been widely interpreted as $25,000, which is one reason Ghosn also said that Nissan will lease battery packs to Leaf customers. It's easy to see Nissan selling battery-less Leafs for $25,000.
Remember, there is a $7,500 federal tax credit on battery cars, and other carmakers are factoring that credit into their price quotes (a bit of cheating, that). EV pricing is still very tricky, but Nissan Americas chief Carlos Tavares told me in an interview that a bottom line will be outlined to potential customers (there are 25,000 "handraisers" so far) when the company starts taking reservations in a few months. Tavares also said that battery leasing may be just one of several choices that consumers will have.
"There are many options at this point," Tavares said. "I don't think we should freeze the creative talent of our marketing team by reducing what we could offer. Leasing makes sense, but it is not exclusive of any other option. It depends on the market, and it depends on the time period."
It was great to finally see the Leaf up close, even the car on display was a styling prototype. The bright blue Nissan Leaf is bigger than I thought that it was. After many months of writing about the company's new electric car from photographs, it was intriguing to see the cleanly styled beast in the metal. It manages to be both futuristic and thoroughly grounded in Nissan's current design philosophy. Since, like the Toyota Prius, the Leaf started with a clean sheet of paper, prospective customers will be making a very clear eco-statement by driving one.
I had a long wait under the hot California sun for a very short drive around a cone course, but I managed to leave an impressive amount of expensive rubber on the road at Dodgers' Stadium. The car is much improved since I drove it about six months ago. Nissan is still not letting journalists drive the actual Leaf, so my two experiences have been in "mules" with the Leaf drivetrain. About six months ago I tested a less-evolved Leaf drivetrain in a Nissan Cube. Now much improved, the drivetrain is mounted in a Nissan Versa.
Previous flat spots on the Leaf's acceleration at around 50 mph appear to have been straightened out and the car now accelerates dramatically well up to at least 60 mph and handles well, with only minor body lean. The actual Leaf may differ, of course, but probably not all that much.
"This is the new paradigm of the car, and it will change our industry," said Ghosn. "It will also change the way people use and power their vehicles." Ghosn has expressed skepticism about hybrid cars, but he seems to have fully embraced the battery EV. A separate plug-in car will be sold in Israel through the Renault-Nissan Alliance's partnership with charging company Better Place, and that one, the Fluence ZE, a five-seat sedan, will feature swappable batteries (a Better Place passion). The Leaf's batteries will stay put.
The Leaf is more than just an electric car looking for a place to plug in, because the Renault-Nissan Alliance is actively involved in setting up charging infrastructure. In Los Angeles, Ghosn unveiled the 33rd such partnership, this time with Reliant, a subsidiary of giant Texas-based utility NRG Energy. Like most utility executives these days, NRG CEO David Crane talked about the virtues of the smart grid and charging electric cars off-peak during evening hours. He said the current U.S. grid could easily handle up to 10 million additional EVs. "We don't get into trouble until we're talking about 50 to 100 million cars," he said.
Nissan thinks that by 2020 10 percent of the vehicles sold will be EVs, but Ghosn said that estimate is based on the current business picture. Disruptive events such as $200 a barrel gasoline or an even more acute climate crisis would ramp up those numbers, he said.
At the LA event, EV activist and former Baywatch actress Alexandra Paul offered some glamour. She said she thoroughly enjoyed her ride in the Leaf, brief as it was. Who Killed the Electric Car? director Chris Paine, whose next film will celebrate the emerging EV industry, was also on hand (as was the film's star, Chelsea Sexton). Hollywood wattage is shining on electric cars. Paul Scott, vice president of Plug-In America and a Santa Monica-based EV activist, said, "It's nice to be applauding something instead of picketing it."
Jim Motavalli photo