Had a drive of one of these today.

Interesting indeed, mainly as a perspective on electric motors.

The low noise was wonderful, and it was odd not to have gears or knowledge of RPM.

I wouldn't call it thrust by any means, but it was respectable and the torque made it easy to keep up with traffic.

The car itself is a relatively ordinary family car with soft and comfortable suspension, average interior with decent space and four doors.

No company car tax, no road tax, £2 to charge apparently, the range would do my daily use.

I'm sure other cars will come with better battery life and/or more performance, more sporty setup.

Two killers for me: reliability of the batteries after a few years, and most importantly, no range extender that uses petrol or diesel. If you run out then your car is immobilised. So it is a stopgap, but I wouldn't miss the internal combustion engine one bit if they gave this more power and range.

 

My cousin has one. He likes it though is constantly worried about batteries recharging and wont go too far etc etc. Before buying Nissan told him there would charging points all over London but that has not materialised and only one is in Covent Garden IIRC. From what I read the Leaf has been Nissan's worst financial loss and has been a disaster for them.

IMO I would stay clear, the range is not as good as published and the technology is too new and under developed at the moment in this car. I think these Hydrogen fuel cell cars that Honda are developing may turn out to be better?

 

The range and the 30k price tag puts me off.
Nik.

 

Is it true that batteries are only on hire so potential to get royaly screwed when you need new batteries?

TX.

 

I've done the 24hr test drive via www.thebigturnon.co.uk
My local NHPC (Glasgow) has two of them.
Very interesting car.