AIADA says Leaf is The People's Electric, Ready to Claim Power

Check out this recent article posted on AIADA's website.
(American International Automobile Dealers Association)

The People's Electric, Ready to Claim Power

The Nissan Leaf, a mildly futuristic four-door hatchback, arrives as so much a pioneer that the systems necessary to keep it moving down the road are still being put in place. The process is a bit like the progression of the first transcontinental railroad: tracks are being laid as a locomotive sits steaming impatiently behind. According to the New York Times' Jerry Garrett, the Leaf's equivalent of those unfinished tracks is a public charging infrastructure, the lack of which is probably the most serious limitation of all purely electric cars. Fast-charging stations, a necessity for longer treks, are few and far between now, but a network of them are planned to begin operating within the next year or so. At a starting price of $33,630, the Leaf is by far the least expensive battery-electric car produced in significant numbers. Garrett writes that the tendency is to drive it gingerly, but the Leaf can be driven vigorously. Its electric motor - just 107 horsepower, but with 207 pound-feet of torque - accelerates the 3,400-pound car to 60 mph in 9.4 seconds. Click here for a photo gallery of the Leaf. Click here to read Jerry Garrett's in-depth review of the Nissan Leaf at the New York Times.