I sat down with Nissan’s team this week to discuss their delivery of what they describe as “the world’s first competitively priced, mass-produced electric vehicle”. The LEAF is a five-seater hatchback, reminiscent in size and shape to the moderately successful Tiida, runs on a 200kg lithium-ion battery that sits under the seats, and puts out 80kW of engine power and 290Nm of torque to deliver speeds of up to 140km/h – and all with no tailpipe emissions.

Japan, the States and selected European markets will get the LEAF first in late 2010, with
Australian deliveries expected to begin in 2012.

Below is an edited transcript of my interview with Kazuhiro Doi, GM of Nissan’s Technology Marketing and Planning and Advanced Engineering, and Michael Hayes, Regional EV Manager Australia and New Zealand.

What has been the biggest challenge in the LEAF’s development?
Doi: The biggest challenge is, of course, the cost. Especially the cost of the battery. But the performance of the EV is not only dependent on the battery itself – how we control the battery is key. For example, one difficulty stems from deterioration of the battery. In the case of the LEAF, after 10 years, battery capacity will decrease 20 or 30 per cent. If we don’t know how to control the battery, it’s gonna be worse. Now we are trying to reduce the cost through volume.

How does the LEAF compare with other EVS like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Subaru Stella? Do you see them as competitors?
Doi: No. Their markets are different, because they are small cars and very expensive. We are compact but big enough for five people, so the customer base is different. Nissan’s biggest advantage is the volume of the vehicle. We aim to sell a lot of EVs so the LEAF price will be competitive. I’ve yet to see this kind of competitive price in the EV market. Now I can say that we have no competitors. But soon, many companies will join this competition, like Toyota and Honda. Korean makers are also potential competitors because Korea has very strong electronics companies like LG or Samsung. LG is also making lithium-ion batteries, so they can supply the battery to the Korean makers, but so far no Korean makers seem to have an interest in the EV. I don’t know why, I don’t know when, but they are potential competitors.

What sort of price can we expect to see on the LEAF?
Doi: We’re aiming for a total cost of ownership equivalent to the Tiida in Australia. Of course, the EV has extra value. Even if we can realise a total cost of ownership similar to a petrol vehicle, the initial cost is still higher for the customer.

Hayes: That’s why we definitely need some incentives from the government. Some of them will be financial, some of them non-financial. In the US, for example, you get to use the express lane on freeways. We’re lobbying with governments that the consumer shouldn’t have to bear that cost on their own. We’re currently working with governments at state levels and federal levels to provide incentives for Australia.

What does the mechanical upkeep involve compared to a conventional car? How is it serviced and how much does it cost?
Doi: There is less “water stuff” in the EV. Petrol engines require coolants to cool the engine, and
EVs require much less oil. In that sense, EV is more close to maintenance-free. But still, EVs use a similar type of brakes and other mechanical parts like the steering wheel or the suspension. So the customer still needs to do an inspection at the dealers. But if we make the electronics parts well, the chance of breaking down is less than gasoline cars. Dealers will need special training. From the viewpoint of the safety of the people who work at the dealers, they have to know about high voltage, because EVs use very, very high voltage.

Hayes: Vehicle technicians will have to do additional training specific to an EV, then they would undergo vehicle specific training which would be done by the manufacturer, just like we currently do training for Tiida and Maxima and Murano as well. There would certainly be an additional requirement to have certification on electric vehicles.

How does the LEAF perform at freeway speeds?
Doi: On the highway, I think it’s similar to a conventional petrol vehicle. It’s very, very quiet, much more quiet than a luxury vehicle because there is no engine. Also on the highway, most of the noise comes from the wind. In the case of the LEAF, we are trying to control the air flow to avoid the wind hitting the door mirror. That means from low speed to high speed, the LEAF is definitely quiet. In terms of driving performance, it’s equivalent to a similar-sized vehicle, at least not less.

How many do you expect to sell in Australia?
Hayes: Lots. Everything we can get! We’re working through the business plan at the moment. Obviously it’s slightly different inasmuch as the electric vehicle market doesn’t exist per se in Australia, there’s a lot of work we have to do over and above what we usually do, so we’re working through that at the moment. Our goal is to treat this vehicle as a mass market vehicle, not a niche vehicle, we’re not really trying to sell 50 cars a year, we want to be considerably more than that. Our ability to do that will depend to a certain extent on governments coming and helping in reducing the total ownership cost of the vehicle. Running costs will be reduced because electricity is cheaper per kilometre than petrol, maintenance costs we believe will be reduced also because there’s less placement parts for every service – there’s no oil, air filters, spark plugs, so again those things aren’t going to landfill anywhere. They just don’t get replaced. But there’s a high upfront cost, so we’re looking particularly towards state and federal governments to assist consumers getting into those vehicles. If we can do that and make the buy-in price closer and ownership cost in parity to a petrol vehicle, then we’ll be able to sell a good deal more. Without a high level of government involvement in that, perhaps we’ll sell less because the upfront cost is more expensive. Demand for this vehicle is going to be very high, globally, and we’ll be sending vehicle to countries where the support mechanisms are well established, so that might mean I get less cars if the government incentives aren’t on parity with the other nations, or I might get a lot more cars if Australia is doing the same as US, Europe and Japan. Our goal is to make it a mass-market car.

Doi: The number of sales will be limited by the production capacity. We will start from 50,000 units globally.

Hayes: Certainly battery and vehicle capacity will be limited in the first 12-18 months, but once the US comes online and starts generating 150,000 cars a year, that’s going to broaden the availability, but still there’ll be a ramp-up period. Australia intended start of sales is 2012 which coincides roughly with when the US factory will start to come online, so very soon after our initial start of sales period, the US production will move to the US and that will free up more production.

Are you confident that you’ll get the government support you need?
Hayes: We’ve been dealing with the Victorian and NSW governments closely for almost a year now, governments do tend to take their time in making sure they’ve got everything just so before they make any announcements. But certainly, we haven’t received a blanket no, so we take that as an encouraging sign that there’s a lot of work happening behind the scenes at government level. Certainly we are very hopeful that we’ll get the level of incentive from Australian and state governments.

Can you be a bit more specific about these incentives?
Hayes: When a vehicle comes to Australia, it pays 5 per cent import duty. When a car is sold at dealership there’s 10 per cent GST and 3 per cent stamp duty that’s levied by the state government. Then there’s a $500-$600 registration fee every year that’s also levied by the state government. So you start to add those numbers up, depending on the initial import price of your car, you’re anywhere between $6000-$10,000 worth of federal and state taxes. What we would put to the government is “feebate” during the early adoption phase: give back via subsidy part of or all of those taxes that you’ve taken out of the vehicle. We’re not talking about thousands and thousands of vehicles, we would estimate that from 2012 probably for the first five years, there’ll be about 5000 fully battery EVs – maximum – coming into Australia. We believe by 2018/2020, there won’t be a requirement for subsidies to assist the vehicle; any subsidies that continue on from that time will be supporting government objectives and government agenda items.

Recharging stations are obviously critical to the success of the LEAF. What are your plans for deployment of those once the vehicle arrives?
Hayes: There are three infrastructure companies already established in Australia, Better Place, ChargePoint and ECOtality. Their whole business model is to basically supply all of that infrastructure. That can stretch from the home to the workplace to Westfield to street corners. They’re going to invest in that, but that’s going to be their profit. So they’re setting up their business to be sustainable all the way through to 2070, 2080 and beyond because as vehicles move towards this, they’re going to be the new versions of petrol stations – they’re the energy suppliers now. We’re a car company first and foremost, we’re not really interested in becoming an infrastructure supply company. Somebody else has expertise in that and we’ll let them do that. We’re going to make the batteries and the cars, but we will obviously work with them to ensure that the networking system setup is appropriate for the vehicles that are coming and also for the market that we’re in. And those discussions are happening now on a weekly basis, because we all need to work together to make the whole thing sustainable going forward. And there really is a lot of people working on this, it’s just not out there in the open.

How much electricity does it use?
Hayes: If you were to get in a car that uses 7L/100km, which is pretty much a standard small hatch, at $1.50 – we’re talking 2012 prices – that would cost you 11c/km to drive. An EV would cost you 2-3c/km in energy costs. That’s charging off peak but paying a premium for green energy. The premium’s about 4.9-5.5c/kW-hour depending on which retailer you use, but off peak electricity rates which are about 9c or 10c, so 15c per kW-hour you’re using about 2c per km to drive. Add 50 per cent to cover the possible emission trading scheme, and it’s 3c. So basically it’s less than a quarter of the cost per kilometre in energy.

Why do you think the LEAF will appeal to Australians?
Doi: Nowadays, global warming, or CO2, is common interest for the customer. LEAF is also interesting to drive. We are the makers of the Nissan GTR – we never make a boring car. Our engineering team is focusing on an electric vehicle, but their DNA is “fun to drive”. The acceleration of the LEAF is almost the same as that of a 3.7L petrol car. The handling is also very interesting. In the case of the gasoline car, the heaviest stuff is the engine, and usually, the engine is at the front of the vehicle. In the case of the LEAF, the heaviest part is the battery which is in the middle of the vehicle. The handling feels very close to a sports car, and the centre of gravity is very low. Such motion makes the drivers feel more stable, and it’s more fun to drive.

Webtech Plus, the software Ramos-Lopez accessed is “repossession software that allows the dealership to disable a car’s ignition or trigger the horn to honk when a payment is due”. He managed to disable over 100 cars before someone realised what was going on and the High Tech Crime Unit in Austin, Texas tracked him down.

The lesson? Change passwords as soon as you fire someone – or better yet, do it before you break the news. [Wired via Slashdot]

The cars pictured were probably not involved in this mess. They were photographed by cjc4454

Pictured above is a Ferrari F430 replica four-seater roller coaster car. As you can see, it’ll run in parallel tracks with another car, giving passengers the feeling that they’re actually in a race. The Ferrari, though, is a kitten compared to the park’s planned F1 coaster that’s rumoured to travel up to 149MPH.

It’s important to remember that when these coasters derail, it’ll be in the desert, so be sure to take a water bottle or two with you on your ride. Also, a helmet. Also, the understanding that Dubai is crumbling and wants to take you out with it. [Jalopnik]

The idea is that unlike some of the HUDs on the market now, this display would be full-windshield and actually highlight or outline potential dangers by using data from a combination of on-vehicle sensors and cameras:

Just imagine driving on a particularly rainy or foggy day. Sure, you’ll eventually notice that white car puttering along with its lights off or that person running across the street, but your car could alert you of their presence sooner. [Jalopnik]

Usually it’s frustrating to see a kick-arse video with no background info. This time, I don’t care. I don’t even want to know how or why someone made a Passat 4×4. I just want to watch that sucker churn.

Actually, I guess we do know two things. First, based on the comments, I’m guessing this bad boy was produced in Poland. Second, that clicking sound you just heard was thousands of Passat owners around the world googling “giant tyres”. [Likecool]

Transonic’s fuel-injection system is supposedly better because it “uses supercritical fluids and requires no spark to ignite the fuel. The supercritical fluid is mixed with air before injected into the cylinder. The heat and pressure, in the cylinder, alone is enough to cause the fuel to combust without a spark.” That spark-free ignition process along with some proprietary software makes this particular fuel-injection system different from direct injection systems and supposedly helps make it so ultra-efficient.

Transonic says that they hope to place the technology in production cars by 2014, but I really just want to see the data from their initial test, because this is an almost bold claim for mainstream electric hybrids. [PhysOrg]

This Saturday it’ll go up for auction at Red Baron’s Antiques in Atlanta, where you can take a stab at buying yourself a slice of aeronautical history (though there’s no word on whether it appears in Popular Science’s flying car back catalogue), courtesy of crazy uncle Frank Skroback’s laboratory. [Red Baron's Antiques via Wired via DVICE]

Countercounterpoint: Carpuccino? Really?

A while ago we read that coffee-based biofuels were feasible. Knowing the internet as we do, we figured it was only a matter of time before somebody took that novel possibility and turned it into an absurd reality. We were right! The Carpuccino, a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco modified to run on ground coffee, will drive 337km between Manchester and London in the coming weeks.

The trip will require over 68kg of coffee, with the car getting a mileage of roughly five km per kilogram. The vehicle can hit speeds of 100kph, though the trip could take as long as ten hours, as the car has to stop every 100km to clean out its coffee filters (seriously).

The joke on wheels was built by the BBC1 show Bang Goes The Theory as a reminder that unconventional fuels can power vehicles. Sidebar: the Carpuccino’s trip will cost up to 50 times as much as it would if it were running on gas.

All that being said, I think we can agree to set aside whatever qualms we may have with the Carpuccino in light of its similarities, aesthetic and otherwise, to Doc Brown’s Mr. Fusion-equipped Delorean from Back to the Future II.

Espresso? Where we’re going we don’t need espresso. [Daily Mail via Green Diary]

If you’ve got an Alpine car system with a dashboard or speakers, then you’ll be able to connect your Nokia handset by either Bluetooth or USB, with navigation displayed by Ovi Maps on the dashboard. Navigation updates and music can come through your car’s speakers rather than the Nokia’s puny little speaker, and even information about the fuel levels and engine health can be integrated into Ovi Maps, so if you’re in need of fuel for example, Ovi Maps will tell you where the next petrol station is.

No products have been shown off just yet, but this Terminal Mode will be available on Nokia phones soon apparently – and with well over three million downloads of the free Ovi Maps, upgrading your car system could prove very tantalising for some. [Alpine via Engadget via SlashGear]