The “electric-generated car" has become a hot topic in the world. Nissan Motor, which started selling EV at early stage in 2010, has fully remodeled their main EV model, "LEAF" in October this year. The new 2nd Generation LEAF has the battery improved from the previous generation of 30 kWh to 40 kWh for new one, and can be used to travel up to 400km. Also, the output of the electric motor has been dramatically increased from 80 kW (109 ps) to 110 kW (150 ps). A test ride for the new generation LEAF for mass media will be carried out at Yokohama where Nissan's head office is located, and we will report to you later.
Nissan LEAF and its charger
The greatest feature of the 2nd generation LEAF, "At any rate, the speed is fast"
I start driving on the road after collected the test drive car. Since the Electric motor car runs without an engine, it doesn’t have the performance degradation when the engine not yet heated up. From the moment I turned on the main switch until driving on road, the car is running without noise and power down, and the electricity cost (economic indicator which equivalent to the fuel efficiency of the engine car) was greatly maintained as well. Since it was just a short distance test drive which I couldn’t test how many kilometers we could run with fully charged battery but I could feel the significant improvement from 80kW to 110kW since I started driving. I could feel a great acceleration with very small electrical sound by just a little stepping on the accelerator pedal. The acceleration feeling just like I accelerating with the 2-liter turbo engine of an engine car. I’ve reached 100 km/hr very quickly at the spot such as highway entrance.
Switch type shift selector
Driving LEAF throughout street at Yokohama
Brake can also be applied with just stepping on accelerator pedal
The interesting feature of the new LEAF is not just the performance improvement as an EV car. A new mechanism of "e-Pedal" was newly added to this model changed generation. This means that you can use the accelerator pedal to control both accelerate and decelerate function. When you accelerate to reach your target speed, you can slightly loosen the accelerator pedal then the car will be maintained at that speed. Then, the brake will be applied when you further release the accelerator pedal. This brake is not a mechanical brake structure, but is a "regenerative brake" that uses electric motor to generate electricity to decelerate by generating a resistance force. The electricity generated by the regenerative brake is stored in the battery and reused again for acceleration. In addition, many advanced technologies are adopted such as the function to automatically park your car in parallel parking and garage with only one touch, the function to automatically keep your car running at the specific lane of expressway, etc.
There are many advantages of an EV, such as high energy efficiency, quietness and high speed, and the most important feature, it could prevent air pollution as there is no exhaust gas emitted from an EV. Do you also like the high-performance EV car like LEAF?
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