Ya Gotta Blow On It To Make It Go
The Nissan Leaf that is.
That’s because the EPA’s tests estimate say the Nissan Leaf can travel 73 miles on a fully charged battery and will cost $561 a year in electricity.
Wow, a whole 73 miles before you need to plug in? Where can I sign up? Is that the best the Nissan brand can do?
Then of course you’ll need to buy a “charging station” and hire a professional electrician to install it at your home. That’s like another $2500-$3500 on top of the already ridiculous price of $33,000.
Have you seen the Leaf? Here’s what $33,000 gets ya if you want to feel like you’re actually making any change to the environment (which you won’t be):
But wait, there’s more…it takes ONLY 7 hours to charge, yippee! And the battery only lasts 5-10 years then throw the piece of junk away 
Oh and where do you charge your new shiny Leaf after you’ve used up your 73 miles in less than 90 minutes? Are states set up with docking stations on every street? Block? 100 mile radius? And then what do you do for the next 7 hours?
Look I’m all for using green energy when it makes sense. I have solar panels on my house that run my water heater and pool pump. But the math added up and payback was within 4 years. This is a grossly overpriced vehicle that looks bad and doesn’t deliver on it’s primary function…getting you somewhere you can’t walk to!
I imagine it will sell just fine to the yuppie tree huggers, they’ll have something to talk about at their next kumbaya meeting but to the average American this is just ridiculous. Even after the $7500 government rebate the car will run you almost $30,000.
For this program to actually work it has to be mainstream. There NEEDS to be charging stations on every street. And the only way to do that is make the damn ugly paperweight affordable to the average Joe!
Mark my words, this will be a branding failure. It may take a few years but it is destined to fail. Americans want more if they have to sacrifice style and function.
What do you think?
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November 24th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Via Facebook:
Linda K: Let’s see . . . I can buy a Civic and have 15K left over. AND, I can drive across the US and not worry about where to plug it in!
November 24th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Does this writer actually think they are funny?
November 24th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Sadly this is no comedy.
December 19th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
I agree with the author’s sentiment that a strong brand requires a product that performs.
February 21st, 2011 at 5:43 pm
You’re merely mocking the early adopters and the change that’s yet to come.
Mock it all you like, it won’t be long before you’re ‘article’ will be one of the many outdated rants calling doh! at the likelihood of having plug in stations everywhere.
Petrol heads are fossils. If you were a decent Brand Guru you woulda done your homework first and checked out http://www.betterplace.com
Get your mockery around that EV brand and tell us what you think.