Test driving Nissan's electric-powered Cube prototype

Test driving Nissan's electric-powered Cube prototype
The big news out of the Dodgers stadium yesterday didn’t have anything to do with the win over the Giants, instead it was our Electric Vehicle future as envisioned by the power that be at Nissan. I’ll spare you the many baseball analogies circling the bases of my mind and just get to it.

The black and white Nissan Cube EV Test Car was one of only two in existence. Mark Perry, Director of Product Planning, made a point to mention the only other one is in Japan. Basically, if you bang up the EV during test driving, he’ll probably make you swim to Japan and bring back the other one. But I did test out the EV (more on that later), and I did not bang it up, which is lucky since I don’t think I’d make the swim out to Japan.

The 2010 Nissan Cube EV (yet unnamed, but Mark did mention he’d be willing to let us drop our ideas a suggestion box on our way out), will be a 5-door, 5-passenger hatch that will get 100 miles to the charge. On a household 110V, it’ll be 14-hours from empty to full...
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Type707Type707 - 4/15/2009 8:32:11 PM
+2 Boost
OOOOGGGLLLAAAYYYY! Nuff Said


Joe_LimonJoe_Limon - 4/15/2009 8:36:19 PM
+4 Boost
Why did Nissan feel the need to make a non symmetric car?... and then call it a cube... which is a perfectly symmetric shape...


stonestone - 4/15/2009 9:50:26 PM
+4 Boost
[RANT]

The problem with all of these totally electric vehicles is not the cars, its our frigging power grid. The US is in no position to upgrade the power grid to support hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of EVs, it would take decades. Guess where the most of the power for our grid comes from, FOSSIL FUELS!!! These cars won't solve anything without significant investments in infrastructure and clean power for the grid. We can't go nuclear because of the scare mongers who have no idea about nuclear power. Wind and solar are no where near efficient enough to power this country. I am as much for getting off the foreign oil teet as anyone else, but these cars are not even close to the answer to our problems, there are much bigger issues to tackle first that would have a much larger impact on our problems.

Besides, most people can't afford a Cube, or a Volt or a Prius for that matter. Whose going to trade in their paid off 1998 Grand Am for something that can only travel 100 miles and then be down for 8-12 hours?

[/RANT]


Joe_LimonJoe_Limon - 4/16/2009 12:08:47 AM
+2 Boost
Really? I think the opposite. In the past 20 years our dependence on electricity has increased greatly. As more electric cars come to market, the power companies will keep up to the demand... they are after all going to make more money off of it.


pchera01pchera01 - 4/16/2009 8:29:52 AM
+3 Boost
we, America need energy... no matter what kind


stonestone - 4/16/2009 8:38:31 AM
+3 Boost
I don't disagree, but how are they going to keep up? By pushing more power through our antiquated power grid. How are they going to push more power through the grid? By using more fuel and since we have relatively few nuclear power plants in the US what kind of fuel will that be? Fossil fuel. They will make money for sure, but the power grid will need to be enhanced to accommodate the load of millions of EVs which will need to be charged nightly at the least and several times daily more realistically. Guess who's going to pay for those upgrades? We are, so now the consumer has to buy an EV and deal with increased electrical bills just to be able to use them......

Or we could build a few hundred nuclear plants around the country, fix the power grid and THEN make everyone drive an EV, that will take at least 20 yrs and battery technology should be much better by then providing a much longer cruising range and faster charging. We would use less energy all the way around.

I believe in global warming and we need to do something, but bringing these cars out now is simply shifting where we burn fossil fuels, not how much we burn...........


MrBratwurstMrBratwurst - 4/16/2009 4:45:55 PM
+2 Boost
1. 30% of electricity generated in the States is low carbon, either nuclear or renewable. Not a bad starting point.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sources_of_electricity_in_the_USA_2006.png

2. Most electric vehicles will be charged at night when grid carries little load when compared to peak hours. Coal fired thermal powerplants will benefit massively since they are inconvenient to regulate to match daily demand changes.


agent507agent507 - 4/17/2009 7:41:11 AM
+1 Boost
MrBratwurst,

sometimes I can´t stop loughing when I read your comments, sometimes I have tears in my eyes for all the sarcastic nonesense.

But this time you astonished me. Reasonable thoughts (quite seldom here in autolies ...)! Congratulation. I had to boost your comment.


truckmantruckman - 4/20/2009 5:37:19 AM
+1 Boost
The range needs improvement or a generator to charge it so that you don't have to buy two vehicles. And as many of you have pointed out that this would inflict a large load of electricity on the electrical grid, I would love to point out that guy in California that powers his electric car and house from his solar power and maybe wind? I cant remember? Maybe that is the way to go for those of us that have homes?


truckmantruckman - 4/20/2009 5:37:20 AM
+1 Boost
The range needs improvement or a generator to charge it so that you don't have to buy two vehicles. And as many of you have pointed out that this would inflict a large load of electricity on the electrical grid, I would love to point out that guy in California that powers his electric car and house from his solar power and maybe wind? I cant remember? Maybe that is the way to go for those of us that have homes?
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