Nissan Pulls Off An Advertising Coup When The Leaf Is Featured In New iPhone Keynote

This was huge PR for the Leaf! Clearly, Jobs and Apple feel that the Leaf (and not the Tesla or the Volt) represent what is truly cool.

This was excellent PR for the Leaf and a real shot across the bow of the Toyota Prius. Large numbers of people heard his admiration of the Leaf ad because there is so much of cult of personality around Jobs and his success with Apple iPhone. Nissan better deliver the goods.

mmm I smell competition :D

I like how it said somewhere in the ad that the Leaf is the first REAL electric car... because other electric cars were using fake electricity??

Isn't the MINI-e an electric car that has already been out in the UK for awhile?

Whats funny is after all these years and all of these new technology advances the electric car is still only able to barely top 100 miles on a single charge.

The Leaf is the first mass produced electric car. Yes there have been others, but this is the first time it's a real possibility for people who aren't going to take a one off transportation solution.

The $10,000 battery pack is included in the $32K price of the leaf. Which drops to $25K with federal grants. And $20K if you live in California or Georgia.

When compared with a Toyota Corolla, you only need to drive the leaf as little as 13,000 miles to beat the cost of toyota ownership.

The Mini-E is a prototype only car, not available to general consumers. government fleets are eligible after a great deal of negotiation.

The 100 miles per charge is a modest but appropriate range for nearly 90% of Americans, and an even higher percentage of Brits. And don't forget you have that 100 mile range every single time you recharge the car. As in daily.

I doubt your 13,000 miles claim. Is that assuming electricity is free? It isn't, most electric cars, dollar for dollar are about equivalent to 100mpg.

I just ran the numbers. $25,280 for the leaf after tax credit, $15450 for a corolla, leaving a $9830 price difference.

Now... the leaf can go 100miles on a 24kWh charge, or 4.17miles per kWh. Assuming 0.08cents/kWh and 80% charge efficiency, that gives us 30kWh and $2.40 to fully charge. $2.40 over 100 miles is $0.024 per mile. In 160,000 miles the Leaf will cost $3840 in electricity.

Now for the Corolla, 35mpg and $3/gallon gives us $0.086 per mile. In the same 160,000 miles the Corolla will cost $13,714.29 in gas.

Subtract the two and you get $9874.29 which is about the price difference between the two vehicles.

No, it will not pay itself of in as little as 13,000 miles. Try about 160,000 miles.

Factor in the $2200 charging station and you'll have to drive the leaf about 200,000 miles before break even

Now considering the battery life is expected to be between 5-10 years and the cost to replace it is a conservative $5000, you're going to have to drive it about 275,000 miles or anywhere from 28,000 miles to 55,000 miles per year in order to break even, and trust me, if you're putting that many charge cycles, the number will be closer to 55,000 miles per year. ;)