That car, the Nissan Leaf shown here, is the reason we find ourselves in the company’s brand-new Yokohama headquarters today. Designed as a four-to-five seat, front-drive C-segment hatchback, Nissan says the Leaf is not just for use as a specialty urban runabout, but rather, it was designed as an everyday vehicle – a “real car” whose 160-kilometer+ (100 mile) range meets the needs of 70% of the world’s motorists. In the case of U.S. consumers, Nissan says that fully 80% of drivers travel less than 100km per day (62 miles), making the Leaf a solid fit for America’s motoring majority, even taking into account power-sapping external factors like hilly terrain, accessory draw, and extreme temperatures.

The interior is at once handsome and spacious, with what appears to be plenty of room both front and rear for real-sized adults, and the cargo area is very deep, as it is unencumbered by a gas tank assembly (the batteries are mounted beneath the seats within the wheelbase). The center stack is production and looks slick, but its smooth finish flush buttons may also be hard to operate by feel on-the move. The digital instrument cluster display and the drive controller are also production pieces, and they look well finished inviting, as does the interior as a whole.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Automotive. Tags: Electric Car Design, NISSAN DIESEL MOTOR CO. LTD., Nissan Leaf electric car, Nissan Leaf EV, Yokohama headquarters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.