• First electric vehicle to win the prestigious award
• Car and batteries to be built in Britain from 2013
• UK deliveries start in March, priced at £23,990

Nissan Leaf lifts prestigious CoTY award for 2011

Since my last post yesterday, I have received the historic news that the 100% electric Nissan LEAF has been awarded 2011 European Car of the Year. This is fantastic news for Nissan and low emission cars.

The world’s first mass-marketed, affordable, zero-emission vehicle for the global market beat 40 contenders to win motoring’s most important accolade. This is the first time in the 47-year history of the annual competition that the award has gone to an electric vehicle. Nissan LEAF’s rivals included vehicles from brands such as Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Dacia, Ford, Opel/Vauxhall and Volvo. The jury included 57 leading motoring journalists from 23 European countries.

“The jury acknowledged today that the Nissan LEAF is a breakthrough for electric cars. Nissan LEAF is the first EV that can match conventional cars in many respects,” said Håkan Matson, President of the Jury, Car of the Year.

For more information go to www.twitter.com/nissanpr

The Nissan Leaf is here!

Green-car-guide.com reports that : The Nissan LEAF, the world’s first mass-produced electric family hatchback, is now rolling off the production line, and Green-Car-Guide has carried out its most extensive test of the car to date, both in the city and on the open road.

The big headline is that no-one should fear the electric car. As long as you go into a relationship with a Nissan LEAF knowing that a slightly different mindset will be required about the range limitations, then there is very little to fault the car on.



In a full report Green Car Guide covers the road testing of the the LEAF on a variety of roads in Portugal, and says,"The car is primarily designed for the city, and it certainly makes complete sense in this environment. Driving it is easy, just move the computer mouse-like gear selector to drive, and it’s like driving a car with automatic transmission – except that you don’t get the sensation the car is struggling to find the right gear, which is a feature of many automatics."

The Guide also notes: " If you are on a renewable energy tariff then the electricity and car combination could mean zero emissions. If you get your electricity to recharge the car from the average UK energy mix, then this should mean that the CO2 [ emissions] of the LEAF is somewhere between 62-72 g/km."

For full details on the Leaf you should go to green-car-guide.com

Why go electric? You should Think about it!

According to the Think ev people the reasons you should go electric are:

• electric cars have no tailpipe at all, and no local CO2 emissions,nitrous oxide or particle emissions
• driving electrical vehicles (evs) will even reduce noise pollution
• evs are both clean and silent

The THINK City is on sale across Europe with production reaching the milestone of 2,500 units recently. Sales and production are also about to commence in the US. THINK has been a unique innovator in pure electric vehicles and power-train technology for nearly twenty years, positioning the company as a world leader in producing cars on a dedicated and highway safe platform. The THINK City can maintain speeds of 70 miles per hour and travel up to 100 miles on a single charge. In total THINK has now sold approaching 10,000 EV’s accumulating 35 million zero-emissions road miles to date.

Check out the full range at thinkev.com now.