Kyle Smith of the New York Post gives us a scathing review of the Nissan Leaf:
The Nissan Leaf has just arrived in New York City. It’s a real breakthrough for anyone who was getting tired of all the old synonyms for failure….
Nissan’s Leaf isn’t as flawed and ridiculous as the Edsel. It’s far worse….
But at least only Ford lost money on the Edsel. We’re all losing money on the Nissan Leaf, thanks to the taxpayer subsidies that willed it into the marketplace. Each time you see one of these glorified golf carts flit by, you should be thinking: There goes $7,500 of my money.
The Leaf’s range is a joke — early reviewers have been startled to notice the gauge of a fully charged car warning that it expects to go only about 65 miles, a bit shy of Nissan’s claims last year of a 138-mile range.
One owner complained that the real range is only 50 miles….
…lies my government told me…
At 300 W. 57th St., Popular Mechanics has installed what seems to be the first Leaf-charging station in the city. The cost? Over $2,000. But PM’s home is a major commercial building. Your house probably isn’t, so it won’t be able to handle that kind of an outlet without a costly upgrade of the electrical system. You’ll also need a special permit and inspection.
Hey, wait — the Leaf is supposed to run on ordinary household current, right? That means it’s useless for most apartment dwellers (go ahead, ask your landlord if you can run an extension cord to the building’s power supply) but fine for suburbanites. Only those suburbanites who have a lot of time on their hands, though: a PM test driver said it took 34 hours to recharge his Leaf using ordinary 120-volt household power. “For most people,” the gearhead magazine sheepishly noted, “the time constraint might preclude using the Leaf for everyday commuting.”
Ya think? A vehicle that takes a day and a half to charge can’t be used every day? Wasn’t the whole purpose of the Leaf supposed to be short everyday commuting….?
The Leaf, the clean, green vehicle, which even with the subsidy costs over $25,000, isn’t powered by that nasty carbon-packed fossil fuel gasoline. Nope — it’s most likely powered by coal, which is what supplies about half of the power stations where households get electricity.
President Obama is not in the habit of admitting to being wrong about anything….The US has about as much chance of becoming “energy-independent” this century as the earth has of becoming independent of the sun.
Read it all, and find out why the expression “to turtle” will become emblematic of the electric car era/error, as well as the Obama administration…
(Here – while you’re at it, have some fun with the Chevy Volt too…)