At Doug and Maria Nelson’s Kent home, the debate is on over who will get to drive their as-yet-undelivered 2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle.
“We’ll charge it at night and I’ll let Doug borrow it,” Maria Nelson said during a recent interview at their home. “We both want the car.”
The Nelsons are pumped about the first all-electric car made by a major auto company. They paid a $99 deposit last spring to reserve the five-door hatchback and placed an order this fall. They hope to have the car by the end of the year.
They have yet to see or drive a Leaf, which can travel up to 100 miles on one full, lithium-ion battery charge and reach speeds of up to 90 mph. The first models are expected to arrive at Nissan dealerships in December and early next year. They will get their first test drive in November at the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila as part of the national Nissan Leaf electric tour to promote the vehicle.
“We’ve looked at the video online and have seen the brochure,” said Doug Nelson, 54, a lobbyist in Olympia for the public schools employees’ union. “Still, we haven’t even touched the car yet. It is a little strange for the whole process. But that has not stopped us.”
Nissan cut off reservations for the Leaf last month at 20,000, as it slowly rolls out the new car in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Tennessee. The company plans to increase the availability of cars next spring with a full market rollout in 2012, according to the Nissan Web site. Nissan reports it is limiting its initial production of cars in order to provide a higher level of customer service.
The company is making the first cars and lithium-ion batteries to power the Leaf in Japan. But Nissan broke ground in May on a Leaf manufacturing plant in Tennessee that it expects to be ready for mass production in 2012.
Maria Nelson plans to use the Leaf for her 10-mile commute to Renton where she works for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union that represents Boeing employees.
“This is the future for the auto industry,” said Maria Nelson, 54. “We’re making the commitment even though we’ve never seen the car on the street or driven one. The whole idea works. It’s like when the hybrids first came out. They were a novelty and now you seen them everywhere. I think in 10 years there will be a lot of electric vehicles when the price comes down.”
Nissan of Auburn has reservations for 50 electric vehicles, including one to the Nelson’s, during the first rollout.
“I sell them for $32,193 for the top-of-the-line model,” said Greg Leach, Internet sales manager at Nissan of Auburn.
Leaf buyers can get a $7,500 federal tax credit as well as a free home-charging station. And in Washington, residents can avoid paying the sales tax if they buy the car before the end of this year.
The Nelsons simply like the fact they can own an all-electric car. Doug Nelson drives a Honda Civic hybrid while Maria drives a Mitsubishi Outlander, a small SUV. They bought both of those vehicles used.
“It’s not the cost savings that’s driven us, it’s a philosophy,” Doug Nelson said.
The couple likes that the Leaf has no tailpipe and no gas emissions. They decided to buy an electric car a few years ago after they watched the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
The documentary explored the short life in the 1990s of the General Motors EV1 electric car and the role auto and oil companies, the federal government, California state government and consumers played in the demise of the car. The California Air Resources Board voted in 1990 to mandate the making of zero-emission vehicles to reduce air pollution but later dropped the mandate after pressure and lawsuits by auto and oil companies and pressure from the Bush administration.
“One of the most intriguing parts of the movie was when they took the (electric) car to Jiffy Lube as a joke,” Doug Nelson said. “There was no oil so there was nothing for Jiffy Lube to do.
“We felt like it was too bad electric cars didn’t make it in the 1990s so we would be ahead of the curve rather than behind it,” he added. “So when the Leaf came out, we wanted to participate.”
The Nelsons know that using electricity still creates emissions. But they prefer electric over gas emissions and also have signed up with Puget Sound Energy’s Green Power Program to buy electricity generated by renewable resources, such as wind and solar, rather than fossil fuels.
The Leaf battery is expected to last from five to 10 years before replacement, according to Nissan. The company has not revealed the cost of replacement batteries, but it’s expected the cost would be similar to what owners would have spent over the years on maintenance of a gas-powered vehicle.
Unlike in the 1990s, the electric vehicle now has the support of the federal government.
The Obama administration has backed production of electric vehicles in an effort to reduce the nation’s reliance on oil. It also has pumped up subsidies with a goal of getting a million electric cars on the road by 2015, according to a recent New York Times story.
Phoenix-based ECOtality, one of the partners in what’s known as the EV Project, is working with Nissan and local governments and businesses to install
more than 1,200 charging stations in the Central Puget Sound and Olympia areas. ECOtality also has a contract with Nissan to install home-charging stations.
Doug and Maria Nelson already received a visit from ECOtality representatives, who visited their home to make sure the car fits their needs and that their garage could handle a charging station. The home stations feature a 220-volt circuit, similar to what’s required for a dryer, that will fully charge the car in eight hours.
The Nelsons passed the inspection and will quality for the company’s $2,500 grant through the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for the charging station. Crews will install the station once the Nelsons know when they will receive their car.
In addition to the Kent couple, the electric vehicle has created a buzz among many customers at Nissan of Auburn, even though people can only find out about the car through the Internet.
“People are very, very excited,” said Leach, who basically deals with Leaf customers through e-mails and phone calls rather than on-site visits. “This is a new territory for Nissan and everybody.”
But Leach noticed the initial buyers are quite up to speed about the new car.
“They are very knowledgeable about electric vehicles,” he said.
No more orders for the Leaf are being taken at this time, although Nissan expects to open reservations again early next year.
For more information, go to
www.drivenissanleaf.com
The Nissan Leaf drive electric tour
When: Nov. 12-14
Where: Westfield Southcenter Mall, Tukwila
Register: www.drivenissanleaf.com
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