Nissan LEAF

The Nissan LEAF may not be available yet, but Nissan claim to have taken over 17,000 deposits for their new electric car.

The first owners will get their cars at the end of this year. Cycling legend Lance Armstrong will be the first lucky person to be given the keys to his new LEAF in the United States and European sales start early in 2011.

The specification for the Nissan LEAF looks good - a spacious five seat car with large luggage space, an electronically limited top speed of 85mph (140km/h) and a claimed range of 100 miles (160km).

I recently had the opportunity to sit inside the LEAF and see it for myself. At present, Nissan are still not letting people test drive the car. Instead they are letting selected people drive the EV-12 test mule, built on the floorpan of the Nissan Tiida hatchback to get a feel for what the LEAF is like to drive.

The Nissan LEAF show car looked fantastic in mid-blue metallic paint with a deep lustre and shine. The chromework is of high quality and the interior is well made and looks fabulous. Fit and finish on the show model is superb and the overall impression is of a premium car that would be worthy of the Infiniti brand.

Of course, this is a show car. We won't know how this compares to the production cars until later this year, but the omens are good.

The styling is very distinctive. Some people love it whilst others hate it, but there is no doubt that the Nissan LEAF turns heads wherever it goes. The shape of the car is also very practical - inside there is plenty of space for five adults with ample legroom, headroom and shoulder room for everyone. Luggage space is generous for this class of car and the hatch opening allows for easy access.

Like most of the latest generation of electric car, the batteries in this Nissan LEAF are fitted under the floor. As well as ensuring that the centre of gravity is low and close to the centre of the car - which helps ride and handling - it also means that there is more space available inside the car for passengers.

Behind the wheel, it looks very high tech, with a digital dashboard and a touch screen satellite navigation system. My past experience of digital dashboards and high tech interiors has never been that great as such systems tend to either be difficult to use, cause confusion or simply distract the driver from the road ahead. If you've ever grappled with the iDrive system from a BMW 7-series or driven a Toyota Prius before, you'll know what I mean.

The dashboard on the Nissan LEAF is different. They appear to have come up with a system that is intuitive and straightforward with the information clearly laid out and controls that fall easily to hand. Nissan have obviously spent a lot of time ensuring the car is straightforward to use. Until I've driven a Nissan LEAF on open roads, I'll not know if they have totally succeeded but the first impressions are positive.

In conclusion, Nissan have done a very good job on this new car and it is not difficult to see why Nissan have so many pre-orders. Of course, there are lots of questions still about the car and these will only be answered when the car is available for a proper test. Real life range, winter performance, handling and ride are all still big unknowns but should be answered by the time the car goes on sale.

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