We drove the new 2018 Nissan Leaf in California earlier this month, finding it to be an effective foil to the Prius Primes and Chevy Bolts of the world. With far more mainstream styling than its predecessor, the Leaf stands a good chance of hooking customers who would have never considered the old model.
Now, we’ve learned the company will bring a Leaf GT concept to the Tokyo Auto Salon in early January, a Japanese event most easily described as a fantastic mashup of CES and SEMA.
During the weekend ahead of the North American International Auto Show in frigid Detroit, the Tokyo Auto Salon showcases and demonstrates the latest tech and products for cars to be tuned-up and dressed-up. That’s the SEMA equivalent. Auto-related video games, motorsport merchandise, and the display of other gonzo automotive tech is the CES parallel. It’s always a great show.
This year, Nissan will be bringing a GT version of its new LEAF. One of fifteen models the company is trucking to the show, the Leaf GT will be shown in a two-tone silver and black paint job with bodywork that’s a bit more aggro than the standard car.
Broadening the appeal of the new Leaf will be important to Nissan, given that it’s the brand’s electric halo car. Paint-n-wallpaper packages are certainly one way to efficiently create different looks on a car to attract a wider range of customers.
Nissan has invested quite heavily into the new Leaf, hoping to shift it from a fringe science experiment to a mainstream alternative for folks looking to electrify their commute. At launch, the updated car will be limited to 150 miles on a single charge, well short of the range offered by the Bolt. However, a 200+ mile variant is promised to appear sometime in 2018.
As for the GT version, it’s a reasonable assumption to make that it will have differently calibrated throttle responses in addition to its snazzier bodywork.
At this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, Nissan will also show off NISMO iterations of the Leaf, GT-R, and a couple of other machines we do not get on this side of the pond. For 2018, the Tokyo Auto Salon takes place at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture.
[Image: Nissan]
Somehow it won’t surprise me if the GT version of the Leaf is nothing more than a paint and wheel package. God forbid they put a better battery in it.
Nissan should have spent resources on fixing the fundamental defects of the Leaf (extremely long charging time, extremely short range) before wasting a single dollar on nonsensical gimmicks like a Leaf GT.
Yes, we know. Anything more than 5 minutes and less than 500 miles is a colossal failure.
Asdf should have spent resources on fixing the fundamental defects of his posts (hyperbolic expectations, extremely repetitive arguments) before wasting a single moment on posting yet another one exactly the same as all the earlier ones.
“hyperbolic expectations”
Not at all. My expectations are entirely reasonable, since petrol- and diesel-powered cars have met these expectations for decades, and there’s no good reason to hold EVs to a different standard.
So it’s you who are in the wrong here, not me, but I’m used to that being the case, so the rest of your post falls flat on its face.
I don’t think that’s a standard most people actually have in a way that they’d articulate it like that – they just don’t want to be inconvenienced. If anything, home charging is more convenient (always leaving home with a full tank, never having to take time to fill up), so long as you don’t run the battery empty.
Now, assuming 20k miles a year (comfortably above the national average), and driving every week day, that still only works out to less than 80 miles a day (about half the range of a Leaf). Sure, road trips take planning, but we’re at a point where they’re great commutermobiles.
@asdf: It’s unreasonable to expect people to take their cars to a fueling station at all. Why can’t there be a gasoline pipeline to every home? Electric cars can fuel at home. We should hold gassers to the same standard.
That “fringe science experiment” has sold a quarter million cars worldwide.
Nissan ain’t in the liquid/solid state battery race no more. Them leaving that to other folks up-and-coming third-party sweatsos.
You know that GT lower flange bodywork. Complete no no around icy snow-banks. Crackle.
The author has no idea what the term “aggro”means. It certainly doesn’t apply to styling. After a bit of aggro from the bovver boys with steel tipped shoes known as skinheads in London back in the early ’70s, I do know what aggro is. Guy doesn’t.
Not a Nissan fan, but I like the concept of the Leaf and hoped the last one would do well. To bad it was terrible. Hopefully, the new one is much improved.
So few concept cars ever make it into production in anything like the concept form so I don’t see any point in getting excited about them.
Also, body kits don’t make a car sporty. Performance does. The Leaf may be a fine commuter car but it ain’t that quick. Colour me skeptical that this version will be any better.
This is the car the Leaf GT should be. It would have been too expensive, but it would have been a nice halo car.
https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/concept-cars/zzoe-concept.html
This version is so different from the bog standard Leaf that it deserves
a new name.
Something like… the Nissan Frond.