Car Models

NISSAN Australia has announced a $51,500 starting price for its first all-electric model, the Leaf, which opens for public orders in February before first deliveries take place in June.

The sub-$52,000 pricetag (plus on-road costs) is $2700 more than that of Mitsubishi Australia’s pioneering electric vehicle, the much smaller i-MiEV city-hatch ($48,800 plus ORCs).

Like the i-MiEV, the five-door Leaf hatchback will be available as a single, highly specified model, with the one purchase price including its lithium-ion battery pack.

That is also likely to be the case for Holden’s upcoming Volt plug-in hybrid, pricing for which will be announced closer to its late-2012 release date.

Unlike the Fluence ZE, the Leaf’s battery is not compatible with the automated battery swap stations due to be rolled out by EV charging infrastructure company Better Place, which bills the zero-emissions Renault as the world’s first ‘unlimited-range’ EV.

Instead, Nissan said it will concentrate on fast-charge technology for the Leaf, which provides an industry-standard maximum driving range of at least 160km on a full battery charge.

The Leaf can be fully charged via a standard (240-volt, 10-amp) Australian household power outlet in about eight hours, or less with a 15-amp (‘Level 2’) charging outlet installed by an electrician.

Nissan Australia says it will make available Level 3 and 4 fast-charging systems for the Leaf, which will initially be available from 13 specialist Nissan dealers in major metropolitan centres, including Hobart and the Gold Coast.

The number of Leaf outlets will be expanded in stages until 2014, by which time Nissan expects to have sales and service centres in all major provincial centres.

Announcing the Leaf price today, Nissan Australia CEO Dan Thompson (left) said Nissan expected fleet buyers to comprise the lion’s share of Leaf customers in the first six months, as part of the EV ‘education process’.

However, the Leaf will be available for any customer to order from February and Mr Thompson said Nissan expects to sell “hundreds” of examples of the world’s first mass-market EV in the remaining half of next year, before annual sales volumes eventually grow to the thousands.

Nissan has sold more than 20,000 examples of the Leaf globally in its first year, making it “the highest-selling electric car in the history of the car industry”, according to the company.

“We’ve stated before that we expect to see meaningful sales volumes from Leaf as a contribution to Nissan Australia’s market growth expectations and zero-emission leadership aspirations,” he said.

“With a range of up to 170km on a single battery charge, the Leaf is expected to find favour early on in Australia’s fleets, as they seek sustainable transport solutions, and later with private customers who are interested in a zero tailpipe emission car ownership experience coupled with freedom from petrol service stations.

“Nissan dealers will be at the forefront of automotive generational change when Leaf arrives in their showrooms mid next year,” said Mr Thompson.

Production of Australia’s Leaf begins at Nissan’s Oppama plant in Japan next March.

NISSAN Australia has confirmed it will offer a diesel engine in the Dualis range from the middle of next year, but the oil-burning powerplant will only be available on five-seat variants of the popular crossover.

The diesel option in the five-seater is likely to be alliance partner Renault’s new 1.6-litre turbocharged unit, which produces 97kW of power and 320Nm of torque while consuming a meagre 4.5 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres.

Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Dan Thompson said last week that diesel is becoming a more relevant offering in the crossover market, and also with passenger cars in general.

The sole powerplant currently available in the Dualis line-up is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol developing 102kW and 198Nm.

Combined sales of the Dualis and X-Trail to the end of September sit at 15,359 units, putting Nissan ahead of rival brands such as Subaru (whose Forester and Outback combination has yielded 13,861 sales YTD) and Mitsubishi (with Outlander and ASX capturing 10,262 buyers this year).

Left: X-Trail near Mt Hotham. Below: Dualis diesel, Juke and next-generation Petrol.

Nissan’s strong reliance on this market segment was underlined by the decision to include the X-Trail four-wheel drive in last week’s media event, which took in various trails in national park surrounding Victoria’s Mt Hotham.

The drive program re-iterated Nissan’s strategy to brand the X-Trail as being one of the tougher and more off-road-capable vehicles in the compact SUV field, even though Mr Thompson conceded that only “10-20 per cent max” of all X-Trail owners take their car on these kinds of expeditions.

The addition of the diesel five-door Dualis will be Nissan’s only activity in the booming compact SUV segment in Australia for the foreseeable future, with the funky Juke crossover remaining out of contention for the local market.

Mr Thompson said the brand’s local line-up lacked the space to accommodate such a niche product.

“Is there a market sub-Dualis?” he said. Timing on the launch of the next-generation X-Trail remains unclear, but the current model has been in production since mid-2007 and, bearing in mind a five-year model cycle, the third-generation model should appear next year, probably in pre-production form in the second half.

Sales of the larger, more luxurious next-generation model will commence with a thumping 298kW/550Nm direct-injection 5.6-litre petrol V8 serving as the sole engine option.

Mr Thompson acknowledged the importance of having a diesel option in the large four-wheel-drive segment.

Australia is believed to be the only global market to have put its hand up for a diesel Patrol, but the lion’s share of its volume comes from the Middle East and the US – markets that traditionally favour petrol.

Mr Thompson said Nissan Australia had been heavily involved in the development of the Patrol for right-hand-drive markets.

Nissan will continue to offer the current Y61 series Patrol alongside the new model in a similar arrangement to its strategy with Navara, where it sells the older D22 version alongside the larger D40 model.