THE distance from Joburg to the holiday resort, Sun City, outside Rustenburg, is about 200km.
The new version of the Nissan Leaf, set to arrive in South Africa early next year, has an improved battery which can reach 400km on a full charge at a cruising range – basically a return trip from Joburg to Sun City.
Of course, this number was the result of ideal driving conditions found in Yokohama, Japan, where the technologically advanced Nissan Leaf is made and tested, so there may be other issues when driving on some of the poorly maintained Mzansi roads.
It would be ideal to drive the vehicle to Sun City and have access to a charging port there – or even along the major tolled routes such at the N1, N4, N12 and the N3 but we still have some way to go before we reach the level of infrastructure quality of the Japanese.
It is unfortunate we have to remind ourselves of such challenges when Nissan declares it would like to surpass the close to 300 000 sales the first generation Leaf sold. Another factor for the South African market is how affordable we will find the new Leaf.
In a market that is increasingly being saturated with electric vehicles, the Japanese car manufacturer has included some new and innovative technology in the new Leaf. It now has ProPilot, a system that assists with parking; there is also the autonomous drive technology that helps with single-lane driving on the highway.
At a proper power point, the Leaf can be recharged for 40 minutes to get a quick charge and 16 hours for a full battery.
“The theme of the Nissan Leaf is Nissan intelligent mobility, the brand strategy for Nissan’s future,” said Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan’s president and CEO.
