Editor’s Note: This is part one of an exclusive sit down I had with Hideaki Watanabe, Nissan’s Division Manager of their Global Zero Emission Business Unit, at last week’s U.S. debut of the LEAF in Los Angeles. Part two will be devoted battery leasing, part three to the quietness and safety of EVs, and part four to the different zero emissions directions of Renault and Nissan within their alliance.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance’s strategy regarding battery swapping has been somewhat unclear to the public as of late. On the one hand, Renault has partnered with battery swapping stars Better Place in Israel to develop a purpose built car for the Israeli battery swapping market. On the other hand, Nissan has largely ignored other battery swapping markets and has remained quite non-committal in those areas.

In a rather open conversation with me, Hideaki Watanabe, Nissan’s Division Manager of the Global Zero Emission Business Unit, explained why.

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Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn making remarks at the US unveiling of the Nissan LEAF.
(Photo: Nick Chambers)

Back on the campaign trail last year, President Obama set a goal of having 1 million plug-in hybrid and electric cars on US roads by 2015. Since the campaign promise, the Obama administration has made available billions of dollars for the development of plug-in hybrids, electric cars, and smart energy grids—mostly for the ultimate goal of actually reaching 1 million plug-ins on the road by 2015.

Last Friday, at the Los Angeles unveiling of the upcoming Nissan LEAF electric car, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn indicated that the president’s goal of 1 million electric cars was quite obtainable, in fact he said that number will be easily surpassed.

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In Los Angeles this morning, at the United States unveiling of the Nissan LEAF electric car—set to hit showrooms in late 2010—Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was enthusiastic and clearly proud of the position the Nissan-Renault Alliance has taken as a leader in the development of electric cars and charging infrastructure.

“The LEAF is a new paradigm of the car,” said Ghosn. “LEAF represents a totally new transformational technology that will change the way people drive, use, and power their vehicles. And the time is right for this breakthrough.”

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I’ve got to say, this story strikes home with me; I’ve been repeatedly ignored by Twitter’s “customer service” every time I’ve tried to engage them about parked twitter handles. Now it appears that some major auto manufacturers are considering legal action to get Twitter to deal with username squatters in an attempt to protect their brand names.

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The Nissan LEAF promises to be the first affordable all-electric car on the market when it hits showrooms around this time next year. With a target price in the $25,000 range it is affordable, anti-petrol, and kinda cute too. The production model makes its North American debut next month in Los Angeles. It will be the first chance for the American public to see this car in person. [ed. note: Gas 2.0 will be there for the unveiling in L.A.]

After making its debut, Nissan will take the LEAF on a countrywide tour, giving the denizens of 22 cities a chance to sit and drive an important part of our electric future.

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According to CEO Carlos Ghosn, unlike its other Japanese rivals, Nissan has made a strategic decision to cede the standalone hybrid wars to them and will not make hybrid-only models such as Toyota’s Prius or Honda’s Insight.

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One of the biggest gripes I hear in the US about fully electric cars is that they aren’t practical because they don’t have enough range. But, what’s strange about this is, according to the 2001 US Department of Transportation National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), the average person drives their personal vehicle less than 23 miles a day—a number that is more than sufficiently covered by the 100-mile range of most upcoming mass-market electric cars.

So, if the average person drives a quarter of the distance an electric car is capable of going in a given day, why do people still say that they aren’t practical? It certainly isn’t a feeling based in how people actually use their cars. No, it’s more of a feeling based on our obsession with risk aversion—trying to avoid potential problems even if those problems don’t crop up during 95% of the rest of our lives.

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Here’s one for the strange book: according to Automotive News (subs. req’d), the egg-shaped, tilt-wheel, 2-seat, Nissan electric car concept set to debut at the Tokyo Motor Show this week known as the Land Glider is apparently under serious consideration for actually being built. Not only that, reportedly the company also thinks it would work well as a luxury Infiniti.

I don’t really know what to say, except… maybe Nissan knows something about rich people that I don’t?

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In preparation for the steadily approaching launch of their first mass-market electric car—the LEAF—Nissan has produced a series of videos highlighting different aspects of their approach to developing electric car technology.

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At a breakfast meeting for Nashville business executives, Carlos Tavares, Chairman of Nissan America, said he fully expects the company to have 20,000 reservations for the Nissan LEAF by the time the car goes on sale late next year.

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