- Nissan hosted a gathering last week for Leaf owners near Los Angeles.
- The Leaf event included a private screening of Revenge of the Electric Car.
- More than two dozen owners participated in the evening event.
MARINA DEL REY, California — Southern California has long been the epicenter of supercar clubs and spontaneous hot rod get-togethers, and last Wednesday the So-Cal car culture tradition continued to evolve when more than two dozen Nissan Leaf owners gathered to swap stories, share snacks and watch an early screening of Revenge of the Electric Car. Heck, in the great hot rod tradition these folks were even looking under each other's hoods.
At Nissan's invitation, the Leaf owners quietly rolled into a private Marina del Rey facility to see the movie two days before it opened to wider audiences Friday. The film's director Chris Paine, who owns a Leaf as well as a Chevrolet Volt, was on hand to talk with Leaf owners about his new movie as well as his 2006 film, Who Killed the Electric Car?
Range anxiety be damned? Well only for some. Thirty Leaf owners were in attendance, and while most drove their cars, some chose to drive a more conventional car from the family fleet instead. Although Nissan had assured invitees that there would be one of the few portable quick-charge generators in the U.S. available for those who needed to juice up for their return trip, a few owners who lived beyond the Leaf's driving range of 75 miles told us the Leaf wouldn't work for them in this particular driving situation.
During the question-and-answer period that followed the film, Leaf owners expressed excitement that the Nissan Leaf has played such a pivotal role in reviving interest in electric cars and cited Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's appearance in the film as an important endorsement of the EV's future.
Many of them also noted that they had participated in an event the previous weekend where 140 EVs of all persuasions paraded on the streets of nearby Santa Monica, California.
Inside Line says: Owners of the Nissan Leaf might be few in number, but they all feel as if they're riding the crest of a wave that will carry them into the future. They don't know it, but they are car enthusiasts, too.
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gregs2k says:
10:31 AM, 10/25/2011
I think a much more reasonable theory for why they think its fast is due to feeling the full allotment of torque from the get go. Coming from a Prius or economy car as many early EV adaptors have, having 207 ft lb of torque at 0 RPM would be a world different than anything they have driven before.
hybris says:
10:01 AM, 10/25/2011
+1 mfennell
Sounds like a solid theory.
mfennell says:
07:16 AM, 10/25/2011
@throwback: "They obviously like the car, but when I hear it described as fast, I know they have never driven a fast car."
Yeah, the occasional Volt (~9sec to 60) owner makes the same comment. Since just about any car on the road is faster than a Leaf/Volt, my take is that they *have* driven faster cars, they've just never driven them fast, what with all the scary engine noises. Since EVs are so quiet, flooring them produces no drama (inside OR outside) and you're more likely to access the performance available. To the person used to lightly pedaling a typical family beater so it's always lunging for the highest gear possible, I can believe the Leaf/Volt feel fast.
Anyway, that's my theory.
throwback says:
03:38 AM, 10/25/2011
They obviously like the car, but when I hear it described as fast, I know they have never driven a fast car. I dove a Leaf at one of the drive events. It's a nice cars, does what they say it will but it is now fats. A look around the interior shows where they took the money out. The interior was on par with the Versa sedan they had there as well.
akula1 says:
07:52 PM, 10/24/2011
"Heck, in the great hot rod tradition these folks were even looking under each other's hoods."
After reading that I refuse to ever own a Leaf. Convinces me Leaf owners are basically retarded.
dagmar3 says:
05:02 PM, 10/24/2011
Somewhere, a comic book convention is missing their keynote speaker and a Renaissance Festival is missing its jousting team.
jm1212 says:
04:54 PM, 10/24/2011
Nissan needs to consider offering more color options for the Leaf.