We just got back from Edaran Tan Chong Motor’s Petaling Jaya showroom, where the Nissan Leaf pilot program was launched yesterday by Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry. The Leaf show is ongoing, and will be open to the public for test drives around the block this weekend
I stepped in and was immediately impressed with the Leaf’s cabin. It feels light and airy inside and the seats are comfortable, something one can also observe in the Sylphy and Latio. It feels special enough, too, so there’s no mistaking the Leaf for a normal car from behind the wheel.
There’s a Civic-style upper tier speedo, and the main binnacle is a multi-coloured blend of various displays. There’s a power bar made of dots, almost like an F1 style rev meter, flanked by battery charge level and battery temp. Planted between the seats is the special looking gear knob. Push up to reverse, down to drive, press to park – simple.
The piano black centre stack looks like a tablet stuck on the dash, and the central colour LCD shows a wealth of information such as real-time power consumption, with a break down to see how much juice the climate control and accessories are actually sucking. You can also check consumption history here.
Off we went from Jalan Kemajuan heading towards the Sprint Highway. I’ve driven a few EVs now, so the Leaf doesn’t shock, but I’m impressed with the lack of rolling noise/tyre roar compared to some other EVs. If you haven’t driven one before, the lack of noise and vibration will be the most jarring difference from a regular vehicle. It’s very serene and peaceful in the Leaf.
The Leaf’s controls are lightweight and effortless to operate, as one would have guessed. I wasn’t expecting so, but ride comfort is rather good – the suspension damped away the harsh effects of rumble strips and manholes served up by Jalan Dato Abu Bakar.
We got to stretch the EV a bit once on the Sprint, and acceleration is very strong off the mark thanks to 280 Nm of torque from standstill. The pick-up rate slows down once up to highway speeds, but I can already see the surprised faces of unsuspecting hot hatch drivers!
The wave of acceleration is accompanied by a faint “woooooo” sound – no drama involved. There’s also a distinct “lack of resistance” from the drivetrain, which contributes to the feeling of effortlessness. Top speed is “over 140 km/h” but we didn’t have the chance to try.
Back at base, I hopped into the rear quarters to find my 175 cm frame fit nicely, which means that taller folks are likely to face headroom issues. No such issue up front, since the rear seats are slightly elevated “stadium style”.
I also noticed that while there’s good knee room, there’s no gap for my feet to slip under the front seats. By the way, the 24 kWh laminated lithium-ion battery pack, consisting of 192 cells, is spread out beneath the cabin. In the US LA4 mode, which Nissan says is realistic, a full charge of eight hours delivers a 160 km range. A full charge will add about RM7.90 to your TNB bill, so it’s cheap to run.
No commercial sales yet though, and public awareness is the main goal for ETCM now. Full EVs are a different kettle of fish from hybrids, which requires no compromise on the buyer’s part. But I’m sure you and me can buy a Leaf some day – you don’t register 10 costly EVs and start a pilot program without the intention to sell, right?
Speaking of which, ETCM is on the lookout for ambassadors to drive the Leaf for up to six weeks – no celebs, real people, real routines. This will go on for the rest of this year. Register your interest at this weekend’s event or online.
I’m sure the chosen ones will have real fun experiencing zero emissions motoring. For them, motoring life might never be the same again!
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Pls choose me!
Hybrid is boring pls make Hybrid with twin turbo !
Pug have turbo hybrid are already on sale in Europe, the 3008 HDi Hybrids and the coming 508 RXH HDi hybrids…both are turbodiesel hybrid wt whooping almost 500nm of torque combine + Prius like FC. BMW, Merc & Volvo will be introducing the Turbodiesel hybrids soon too (if not already).
Yup, the european got it right…..Turbodiesel hybrids make more sense,
yeah, and it took them more than a decade to pick-up the technology introduced by the japanese some 15 years ago.
so what?
proton joined the MPV very very late and they benefited by improving many weaknesses by the competitors (except the powerplant, which evidently they did not have better choices) but again, so what?
the peug may excel the hybrid world but they simply dont have an idea about it back then.
ETCM waste people’s time. This car came out more now close to 2 years ago and now Nissan bringing it to Malaysia?
This is like their other models. They bring into Malaysia like 3 or 4 years later when the model is launched globally. We get old stock. Remember the Cefiro Brougham?
where to charge???
Charging points are available at Chulan Square (downtown KL), Wisma Tan Chong (Jalan Ipoh) and ETCM’s PJ showroom. To live with Leaf, of course you’ll need to install a charging point at your home. Not to be mistaken with the Panasonic charging stations seen in the pics, charging points are simple devices that can be installed by a Nissan approved electrician.
errr….. what about those who are staying in high rises? will definitely consider this if the charging point issue is resolved.
Danny, for home charging, you only need industrial 3-pin plug.. It is that simple only.. and i hv installed it at my home as i am currently driving EV.. The only setback is that it is not connected to the back-end realtime system for the BMS. But who need that anyway other than the OEMs.. Hey, by now i think you know who am i.. :-)
Yup, that’s what ETCM means by charging point. Good to see you here sir! :)
how much is the price?
in USA, probably around RM90k, in Australia around RM150k
but looks much better than Prius C
in Japan, the cheaper X version is about 3Million Yen (after the “tax/duty exemption?) which is about RM111,000. Why is USA getting a cheaper price than Japan? Is US governmental giving huge subsidy for EV?
YES! you’re correct.. US give US$7,500 subsidies for electric car! they now considering to increase the subsidies to US$10k.
people in UK has been enjoying up to £5k subsidies for hybrid cars too.
Those who stay in condo or apartment how/where to charge?
simple solution.. don’t buy if you stay in condo. buy some other hybrid or RE-EV cars which doesn’t require charging station. or, perhaps you could ask your condo management to provide special parking and charging station for your EV?
but i do hope future condo developments do take initiative to introduce special parking bays for EV and hybrids. some condos in singapore already running a test program about this. some shooping malls too… and they even include HDB flats into the program.
Like to get 1.Me stay in landed house no worry about charging issue but the price only .If not that expensive will get 1.Any maintainance since no engine no service?
I’m guessing around only once a year for maintenance. The drivetrain don’t need maintenance, other things like brake pads and fluids only need replacement after a long time :)…..
Damn it, T&C for ambassador : residing n working within Klang Valley……T T
sell sini lah
i want to buy
This car looks good. Saw one in Taman Tun a couple of months ago. Wonder why it was there, the car was already registered then.
Best thing is I have to live in an apartment … sad case … my CRZ will be the nearest I can get to zero emmission and helping Mother Nature.
oh yeah! how about buying a bicycle or a 4 stroke kapcai?!
This I think, is a viable 2nd family car. Most families do not need two cars travelling beyond 100km per day under almost all circumstances. The savings in petrol and the saving of mother earth seems like a viable factor if the car is not too expensive.
There is always the mileage anxiety along with it though. I wonder when the RE-EVs will hit the mass market proper.
too expensive as a 2nd car.
Danny, if we switch on the aircon at full blast, will the mileage be reduced? The power for aircon comes from the same battery pack right?
There is an articel at corism dot com. They did an experiment to check the Leaf’s battery performance when using the aircond. The methodology is briefly like this:
1. Full-charge the battery. At this point mileage can go up to 169km.
2. Start the car with aircond turned ON.
3. Aircond temperature is set to 24 degree Celcius. Out temperature set to 33 degree.
Result: After 8 hours, mileage balance became 109km (consumed 35.5% of the battery power= 4.4% power consumption for 1 hour).
This is only one example of the experiment conducted. Actual result may differ depending on your driving style and outer air temperature.
Yes, of course. As you turn up the air con, the increase in power consumption is shown on the Leaf’s LCD display on the centre stack
dash looks plasticky……
Is it really plasticky??
Yes, it is made of plastics. You prefer “leathery” or “metally”? :)
I don’t understand why all those talk about saving mother earth. It’s an electric car and charging requires fossil fuel and worst still you need to charge it frequently. Not to mention short travelling distance with long charging time.
don’t just think about now, think more about the future.
fossil fuel may not be forever. even Arab’s reserve could only last few decades more. we could get the abundant solar energy for cheap cost in the future.
What about Hydrogen fuel? Or compressed air? (A French company actually developed an engine that runs of compressed air). Pretty much every other alternative fuel in our cars is better for the environment than electricity (well, minus ethanol.)
One thing about electricity. it’s delivered via a copper cable that does not pollute the air while delivering electricity to the plug point. While you will need fuel guzzling trucks to delivery fuel to the nearest fuel pump!
Fact is, most of it comes from burning fossil fuels, especially here. And as “wira” explains below, quite a bit of energy is lost in the generation process. Right now, I think diesel vehicles make the more sensible choice.
Most of our electricity is still generated by burning fossil fuels.
Hence, Electric cars don’t really make much sense as we are just moving the pollution source from the cities to the power plant.
yes, we have so many alternatives. but which one works better, which one easier to implement?
to produce hydrogen, you need lots of electricity to split hydrogen and oxygen from water. in current technology, this is not efficient because;
fossil fuel -> electric -> hydrogen ->car
a significant percentage, some research mentioned up to 40% power lost when converting the energy from 1 form to another. so, too many conversion is not efficient.
wait until we can get electricity for cheap or from a free source like solar.
Well, why not hook up a solar panel to do the electrolysis? I’ve said it before, the tech’s crude right now but it can be done if people would give hydrogen a little more attention. It’s a very real possibility that the petrol stations of the future will only need a water line. What I think is the problem is that people have been led to believe that electric is most eco-friendly alternative to conventional petrol or diesel vehicles. And also, people think hydrogen cars will blow up like the Hindenburg if they bump a parking cone.
it seems that many people still failed to understand the objective of having EV and hybrid cars.
they serve a purpose of reducing carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide footprint by minimising exhaust emission. carbon dioxide especially is the culprit that traps heat in the world’s atmostphere causing global warming and the change in out climate today.
i believe some of us watched Jeremy Clarskon’s BBC Top Gear a little too much, perhaps, and hence, refused to accept that these cars are actually the way to move forward.
otherwise, car manufacturers wont bother producing cars with low emission (LEV, ZLEV, ZEV) or was it Clarkson the smart one?
Honda has Insight, Civic Hybrid and Jazz Hybrid in its stable, Toyota has prius, prius C, prius V, camry hybrid, estima hybrid, peugoet coming up with impressive line-up of diesel hybrids, chevy has the volt, proton is getting more aggressive on R&D of as i mentioned above, even BMW and Merc are finding intelligent ways of doing things without being called copycats – they are not stupid as we think they are.
some paradigm shift is needed here.
imagine 1 million cars in KL morning rush hour with their engines idling, or 1 million hybrids/EV with minimal engine running during bumper-to-bumper traffic crawl – the morning will gets warm at a slower rate, that is for sure. and this is a thousand times better than 1 oil refinery in operation at the same time or the fuel burnt to generate electricity.
think about it.
Much of your electricity generation comes from renewable energy such as hydroelectric.
If you are serious about it, you can put up solar panels on your rooftop and generate sufficient electricity for yourself to use and recharge the Leaf.
TopGear advice about EV car : Just make sure your gf didnt stay too far from you =p
Btw since that this car no engine displacement so it will be roadtax-free ???
roadtax is sooooo cheap now. only RM90 for 1600cc. but… 600,000 new cars every year, if each pay RM90 for roadtax, that’s RM54mil from roadtax alone, not including those already on the roads which renew roadtax every year. must be hundreds of millions eh?
so i don’t think it will be a problem if Gov give free roadtax to electric vehicle. just how many of them on the road anyway.
The article about i-MiEV said it’s RM 10 per year LOL……
Seat… Agreed!
Seat.. My conspiracy theory. The more peeps use this, country like us export more fuel… Anddd also more to fueeelllll a war
yes, most people dont uderstand the concept of energy.
Electric vehicle, says the Nissan Leaf which depends 100% on electrical energy for power source are basically contribute to more pollution. The electrical energy itself in Malaysia used fossil fuel, to generate the electricity and the highest efficiency fossil power plant in malaysia is in Perai Power plant where they used combined cycle system, achieving almost 60% of efficiency. This mean in every 1 cubic metre of natural gases burn, only 0.6 cubic metre of the gases convert to electrical energy, and the other half of the gases is losses. Then, we come out with electric vehicle, says the efficiency of the electric motor of the vehicle is 80%. So, from the total 0.6 of fossil energy, now only being 80% benificial, where 0.6*0.8 = 48% of total used of the fossil without including the other losses of the car.
My point is, in Malaysia where the main source of electrical energy is from fossil energy, the are no mother earth nor fuel saving we can achieve. The more electric vehicle in malaysia, there are more fossil fuel being used to supply the electrical energy provided the lowest efficiency the pollution will be more.
Electric vehicle is very applicable in the country where the main source for electrical energy is nuclear., hydro or other than fossil fuel.
Hybrid car in the other hand, produced the energy with ptre-installed motor or we can say a small generator. Hybrid car is the most applicable approach in Malaysia for green earth. That all, just want to justify for you, dont be unclear and misunderstands about what is electric vehicle and the effect to our home country.
Agree with you mate. Even with the huge Bakun hydro dam here in S’wak, we never enjoy any reduction in electricity rate. They will just increase the tariff with the increase of oil prices in future.
When you cost in the power needed for the car air-con, the cost per km is increased by 50%, thus making hybrid car more viable not forgetting the very short range on mileage made worse by the necessity of air -con in our extreme hot weather. If you get stuck in a long jam in the hot sun, you can have air-con but you may need a tow truck to get home.
Just being realistic here.
dude, majority of electricity in malaysia generated by coal and gas. only small portion use hydro. 62.6% gas, 20.9% coal, 9.5% hydro and 7% from other forms of fuel. of course the tariff is high because coal, gas and petrol price keep increasing. and we can’t afford to destroy much bigger jungle to build more hydro dam for our electricity.
Thanks for the information, hopefully in the near future we can have 20-30% of power supply from renewable energy, more solar energy please :)…..
are u crazy to even mention nuclear over here?
somebody will come and stuff real shite onto ur mouth
she isnt fluent in engineering let alone nuclear but sure she got real shite all over her body
and shes coming to ya real quick. thats for u mentioning nuclear.
dont be too negative man
this is the Genesis. treat it as gentle as it is. name me one country that large portion of energy generation isnt dependable to fossil fuel? the answer is none. most of us do depend on it. however u can power this thing up using electricity generated sourced from renewable/ green energy
Perhaps its time for ETCM to subsidize solar farming which provides the refuelling for these things. Or hybrid electric generation using solar, wind, and water current. either way, this is the start and everything accomplished comes from a start.
Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world’s energy and 13–14% of the world’s electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity. Even Malaysia now is planning on developing nuclear reactor for electricity.
There nothing to be ashamed of my friend, nuclear is one of the main electricity source in this world. No ones will blame you.
Solar power for refuelling this things? and then you make me laugh. This is not being negative, but we talking about reality and facts. This car need 8 hours for full charge using direct electrical power supply, how many days do you things to fuel up this car using solar?? dont make things complicated. Solar is an alternative power source in the world and it needs the Sun to power up.
We all understand that what are you trying to says, but my friend we are talking about electric car, a green steps to makes world better for our grand child, there are no ways right now practically to fuel this thing without the main electrical power supply, and the main electrical generation for our beloved country is fossil. Please be smart.
Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world’s energy and 13–14% of the world’s electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity. Even Malaysia now is planning on developing nuclear reactor for electricity.
There nothing to be ashamed of my friend, nuclear is one of the main electricity source in this world. No ones will blame you.
Solar power for refuelling this things? and then you make me laugh. This is not being negative, but we talking about reality and facts. This car need 8 hours for full charge using direct electrical power supply, how many days do you things to fuel up this car using solar?? dont make things complicated. Solar is an alternative power source in the world and it needs the Sun to power up.
We all understand that what are you trying to says, but my friend we are talking about electric car, a green steps to makes world better for our grand child, there are no ways right now practically to fuel this thing without the main electrical power supply, and the main electrical generation for our beloved country is fossil. Please be smart..
For those who can afford, it’s possible to use solar energy, because a complete system comes with deep cycle batteries to store excess power, for power supply at night and rainy days. Solar systems could power electric cars or even the whole house…
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/world/article/japan-nuclear-power-free-as-last-reactor-shuts/
Sorry to say that after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.crisis, Japan also starting to reduce and going for alternative power due to public pressure.. If we do nothing and wait something to happen, who to blame? Even Japan & Russia cant control it well, how about us? Just google it about nuclear disaster..
I think you’ve misunderstand the concept of supporting electric utilities here. The one sure benefit of having more electric-dependent utilities is electricity CAN come from a self-sustaining/renewable source (ie solar, hydro, etc) where else burning fuel CANNOT. So don’t view electric vehicles as the solution to a greener earth (because it is not), but it is the catalyst for change to drive renewable energy solutions.
At current fossil fuel engine, the best efficiency is only about 30%.
Based on your calculation electric vehicle efficency 48%. Arent you implying electrical vehicle is better??
Another problem is your little understanding on hybrid or electrical vehicle.
You fail to factor in that millions of car nowadays, are stuck on road jam and burning fossil fuel and efficiency is 0% !!!.. If fact the 30% I mentioned is only you run the engine at optimum speed. The real world it is a lot less.
Furthermore hyrbid / electrical vehicle can recoup back the energy when going down hill or during breaking. This increases the efficiency further, in fact recoup at least 50% energy based on Prius performance.
Hybrid or electrical car will be norm in the future. At this moment I don’t see any other replacement, even with diesel car they will make it a hybrid.
1st day RM6.90 due to normal tariff… but at the end of month RM25 per charge… FAIL
oddly gorgeous
proton better
Who has submitted thier application successfully? Mine keep syaing “Sorry, please try again later.” when I did my submission!
Mine keeps asking me to fill in all the fields, even though I already did. Maybe we have to wait until the event opens today.
Managed to register myself try scrolling down
Thanks for the tip, I didn’t see the scrollbar.
It insists on an office address; so if I’m a student, I can’t register?
how much RM per kilometer for this car ?
according to my maths, RM0.05/km
With TNB tariffs increasing unnoticed by many, would it still be cheap and viable to own one? The govt needs to spend on EV infrastructure first then we all can consider to buy it. Till then, don’t take risk. When balik kampung sure got problem to recharge the car.
The design of the gear knob looks like a dick head….
electric car? not suitable in malaysia
malaysia needs more hydro electric power plant if want to use this car
not practical here
dont used nuclear, destroy our home later due to earth quake quite often right now
I went to proton in shah alam last week to see one of my friends and I saw one black Nissan leaf and a black toyota prius and amazingly one black Cverolet Volt!!! yes a Volt LHD there in their green technology office. i think they are studying these cars. how they managed to get that Vlot there from US? it was a beautiful car. no need go to showroom people just go to proton and see these cars all at one place… haha.
proton does have a Saga EV, and exora REEV which works in similar ways to Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt respectively.
The Volt uses electric motor and battery to get moving, but a small engine acts as a generator to keep it charged at all time. that said, as the engine does not need any rreving to get moving but keeping idle at all time, it makes the best out of both world.
yes, i know last time i heard the engine on the exora REEV in putrajaya i thought it is exploding. so noisy and terrible sound like fogging machine. i hope our proton manage to get it fiexed. we support you. i was wondering who supply the system to proton it looks like a WW2 package!!!
why there is no amoi?
Nissan is not promising that the Leaf will save the world from global warming. This is merely a first step. Every country generates electricity differently, be it from nuclear, coal, wind, solar, natural gas, etc. With electric vehicles, at least you can better control the emission from the source (i.e. power generation plants), and the government can save on petrol/diesel subsidies and maybe invest in renewable energy. Also, there are more than just CO2 being emitted from your car’s exhaust pipe, there are other harmful elements like sulfur, NOx, CO, etc. Also, if there are more EVs replacing internal combustion vehicles in cities, the air quality will no doubt be cleaner. Think about it…
nissan, my dream car… coming very soon ..
for 150k price…better get a polo…
Perfect car for Langkawi………….
ETCM should lobby the govt & work with LADA to encourage the LEAF to be use in Langkawi:-
1) Most locals travelled less than 80km daily. Weekend maybe 150km. The car can be charge overnite at home
2) Car rental agency can promote the EV car .Quick charging station 480v ( 20 mins charge to about 80% capacity) can be installed at the tourist attractions, hotels & restaurants. Owners or guests can charge the EV car while shopping or visiting the attraction(like in California)
3) Duty free island means all the parts, charging station are all tax exempted. Get the corporate , business or hotels to sponsor the charging station
4) Can promote Langkawi as GREEN ISLAND.
5) Special rebates given to owners of EV car on top of the duty free prices in your yearly Income Tax ( just like rebates on buying computers /insurance )
6) Get the big corporate to sponsor the quick charging station around Langkawi. The owner of businesses would not mind if they bring more customer to them just like McD or KFC or any big supermarkets. Tourists attractions included as well.
7) Let Langkawi be the testing ground for EV cars if we the local govt ac support the infrastructure together with NISSAN
yes, i tend to agree with your opinion
imho, apart from langkawi, perhaps labuan could be another testing ground for piloting the ev initiative
hi,
so many experts in the house!
Does anybody know whether ordinary malaysian citizens can buy hybrids overseas and ship the car into malaysia? I believe the duty impot and eksais is zero.
Will the customs allow it?
if you study oversea, or perhaps maybe you know someone studying oversea, you can bring 1 car back to Malaysia. however there are terms and conditions. maybe the car need to be at least 1 year old.. better check with authorities.
however, i wouldn’t recommend bringing electric cars from US / Japan or China besause we use different voltage/amperage, our plugs are also very different and also LHD / RHD issues. another thing is about warranty, which usually only limited to usage within the ‘original’ countries.
Mofaz, what if I don’t have anybody studying overseas but I have 100k budget to spend to bring in a new Civic Hybrid (not an electric car). Is it possible? Ada jalan?
sorry man, it’s not gonna be easy. otherwise, everybody will import car themselves. i think it’s quite impossible for individual imports of brand-new car. you may approach 2nd hand importers to get that civic hybrid, so expect the cost to include AP price, minimum RM10k but expect to pay more.
usually, the 2nd hand car importers would import cars which are not available from franchise AP holders. for example, if Honda already bring in Civic Hybrid officially, those AP holders wouldn’t bring in Civic Hybrid too because they couldn’t compete the price and surely they can’t offer the same warranty as the franchise holders.
What u mean to say is that eventhough the taxes are zero, they will not let the ordinary guys bring in anything without an AP.
Anyway , thank you for all the info. Appreciate it.
Maybe we can wait for the just launched Toyota Prius PHV (PHV=Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle) to be brought in here. The new Prius combined the EV and HV in one single car. In the EV mode (need only 90 minutes for home-charging), we can go maximum 26.4km. After that, the car will operates like a Hybrid.
BTW, the maximum 26.4 km is based on the survey conducted among the Japanese regarding their average mileage traveled daily to/back from workplace. Quite a smart move from Toyota.
If blackout …Nissan has back-up plan to charge up the car???…One more…
How about TNB increase the tariff for electric bill…….??? i think the more energy u use..the more tariff imposed to us….that is progresive rate….
Electric car just applicable for short distance or urban driving n not for long distance travelling…
Kuala Lumpur always floods…is car water proofff indeed…????
How about the cost for replacement part if floods happening in town areas..????
push up to reverse of pull up to reverse… or is it push forward to reverse… confusing…
Brilliant invention… I’ll buy it if it is affordable for me..
people who are interested should search for an episode of top gear uk of this car. they tested it. conclusion from the top gear, it took 13 hours to fully charge the battery from 0%, battery probably lasted 5 years ( by letting the batt completely kaput ) up to 10 years if u charge it when the batt left with half power. & well, the battery is fucking, fucking expensive.