Nissan Leaf

Nissan Leaf

Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf is a five door electric hatchback which was introduced in 2010. 

Leaf stands for ‘Leading Environmentally Friendly, Affordable Family car’. 

The Leaf won the European and World Car of the Year Award in 2011 for its design, practicality and for its eco-friendliness. 

It has become an electric car icon much like the Toyota Prius, which an icon for the hybrids. 

2013 Leaf

The 2013 Leaf is even better than its predecessors.

The Leaf uses an 80 kW synchronous electric motor which develops 280 nm of torque. 

The motor is powered by a 24 killowatt-hours lithium ion battery. 

The Leaf has a top speed of 93 mph (150 kph) and can go from 0-60 mph in about 9.9 seconds. 

It has a low drag co-efficient of 0.28 cd which helps it to improve its fuel economy. 

On a full charge, the Leaf has a range of 75 miles (121 km). 

The low operating costs and the fact that it doesn’t harm the environment makes it one of the best electric cars in the market.

Charging of Battery

On the downside, the Leaf’s battery takes 20 hours to charge with a 110 volt charging chord. 

Most Leaf’s also come with a special feature called ‘quick charge’ which charges 80% of the battery in 30 minutes. 

The Leaf provides one of the most satisfying, stress-free ownership experiences in modern motoring

Toyota Camry

Toyota Camry to go hybrid

With the cause of green energy and environmentally viable vehicles getting stronger by the day, Toyota has become the largest car maker to join the number of car manufacturers that are introducing hybrid versions of diesel or petrol powered cars.

 The new Toyota Camry will feature a water-cooled system that reduces the temperature of the exhaust gas and reroutes it to the intake, thereby reducing emissions. The hybrid powertrain on this car consists of a 2.5 liter gasoline engine and a 650 volt electric motor, together producing about 200 hp and achieves 43 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway. The car will also come with an EV drive mode, where it can be driven on the electric motor alone for 2.5 km, but the speed in this mode must be limited to below 40 kph. The Camry also comes with features such as Stop-Start system and Regenerative braking system. I will discuss about these new technologies in my future blogs.

Although hybrid cars have not done very well in India, the carmaker is planning to assemble the Camry hybrid locally alongside the 2.5 liter petrol model and is planning to sell around 20-25 Camry hybrids a month.

Revolution towards helping the planet - sustainable environment

Porsche's hybrid car

Hybrid electric cars are normally divided into the subtypes of either series or parallel, which refers to the way in which the engine supplies power to the propulsion system.

In the series hybrid, a heat engine powers a generator, which either charges the battery or supplies power directly to the propulsion circuit and thereby reduces demand on the battery. In a parallel hybrid, the heat engine delivers mechanical power directly to the drive train and the generator is eliminated. 

The series hybrid is used mostly in the design of today's hybrids, because of the lighter, smaller, and more powerful gensets which have been developed.

Energy and power requirements are based on a multiple of driving schedules that include power/duration plots of acceleration, cruise, and total trip energy demands for each driving schedule.

The hybrid electric car will be able to use fossil fuels better and make them last longer. 

With a hybrid electric vehicle the vehicle gets better gas mileage than a typical gasoline fed engine. 

In doing this a hybrid vehicle will make the earth's resources last longer and will not use them up as fast as is presently occurring . 

The reductions that the hybrid electric vehicle will make in the emissions problem will be one that is looked upon as a revolution towards helping the planet. 

As a human it is our right to live in a sustainable environment. 

With the production of this car the air environment in the long term will benefit.