New Leaf commercial is big improvement.

[adric22]

Looks like they took some of our advice.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFrvxjjrdVo[/youtube]

 

[DeaneG]

Beautiful commercial. Still appealing mainly to soft-focus idealists, with no mention of that all-important HOV lane access (too crass?) which is selling maybe half the Leafs in my neighborhood.

 

[TomT]

Interestingly, it doesn't seem to be of nearly of as much importance down here. It may be because we have less HOV lanes and/or many of the ones we do have tend to be so congested that they rarely move much faster the the regular lanes... Plus, some of the newer HOV lanes down here (10 and 110) do not allow free solo access to EVs...

no mention of that all-important HOV lane access (too crass?) which is selling maybe half the Leafs in my neighborhood.

 

[Nubo]

Beautiful commercial. Still appealing mainly to soft-focus idealists, with no mention of that all-important HOV lane access (too crass?) which is selling maybe half the Leafs in my neighborhood.

Looks like a national or even international ad. Outside of certain metropolitan areas in CA, HOV stickers aren't as much of an issue.

In the areas where it is an issue, people are rapidly becoming aware of the new group of cars that qualify now that the yellow "prius" stickers are retired. That particular pump is already primed.

 

[adric22]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure EVs cannot drive in the HOV lane here in DF/W (unless of course they have more than one person in the car)

 

[Pipcecil]

EV's (or any other alt fuel vehicles) don't get preferencial treatment for HOV lanes in Dallas-Fort Worth. In fact, the regional transportation council, which makes the guidelines for that specifically calls out that "green" vehicles will NOT get a free ride (or discounted) ride in the HOV or Managed lanes.

 

[mirko]

Florida has an HOV decal for Inherently Low Emissions Vehicles (ILEV) or Hybrid vehicles.

http://www.flhsmv.gov/dmv/hov.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[ztanos]

You can solo ride in the HOV lanes here in Atlanta. Just have to have the peach pass and the license plate.

 

[NYLEAF]

You can get a sticker to ride in the HOV lanes of the Long Island Expressway with the Leaf. I haven't bothered because the part of the LIE that is in my commute doesn't have the HOV lanes, and the stickers don't apply in any other HOV lane in the state.

Commercial is great, but I think it needs to be refilmed for an American audience. It's too foreign for the average American, with the RHD cars, use of the word "petrol" instead of gasoline, signage in Japanese, and no easily recognizable American landmarks. Also, drop the end bit about Leaf-to-Home, which is only available in Japan.

 

[DeaneG]

Right, Nissan could add a floating "HOV eligible" box or voice-over in metro areas where HOV access makes a difference. But so far they haven't, while most of their competitors have.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Also, drop the end bit about Leaf-to-Home, which is only available in Japan.

This is almost insulting to anyone who is still suffering through the aftermath of Sandy. Leaf-to-Home would be great for them right now, but it's still years away from the US market.

 

[NYLEAF]

Also, drop the end bit about Leaf-to-Home, which is only available in Japan.

This is almost insulting to anyone who is still suffering through the aftermath of Sandy. Leaf-to-Home would be great for them right now, but it's still years away from the US market.

Exactly, hence why I suggested it be removed. Why advertise a feature that isn't going to be available in this market for years? Also, the fine print at the bottom of the screen that said "Only available in Japan" almost made it look like the car itself was only available in Japan, which would be another reason to drop that whole part of the commercial if they were to refilm it for the American market.

As someone currently dealing with the aftermath of Sandy, I have to say that I don't think Leaf-to-home would be all that useful. Assuming I had a full charge when the storm hit, the car could probably only power my house for a day or two. At that point, I'd be left with a car that can't be driven and still no electricity. Perhaps it would have worked for my house, since we only lost power for 24 hours, but for many of my neighbors that STILL have no power, a full week after the storm hit, it would have been useless.

 

[Smidge204]

This is almost insulting to anyone who is still suffering through the aftermath of Sandy. Leaf-to-Home would be great for them right now, but it's still years away from the US market.

I've been without grid power for all but a few hours last Friday - a full week. I don't yet know what our energy needs really are (TED package is in the mail! :lol: ) but I had to do quite a bit of emergency-related commuting (~50 miles/day) over the past four days. Been using a generator (5kW) to keep essentials going.

So basically I'd need a generator anyway if I owned a LEAF in this situation, because there's no way I'd be comfortable relying on the LEAF's battery to keep the furnace going for a full week and be able to use it for transportation purposes.

V2G/V2H is a really good concept but I'm more skeptical than ever that it's a viable strategy for all but the most trivial of power outages.

In other words, what NYLEAF said.
=Smidge=
/Currently looking into grid-tie PV with battery backup

 

[davewill]

... V2G/V2H is a really good concept but I'm more skeptical than ever that it's a viable strategy for all but the most trivial of power outages. ...

Most power outages ARE trivial, lasting only a few hours, a day at the worst. Besides, assuming you don't try to run the whole house, just the fridge, a lamp or two, and the cell phone chargers, your LEAF should shoulder the load for days. V2G is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish that has nothing to do with power outages.

 

[thankyouOB]

obviously a commercial made for Japan, with right-hand drive cars and equipment not available in US.

 

[EVDrive]

I thought this was a great commercial.

 

[zarwin]

So, check on the Leaf with the phone app, turn on the AC, wave goodbye to the small child, drive away leaving an empty driveway. Who thought it was a good idea to show someone leaving a kid at home alone? lol

 

[Nubo]

You can solo ride in the HOV lanes here in Atlanta. Just have to have the peach pass and the license plate.

Yes, I shouldn't have stated it as an absolute. But the general idea applies -- HOV issues are localized phenomena. And it would be awkward to account for all of the permutations in a national ad: white stickers, peach passes, ILEVs, this road, that road....

Again, people who drive the affected roads are already highly motivated and learn the particulars quickly. An ad is nothing compared to sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic day after day watching the cars with the stickers fly by. If anything if I were Nissan I'd leave the HOV promotions to local dealerships who can tailor the message to local conditions.

 

[Smidge204]

Most power outages ARE trivial, lasting only a few hours, a day at the worst. Besides, assuming you don't try to run the whole house, just the fridge, a lamp or two, and the cell phone chargers, your LEAF should shoulder the load for days. V2G is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish that has nothing to do with power outages.

"A few hours" doesn't even qualify as an outage IMHO. It's not an outage until there's a real risk of pipes freezing or losing whatever is in the fridge. (Protip: Don't open the fridge when the power is out unless you really need to). That's a full day minimum.

A LEAF could power my home for days* but the problem is it can't power my house AND be usable transportation at the same time. The two biggest items in my house are fridge and boiler. Fridge is let's say 33 watt-hours per hour (200 watts runs for 10 minutes out of every hour on average). Boiler may run for fifteen minutes out of every hour which is roughly 174 watt-hours per hour. Make it a nice round 200 Wh/h base loads.

So assuming 4 mi/kWh (250 Wh/mile) - for every hour the LEAF powers my home, I lose 4 or 5 miles of range. And for every 4-5 miles I drive, I lose an hour of home backup power. That's a lose-lose situation.

*Days = 5 days assuming I use all 24,000 watt-hours the battery is supposedly rated for, which of course you can't so something like 3 days is more realistic with only essential loads... even simple lighting is likely to cut that number in half if you're not careful.

Edit: V2H and V2G are very similar from a technical perspective in that both draw from the car to power appliances. With V2G they're just not necessarily your appliances... :lol: But from the car's point of view they are indistinguishable. It's relevant to power outages, though, since if your car's battery had been tapped to put power back into the grid, and the grid goes down before you recover that charge, you've lost that much more energy.
=Smidge=

 

[HighDesertDriver]

Not mentioned yet is the possibility of being able to utilize your grid-tied PV during an outage. Since the Leaf would be supplying 120V/240V power, it could also be supplying the necessary voltage and phase signals for the PV inverter to engage and supply power to the isolated home grid. With the correct signals coming from a source independent of the Leaf and PV, excess PV production could be used to recharge the Leaf. Not saying that this would be particularly easy, but it seems all the major components would be in place for an alternative to a gasoline generator or no power at all.