Leaf Size

garygid said:

Is this the 2010 Prius, or the 2009 model?

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Gary, Nissan's diagram says they used Gen 2 Prius dimensions - so likely 2002-2009 Prius.

Andy

Dav said:

The Leaf should have a standard compact spare. I can't imagine a "real" production vehicle without one. The RAV4-EV moved the spare from the rear door to where the mufflers would have been.

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I'm not sure I'll agree on 'should' here. They're not the first to skip the spare. My '97 Passat has 394,000 miles on it and the only time the spare has ever come out is when I rotate the tires in the driveway with one jack. A plug kit and CO2 cartridges or a can of fix-a-flat is a lot lighter and less expensive.

Everyone's mileage may vary, but I'm not interested in a spare.

Andy

I would say your wrong about no spare tire unless the tire are of run flat type?

I'm ok without a spare tire. In the days before I had a cell phone and AAA and was out in East Nowhere, PA. at 2 AM, I needed one. Anymore, I just call and break out the food & water emergency pack

Forget spare tire. This is what we should demand.

Volkswagen bik.e replaces spare tire with electric mobility device

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/04/28/volkswagen-bik-e-replaces-spare-tire-with-electric-mobility-devi/#continued

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJUx8W4t360&feature=player_embedded

More performance cars come with run-flats (no spare) these days to save weight and space and my smart fortwo has no spare as well ... it's called call AAA (and yes, it did happen with the wife driving, she ran over what looked like a prison shiv ... long piece of metal that appeared to be a road reflecter sharpened by cars going over it). Car was towed home as it was closer, $110 later and two trips to the tire store and it was fixed. Now, how often does this happen; last time was in '97 so every 12 years would be fine with me! As the LEAF currently has limited range, I'd be OK with no spare; the fix-a-flat stuff only works with small punctures and creates quite a mess inside the tire as well --- as an aside, some smart owners have opted for a spare, takes up quite a bit of room but they want it as they travel long distances and don't want to get stranded (the smart uses a very small tire not stocked in most tire shops, tirerack has it though). Hopefully the LEAF uses a popular tire size config (which I believe it will) so repairs/replacement will be much easier.

Tire Size:

Tire type Front and rear
195/50R16

An earlier post indicated that some people with smart cars carry a spare. What size would they carry? The smart has different size front/back tires. So they would need to make some assumptions, wouldn't they?

Randy3 said:

An earlier post indicated that some people with smart cars carry a spare. What size would they carry? The smart has different size front/back tires. So they would need to make some assumptions, wouldn't they?

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I carry around my AAA card. Flat tire = phone call.

I've been driving for 30 years and I think I've gotten all of 2 flats that occurred while I was driving. A couple more were were flats that occurred over time via slow leaks. If I have to wait a hour for a AAA truck with a spare once every 15 years, no problem. It sure beats losing some MPG due to lugging around a spare. Face it, tires have gotten MUCH better over the last 20+ years.

Run flat tires are heavy, less efficient and have lower ride quality and performance. The MINI (real production car) uses them as it has NO spare and most drivers go to traditional tires and a can of run flat. Since the Leaf will have LRR tires it may have a spare, which is just extra weight for a car that only goes less than 100 miles, so why bother. If you have AAA I suggest upgrading to platinum for EV owners as towing will cover the Leaf range at no charge.

Yep...I would get a flat every other year back in the 70's....now? Not in years.

As I've said before....Cell phone + Roadside assistance + limited range = No spare needed.

Now if you go off roading or you are traveling across Canada or parts of the Southwest where the services are few and far between...then yes a spare is needed....but a city commuter should never need a spare.

Gavin

EVDRIVER said:

Run flat tires are heavy, less efficient and have lower ride quality and performance. The MINI (real production car) uses them as it has NO spare and most drivers go to traditional tires and a can of run flat. Since the Leaf will have LRR tires it may have a spare, which is just extra weight for a car that only goes less than 100 miles, so why bother. If you have AAA I suggest upgrading to platinum for EV owners as towing will cover the Leaf range at no charge.

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Just to repeat - Nissan Leaf comes with free 3 year roadside assistence.

evnow said:

Just to repeat - Nissan Leaf comes with free 3 year roadside assistence.

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Not to mention, with the built-in telematics system it's unlikely you'll even need a cellphone to summon it.

Perhaps tires tend to "fail" much more after 3.05 years (probably not)?

Perhaps they want you to become "dependant" upon their service?

Possibly, they want us to have a good experience, with nothing to complain about.

Back on topic: I saw the Leaf at the show in San Jose right after having driven a Versa rental car the preceding week. I thought the Leaf looked a little bigger, particularly the cargo area. I had felt the Versa was just a little smaller than I wanted, but for a rental it didn't matter. I will have to test drive the Leaf and see the split fold-down rear seats in action before committing to it.

evnow said:

It is very close to Prius in size.

http://www.nctcog.org/trans/air/programs/evnt/NissanLeaf_Oct09.pdf



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

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Has anybody looked closely at this image. It indicates the LEAF has more room than the Prius, but the image say's otherwise. If you open the .pdf file and look at the three images, the first one indicates more headroom. If you look at the black line versus the red line you can see the Prius is just a fraction lower than the Leaf and the Prius front seat is a fraction higher, so driver should have more headroom, but in the rear, the Prius roof-line is lower, but because of the batteries in the LEAF the leaf seat is way higher than the Prius. Far less rear headroom in the LEAF. Also, the rear passenger footwell is much higher in the LEAF due to the battery pack and so the knees are much higher which will feel more cramped. They also show, in the second slide, the Prius seat in the furthest rearward position, which is misleading since you can clearly see the steering wheel and pedals are in the same position as the LEAF, so you should not need the seat that far back in the Prius to match the LEAF. They are not correctly comparing the rear legroom and it seems to me the LEAF has less rear passenger legroom, not more. The Leaf also appears to have less rear passenger headroom and not more. The third slide is cargo room. The LEAF clearly has more cargo volume, but what is the red line that goes up to the back seat headrest? Do the seats not fold down to make the back area flat? Is there a cover for the "well" for cargo in the rear? Its nice having the option of extra depth, but a nice flat cargo area is also nice. From the images I've seen of the LEAF, I've always assumed there was a cover over a hidden cargo well in the back, and that the seats would fold down to create a large flat area like the Prius. This image indicates this might not be possible, which is confusing since the photos I've seen don't match.

The raised back seat is a feature. In an SUV that would be called "theater style" seating!

They have said the back seats fold down. The table in the graphic says it all: How big? "(big) Enough(!)"

We won't really know until we can sit in the production model, but I think one thing they are trying to do "out of the gate" is make sure the car is big enough to avoid drawing the criticism that the EV is some kind of toy that doesn't meet consumers expectations.

I think the back of the Leaf's rear seat would fold forward, leaving the "deep" cargo space unchanged, but providing a "high" shelf ... unlike the Prius.

You can see the rear cargo area and how the shelf will look, when the seats are folden in this picture..
it will not make a large flat area like the Prius, but will have a stepped shelf look, looks to be at least 6" or 8" above the "floor" of the cargo area.

http://media2.paultan.org/i/nissan-leaf-5.jpg

even larger picture:

http://vlane.com/img/blogs/mb/news07nissan_leaf_05.jpg

LTLFTcomposite said:

They have said the back seats fold down. The table in the graphic says it all: How big? "(big) Enough(!)"

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I have no problem with them saying that it is big enough. I do have a problem if they say they have more room but actually they have less. No point in trying to fool people, just be honest. The document clearly shows less rear seat space and more front space than a Prius. Why cant they just say that?

mitch672 said:

You can see the rear cargo area and how the shelf will look, when the seats are folden in this picture..
it will not make a large flat area like the Prius, but will have a stepped shelf look, looks to be at least 6" or 8" above the "floor" of the cargo area.

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Thanks for the image. I still have not seen a photo of the car with the seats folded down. I can see from this image that there will not be a "false floor" to make the back all one level.