What electric Car? - Electric cars coming soon

Nissan Leaf
Billed by the company as ‘the world’s first affordable zero-emission car’, the Leaf is a five-seat car with a range of more than 100 miles – enough, according to Nissan, to satisfy the daily needs of 70% of the world’s motorists.

The car has been specifically designed around lithium-ion batteries, which will give it a maximum speed of 90mph. Nissan says that a full charge from a domestic socket will take eight hours, but 30 minutes on a fast charger will give it 80% of maximum charge.

Also crucial to the car is its on-board IT system that will provide support, information, and entertainment for drivers. Its dashboard display will also show nearby charging stations.

To coincide with the car’ launch, Nissan has agreed to supply Leafs to the North East (near its Washington factory) in early 2011, and to give priority to orders from the region.

Development agency One North East has also agreed to install at least 619 charging points by the start of 2011, with electricity provided free of charge until the end of March 2012.

Chevrolet Volt
Strictly speaking, the Volt isn’t an electric car, but a plug-in hybrid. That said, it is always driven by the electric motor and can be charged from the mains, but it also has a small petrol engine which can kick in when required to power a generator that either provides the power for the electric motor or charges the batteries.

With a full charge, the car will run for up to 40 miles on electric power alone, but unlike a conventional electric car, it can continue running even when the batteries are completely flat.

Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid
This version might share the name of the conventional Prius hybrid, but it has some crucial differences.

Firstly, it uses lithium-ion batteries, which are more powerful than the regular Prius’s and they give this version of the car a longer range when running purely on electric power.

In other words, over short distances, this is a genuine electric car, which helps it to emit just 59g/km on the official combined cycle – significantly lower than the regular Prius.

Also, unlike the conventional hybrid (in which the batteries are recharged by onboard systems), in this version of the car, they can also be recharged by plugging the car into the mains, again giving it a greater range as an electric car. Then, once the batteries are flat, the car will run as a conventional hybrid.

A total of 600 examples will be introduced around the world in 2010, with 20 coming to the UK. Leased out (rather than bought), these will effectively be mobile test-beds, and Toyota will examine the feedback from users before beginning sales to the public in a couple of years.