Saar: It was only showcased at the Tokyo forum on zero-emission society to commemorate the 1 lakh unit sales milestone in Japan.
The Nissan Leaf is by far the best-selling all-electric car in the world. Introduced in 2010, it has gone on to rule the markets where the infrastructure to support electric vehicles is robust enough. Today, Nissan announced that the Leaf hatchback has surpassed the milestone of 1 lakh unit sales since its introduction in 2010. That sales number, by the way, is only for Japan. You can imagine how well the Leaf sells in bigger markets like America and Europe.
To commemorate this achievement in Japan, the carmaker unveiled a drop-top version of the current-gen Leaf. At first glance, it looks a bit weird. And it would because a topless silhouette doesn’t really click well with hatchbacks. Here’s the real kicker though. While unveiling it, Nissan also mentioned that it currently has no plans to put the drop-top Leaf into production. Basically, it just wanted to show off something, which it did, and immediately wanted to leave all shoulders sagging, which it did.
Anyway, a drop-top Leaf won’t really make sense for the brand or for a car that is made to be ‘green’ in character. Why? There are two main reasons. One, aerodynamics. When the roof is taken off, aerodynamics change for the worse and really takes down the mileage figure. With mileage going down one a single charge, the Leaf would require more frequent charging, thus utilising more electricity. And two, weight. With the roof gone, Nissan would have had to re-engineer the lower half of the Leaf to keep the rigidity intact. With the added weight, mileage would have tumbled again, leading to the same problem as mentioned before.
The Nissan Leaf is not on sale in India as of now. But the company did mention that it will be tested extensively on our shores. But it isn’t coming to India just yet. Until the country gets a good-enough infrastructure and a list of clear-enough policies to support the existence of electric vehicles, don’t expect Nissan or any other carmaker to even consider bringing any of their all-electric products here.
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