What happens when 57 leading automotive journalists from 23 different countries evaluate 41 vehicles to determine one of the world's highest industry honors? In the case of the all-electric 2011 Nissan Leaf, it adds up to a once-in-a-lifetime outcome: The Leaf has now been named the 2011 European Car of the Year, becoming the first electric vehicle to win the prestigious award.
Said Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan, “This award recognizes the pioneering zero-emission Nissan Leaf as competitive to conventional cars in terms of safety, performance, spaciousness and handling. It also reflects Nissan’s standing as an innovative and exciting brand with a clear vision of the future of transportation, which we call sustainable mobility. The Nissan Leaf represents a significant first step toward a zero-emission future.”
The Leaf brings more than just Car of the Year credibility to the market though—it also showcases incredible EPA fuel-efficiency ratings.
As is befitting a new kind of vehicle, the Leaf wears a new kind of EPA window sticker, developed specifically to help customers compare the new Nissan's fuel-economy performance to that of its non-electric rivals. The bottom line for the Leaf: An mpg equivalent of 106 mpg city/92 mpg highway/99 mpg combined. That's makes it approximately twice as efficient as the Toyota Prius, and remember, the EPA figures for the LEAF are mpg equivalents—the fact of the matter is that the car uses no gasoline at all. Ever.
Plus, the Leaf also produces much less in the way of tailpipe emissions. For example, while the Toyota still emits some 3.8 tons of CO2 per year, the number here for the Leaf is a nice round zero. As in "none." In fact, the Leaf doesn't even have a tailpipe!
But what it should have are plenty of customers, some of whom will be able to start taking delivery of the Leaf as early as this month, at least if they live in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona or Tennessee. Nissan's innovative new EV then goes on sale in Texas and Hawaii in January of 2011, and is slated to roll out to the rest of the country during the rest of the year.
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