This ad is making the rounds:
Now first up I’ll say I dig Nissan’s cars, also the electric Leaf is a neat vehicle, if not an extremely limited one. Still this ad is just shameful in it’s dishonesty. The claim that somehow internal combustion engines are some crude bygone technology, while 100% electric cars are the future is laughable.
Electric cars are NOTHING new! The first automobiles were steam power…which was really neat technology, once you get past the long time period you needed to fire the boiler until you had a proper head of steam to get the thing rolling. Internal combustion cars came next, but those first petrol car were running right along side electric cars in the mid 19th Century.
In the end we got to where we are, with gas-powered cars as the mainstay because they were faster, lighter, more efficient, cheaper to make, and easier to refuel than the electric ones. The same goes for the current electric cars. Hell even modern hybrids still need a gas tank and tailpipe to run!
Really sad that such a great auto-maker needs to invent revisionist history to sell what are otherwise fine cars.
I know I’ve said this here before, but it bugs me how running incandescent lightbulbs and air conditioning is seen as Earth molestation, but plugging in a car isn’t. That said, electrics end up a bit more efficient than ICEs mostly from economies of scale. But it’s not a game changer. A good part of of where a Leaf gets it’s efficiency is using the age-old formula of being small and slow (well, it’s more important to be light, but it’s not exactly that). It’s about twice as efficient as a Tesla because it’s big and fast.
What’s really sad is this is the same company that makes the Nissan Versa which is the REAL car for people looking to be thrifty and eco conscious! It’s small (but not cramped), not fast, but unlike cars filled with batteries it’s VERY light. You can drive it cross country only stopping momentarily for gas, rather than being forced to bed down while the batteries charge, and the CVT in the car keeps the engine at optimal RPM for the type of driving you are doing. So light on the gas the engine never gets above idle, no matter the speed, rather than rowing through the power band as the car switches gears.