New Nissan LEAF EV confirmed for Australia delivery

As customers in the UK begin taking delivery of Nissan’s next generation all-electric LEAF, news has emerged that the latest version of the world’s highest selling EV is due to arrive on Australian soil sometime after July this year, and before the end of June 2019.

In a statement published on the Nissan website on Tuesday, the Japan-based auto giant said the new LEAF would go on sale in seven markets in Asia and Oceania during the coming fiscal year, including Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The company is also exploring introducing the zero-emission car in other markets in the region, including Indonesia and the Philippines, it said.

As noted above, Nissan has led the global electric vehicle market on sales since the first model went on sale in 2010, with more than 300,000 cares sold over the past seven years.

But with competition increasing from both established auto makers and EV-only upstarts like Tesla, the company unveiled a “completely reinvented” version of its best seller in September last year. So far, orders for the new model have totalled more than 40,000, it said last week.

As we reported at the time, the new improved LEAF includes a 400km range – more than double the 172km range of the previous model – boosted acceleration and a range of new drive technologies, for a price starting at $US28,992. (RE asked Nissan for an $A price on the new LEAF, but was told this was “a long way off,” and wouldn’t be announced until launch.)

Among the new car’s features are ProPILOT Park, which is an automated parking function, guided by four high-res cameras and 12 “ultrasonic” sensors.

News of its arrival in Australia in the 2018-29 fiscal year will be welcomed by consumers and industry, as a much needed boost to the local market, which has lagged embarrassingly behind the rest of the developed world on EV uptake.

And while the exact date of the car’s arrival on the market remains vague (we asked Nissan if they can narrow it down a bit – they can’t), delivery before 2019 could give the LEAF the jump on the much awaited Tesla 3 – Elon Musk’s first attempt at a mass market electric vehicle that is not expected to arrive in Australian before 2019.

The Tesla Model 3, which began shipping to US customers in late July, has a price tag of between $US35,000-$US44,000, and a range of 354km or near 500km, respectively.

The standard Model 3, with 354km range, has acceleration of 0-100km/h in 5.6 seconds while the model with a 498km range can get from 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds.

But a bit of competition shouldn’t be a problem for Nissan or Tesla in Australia, considering the virtually untapped market and forecasts of huge underlying demand.

According to Nissan commissioned research released by Frost & Sullivan, also released on Tuesday, one in three consumers in south-east Asia are open to considering an electric vehicle as their next car buy.

The study found that across the region, two out of three consumers identified safety standards as the most important factor if purchasing an electric vehicle, while charging convenience was identified as the second-most important.

Interestingly, cost was not identified by respondents as a deterrent – rather, the survey found that customers were willing to pay more to own an EV, compared with a comparable conventional car.

However, the study did suggest that lower costs would prompt more people to consider electric cars. Three in four respondents said they were ready to switch to electric vehicles if taxes were waived.

Other incentives that would sway consumers include the installation of charging stations in apartment buildings (70 per cent), priority lanes for electric vehicles (56 per cent) and free parking (53 per cent).

Australia, of course, has none of these incentives, although all of them – and more – are being pushed for by EV advocates and in various industry reports.

Comments

58 responses to “New Nissan LEAF EV confirmed for Australia delivery”

  1. ben Avatar
    ben

    Quanta costa?

    1. Ian Avatar
      Ian

      multo magis quam Americae

  2. Charles Avatar
    Charles

    A couple of notes:
    – Can the media please stop quoting the 400km range as provided by Nissan? It’s based on the Japanese testing cycle and is not accurate. It’s closer to 250-280 km from what I’ve read.
    – there is a 65kWh version of the Leaf planned for overseas in 2019. Are we going to get both the 40 and 65kWh options at the same time, or do we have to wait another 18 months for it to get here?

    1. Roger Brown Avatar
      Roger Brown

      172 km range on the OLD MODEL , the new model has larger battery pack .

      1. Charles Avatar
        Charles

        My post above refers to the new model. As far as the old one goes – 172 km is similarly inaccurate. I doubt an old Leaf has ever done that much on a single charge. It’s closer to 110-130 km.

        (Unless the 172 km refers to the 30 kWh model, which was a “stop-gap” never made available in Australia)

      2. Craig Cowled Avatar
        Craig Cowled

        The most I’ve ever driven in my Leaf is 115km on the highway with the whole family and running the A/C. We got home with 7km to spare. I seem to average about 15kWh per 100km, so I expect that useable range on the new 40kWh Leaf (i.e., 80% of capacity) is about 200 – 230km. To be honest, I’d love to have that extra range.

  3. UTM Avatar
    UTM

    I wonder how much demand is actually out there for EVs. All I know is that in an ideal world the next car I won’t be buying has a full ICE drive train (and I will be able to afford it).

    Having owned an electric maxi scooter for a number of years and substituted a lot of the car trips with trips on that, I would prefer the simplicity of a full electric drivetrain.

    Charging will be important, but when I imagine my use case, I expect almost all charging will continue to be done at home. With a time of use tariff, it makes fuel very inexpensive.

    Better still is that I will be able to do what I do now. Charge with the surplus electricity from my solar panels (at the moment, what I don’t use is sold to the local retailer for very little).

    Very much looking forward to more choice. It is clear that our lack of incentives have seen the car makers chase other markets where there is stronger demand.

    My view is that the Federal Government has and maintains the wrong priorities. Noting that there is more work that could be done at the State level to encourage take-up, it is not all the fault of the current Federal Government.

    However, it is passing strange that we are suddenly seeing a “how do we pay for roads because of electric cars” debate, when their presence is virtually nil. Straight from the Merchants of Doubt playbook?

    Low or no pollution, local (not imported) fuel source (benefitting trading conditions, security of supply etc.), chance for a whole car or constituent parts industry reboot, lithium mining opportunities, local recycling opportunities. What is not to like?

    1. Andy Saunders Avatar
      Andy Saunders

      To use your solar-panel surplus to charge your EV, you’ll either have to have your car at home in the middle of the day (which is perhaps a little unusual for many), or have a home storage battery and suffer an extra 20% or thereabouts two-way energy loss.

      1. UTM Avatar
        UTM

        Good point Andy!

        That is why I chose a time of use tariff as well. If I need to charge at night, I do so at less than half the cost of standard grid-sourced electricity. With that, my surplus electricity sold during the day (which avoids me paying peak tariffs at double the cost of standard grid-sourced electricity) is part of the value proposition – which you only get with an electric / plug-in car.

        1. Andy Saunders Avatar
          Andy Saunders

          Unfortunately, with the appearance of larger ducks, the peak will shift into the evening, and tariffs are likely to follow as well – which makes the normal scenario of driving home and plugging in less attractive.

          You’re fine for now, but be careful of future tariff changes…

          1. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            I understand some EVs have timers. Pretty sure a requirement for timers would be satisfied PDQ.

          2. Andy Saunders Avatar
            Andy Saunders

            I predict timers will be looked down on in some years time as being quite crude and sub-optimal.

            Actually what is needed is an intelligent controller which takes as inputs weather (insolation) forecasts), your on-line calendar (are you planning on needing to drive out later this evening, or a long road trip tomorrow?), the minute-by-minute trading price (some retailers will be offering wholesale-plus for consumption, wholesale-minus for generation type tariffs) and some AI crunching it all to get the lowest net cost. Oh, and control of many of your appliances for demand management as well.

            Now *that* beats a timer!

          3. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            Agreed, but for now TOU seems to be doing the trick and if the off peak rate moves to midnight then a timer will follow.

          4. Andy Saunders Avatar
            Andy Saunders

            Beyond that, maybe a tariff for complete control of the home energy system. Similar to the VPP proposals but going further with a revenue flow from high wholesale prices back to the owner.

          5. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            Sounds a bit like the reposit model but yes in an ideal World handing over control would be optimal. With a get out clause if the household feels they are being taken for a ride.

          6. Greg Hudson Avatar
            Greg Hudson

            With a $2k(ish) price for a Reposit, and the ever diminishing $14k/mWh peaks (due to batteries) how would such a device ever pay for itself? I can’t find any figures anywhere… Help please anyone ?

          7. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            I’ll be very late to the on grid storage party so can’t help I’m afraid.
            Maybe there is a Resposit customer on here somewhere?

          8. Greg Hudson Avatar
            Greg Hudson

            AGL already off this. An offer of $1 per day for ‘all you can eat’ EV charging (on its own dedicated circuit).
            Don’t ask what the rates is for home use, but it’s probably sky high – they fail to mention this in their adverts.

          9. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            Yes, David did an article the other day about tariffs.
            No way I would voluntarily go on a TOU plan the way they are currently structured.

          10. UTM Avatar
            UTM

            Andy, off-peak tariffs apply late in the night until early in the morning corresponding with periods when there is low demand and surplus power and, therefore, power is cheap (the price can actually be negative in the market).

            Sure, if demand goes up then prices will go up, but there is a lot of slack right now. Eventually (soon, now?) EVs could charge intermittently to follow surplus supply at any time of the day or night and, perhaps, contribute to grid stability, security and supply.

          11. Andy Saunders Avatar
            Andy Saunders

            See my comment below.

            You’re right, but such retail tariffs don’t exist yet (possibly for good reason – imagine grannies being hit with $14000/MWh costs)

          12. Chris Drongers Avatar
            Chris Drongers

            Such tariffs do exist, for larger users. With the rollout of wireless smart meters the extension of short interval time of use charging becomes much easier.
            Grannies can still be offered a fixed tariff if desired.

          13. UTM Avatar
            UTM

            So, until they do, we have, available to everybody now, heavily discounted off-peak prices available to soak up cheap surplus energy at exactly the time when the car will least likely be driven.

          14. Hettie Avatar
            Hettie

            Noooooooo!

          15. Greg Hudson Avatar
            Greg Hudson

            Maybe, but imagine those grannies with solar feeding in @ $14k/mWh (we wish)…

        2. Chris Drongers Avatar
          Chris Drongers

          A major reorganisation of the electricity cost/ charging paradigm can’t be far off.
          A shift to capacity charging based on billing cycle maximum power draw combined with time based feed in tariffs would make domestic batteries and >6kW rooftop panel arrays more attractive.
          Even the extra shading by the larger panel arrays would reduce air-conditioning demand a measurable amount which would be a good MSc project to quantify.

          1. paul Avatar
            paul

            friend of mine and I have full roof coverage panels and we believe extra cooling to be substantial . May save in summer but would be opposite in winter .

          2. Chris Drongers Avatar
            Chris Drongers

            Love it. Love the calculation of heating/cooling effect as well as is complicated and very size, orientation dependent. Measurements of temperature changes around a medium-sized car park in the USA showed that PV panel arrays increased temperatures as a combination of decreased albedo (panels are designed to absorb light, most of which is converted to heat most of which is emitted to heat air around the panels and some to warm the ground under the panels), loss of vegetation under the panels and night-time shielding of the ground under the panels from seeing the zero degree Celsius sky. Things like increasing soil reflectivity, angling panels vertically at night to let the ground cool, leaving some grass under the panels can all affect the net warming of the site.
            On a roof, the absorptivity/emissivity of the roof itself (grey tiles vs Surfmist Colorbond), slope, insulation of roof and ceiling can all affect outcomes as well.
            Would be a great topic for an engineering student to prove her worth.

      2. Patrick Comerford Avatar
        Patrick Comerford

        True if you are looking at only one type of customer. There are more and more “workers” who either work from home are part time or casual or just straight out shift workers. Not to mention retirees, stay at home mums who plug the car in after the school run who are at home for all or part of the day and by all accounts this trend is only going to increase. So thinking only in a way based on yesterday’s society means your missing the point.

        1. Andy Saunders Avatar
          Andy Saunders

          Oh, I think I understand the situation – see some of my comments below!

      3. Alastair Leith Avatar
        Alastair Leith

        Or have Power Ledger come to fruition on the SWIS and the NEM. Send your solar energy wherever you like, some retailers will already let you do that if you have multiple accounts/locations (which is prohibitive for 99% of people).

      4. MaxG Avatar
        MaxG

        What surprises me in the latter argument: what is there to loose if it didn’t cost in the first place? Sounds all to greedy to me.

      5. Tom Avatar
        Tom

        If you could charge up 400km on the weekend it would last many people the whole week most weeks.

    2. Charles Avatar
      Charles

      “when I imagine my use case, I expect almost all charging will continue to be done at home” Yep – that is exactly it. It’s not something that non-EV owners tend to consider, they imagine that they will have to drive to a fast charger every week and wait around for an hour. Real world experience from EV owners shows that home charging accounts covers 90-95% of their usage. A full “tank” every morning!

  4. Roger Brown Avatar
    Roger Brown

    I just hope they bring the Nissan EV- NV200 van as well !Same platform , same size battery

  5. Kevin Brown Avatar
    Kevin Brown

    Australia needs to totally change road user regulations to give EV’s and road users a fair go. All fees like rego, stamp duties, taxes, fuel excise and TPL insurance charges should be scrapped and replaced with a single road user charge based on how much a vehicle uses the road network. The road user charge could be tailored to vehicle weight so B double trucks who do most damage to our roads pay their fair share and road users traveling at peak times pay for highway expansions.

    1. Rod Avatar
      Rod

      Agreed re heavy vehicles but a road use charge now would actually be a disincentive to EV uptake.
      However, until EV numbers climb I would be more than happy to see standing charges rolled into the fuel excise. This is a disincentive for driving ICE vehicles for now.

      1. Chris Drongers Avatar
        Chris Drongers

        Western democracies have a disappointing attach to sticks (road charging, fuel excise) to reduce vehicle miles rather than carrots (positive stories, safety assurance, low cost) to shift to public transport or car-sharing with or without self driving

        1. Rod Avatar
          Rod

          I like sticks. A great example was Iraq 1.0. Fuel went through the roof and driving KMs plummeted.
          Another example was the price on carbon.

          1. mick Avatar
            mick

            offset by burning oil wells depleted uranium contamination exhaust emissions of several thousand tanks aircraft etc

          2. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            I didn’t say the war was a good thing. But the fact that rapid fuel cost increases can have an effect of driving rates was a good example.
            Even with all the bowser fires, World wide I think emissions still would have dropped

          3. mick Avatar
            mick

            i was only having a laugh mate

          4. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            Sometimes the mood of text is hard to read.

          5. mick Avatar
            mick

            il have to figure how to put those smiley faces in

          6. Ian Avatar
            Ian

            😉 :/ 🙁 ???? Apple has word suggestions including emoticons. Type smile and it displays ???? as a suggestion. You can be as insulting or snide as you want, just add a ???? and all’s good.

          7. mick Avatar
            mick

            thanks miite

      2. Kevin Brown Avatar
        Kevin Brown

        EV users have a responsibility to pay a fair share for using our roads. If other financial imposts such as rego, TPL insurance, licence renewal fees, vehicle transfer stamp duties, etc were scrapped then I expect most EV owners would come out ahead.
        The road user charge could also integrate a CO2 emmission charge that would be zero rated for EV’s and progressively rated for hybrids and ICE vehicles. This would encourage EV take up.

        1. Rod Avatar
          Rod

          That sounds too much like a carbon tax to me. I can hear the screams now.

          1. David Borojevic Avatar
            David Borojevic

            But did you see that Tony’s Direct Action Plan has resulted in a number of industries paying a carbon tax of around $14 per tonne. They were given such generous limits that they thought it wouldn’t happen but some still managed to exceed these limits. Why aren’t they screaming?

          2. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            I must admit, I haven’t seen that story.

          3. David Borojevic Avatar
            David Borojevic
          4. Rod Avatar
            Rod

            Thanks for that.
            Yes the answer is gradually reducing the caps but that won’t happen under this mob.

    2. paul Avatar
      paul

      yeah lets remove all subsidies, your world would not get off the ground.

      And why a weight charge Don’t you consume anything

    3. Tom Avatar
      Tom

      Every litre of imported diesel or petrol that is replaced by locally generated electricity is an extra dollar in Australia’s economy that is not pissed away overseas.

      I think we import about 30 billion litres of fuel oil per year. That’s a lot of potential “Growth and Jobs”.

  6. paul Avatar
    paul

    leaf 2 wont sell just like last one $50000 in Australia

    tesla 3 $50000 wont sell , build quality of 1992 kia also people now wise to tesla s scam , costing $40,000 to fix $2000 damage in an other car takes 8 years to offset carbon in production.

    1. Charles Avatar
      Charles

      Awful trolling attempt, please leave.

  7. Jason Panosh Avatar
    Jason Panosh

    At AUD$50k the Leaf struggled. At AUD$40k they run out of stock but probably could have sold more. I really doubt the US$30k will result in much less than AUD$45k so I think it will struggle again.
    As the owner of a Leaf in Australia, the biggest impediment to using it fully is the lack of any CHAdeMO infrastructure. Sure, it is great around town, but we have 100km distances between towns so what do you do when you get there? Hopeless!

  8. Accent Avatar
    Accent

    This would be more tempting if Nissan develop a fast-charging network to rival Tesla’s superchargers. Will cross country trips even be possible without long stops for charging?

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