Going all electric is easier said than done. While electric driving reduces our country’s dependence on foreign oil, is less harmful toward the environment, and saves drivers a pretty penny in terms of fuel costs and government incentives, its one major downfall has always been short driving range. The Nissan LEAF is one of the world’s most popular all-electrics, but it too suffers from the driving range dilemma (with an EPA-estimated 75 miles on a full charge). But taking a cue from Tesla Motors, Nissan may be investigating multiple battery sizes for the LEAF to combat this issue.
In an interview with PluginCars.com, Pierre Loing, VP of product and advanced planning and strategy at Nissan, stated, “The packaging easiness [of the battery] makes it easier to put more batteries in the car, and you will see this.”
Unfortunately, Loing is a clever little tease and wouldn’t give out any more details. He did, however, give us a hint. Tesla offers multiple battery sizes at different prices, so “Maybe you will see this from Nissan,” followed by a dramatic wink (Okay, so no wink, but you can almost imagine him punctuating it with a wink, right?).
Already, Nissan offers a LEAF with a 48 kWh battery in Spain, which is twice the size of the one powering the production model. This elevates the 75 MPGe estimate to 150—not a bad start, eh? It makes sense, then, that Nissan may be considering multiple battery sizes for the LEAF elsewhere, like here in the United States.
Would a larger battery tempt you into driving electric?
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