Nissan Leaf may prove the perfect laptop-inspired car for Californians and members of the California Diaspora in Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn says a light-duty electric delivery van is not far behind. How the US develops its energy production systems to make such cars more than a novelty is another question.

Prime Numbers

• Length: 175.0 in.
• Width: 69.7 in.
• Height: 61.0 in.
• Wheelbase: 106.3 in.
• Driving range: 100 miles
• Max speed: 90 mph, approx.
• Motor type: AC motor
• Max power (kW): 80kW
• Max torque (Nm): 280Nm
• Battery type: Laminated lithium-ion battery
• Total capacity (kWh): 24
• Power output (kW): 90+
• Energy density (Wh/kg): 140
• Power density (kW/kg): 2.5
• Number of modules: 48
• Charging times: Quick charger DC 50kW (0 to 80%): less than 30 min; home-use AC200V charger: less than 8 hrs

FRIDAY MORNING, Dodger Stadium. Sparkling blue sky above the assembled multitudes, without a hint of smog anywhere on the horizon. Carlos Ghosn and the Nissan Renault PR boys are kicking off a 20-city tour of the western US to promote their Leaf zero emissions electric car. When I arrive, film crews are setting up around the platform where Ghosn and a range of Greenies will hold a panel discussion about the Leaf and the infrastructure initiatives necessary to support electric vehicles.

I start my morning with a quick drive of the car around a coned course. Once I’m settled behind the wheel, the Nissan rep riding shotgun tells me how to release the parking brake (a finger pull on a small switch placed near your right elbow) and how to put the Leaf in Drive (pull the simple stalk in the center console to the left and down to engage forward motion). Those two steps complete, it’s time to drive.

Like all electric cars, the Leaf is responsive, stepping off quickly and smoothly, with only the slightest whir from the electric motor, which puts power to the ground through the front wheels. As expected with an electric, there’s no transmission, just the motor. Spin the motor faster, you go faster. Just like a Rheostat on a ceiling fan. There’s a quiet elegance to electric vehicles.

Leaf’s recharging port is up front. With the body panel open to reach the port, it looks a bit like a blowhole. I guess recharging the Leaf will be just as rewarding as swimming with the dolphins. The laminated Lithium-Ion battery pack lives under the cargo area and rear seats, which gives the Leaf good front/rear weight balance. Building around such a simple and compact drive system, engineers and designers can reinvent the overall form and interior packaging of the automobile, a concept GM forwarded with its one-off hydrogen fuel cell demo vehicle a few years ago. Beyond federal regs on lighting and bumper height, the only major constraints placed on designers of future electric vehicles would be the need to package airbags, proper seats and seat belts, and incorporate crash structure. Plus of course all the required amenities like power windows and door locks. With electrics, the freedom to reinvent body packaging is tremendous.

That said, Leaf is fairly conventional in appearance. Nissan claims Leaf is based on a unique platform, its development paired with a compatible but smaller Renault electric vehicle. Nissan Renault can shuffle the bits and pieces around to make a wider range of electric vehicles. To the casual observer, Leaf is a stretched Versa with a dolphin nose and a scalloped Renault rear end. Taking a page from the success of the Toyota Prius that drummed the original and very goofy Honda Insight (the George Jetson Speedster), Leaf is a proper four-door with a rear seat that puts a Lincoln Town Car to shame. Leaf is designed for daily life, not to make a political statement. Thank you for that, Mr. Ghosn. I suppose that means owners won’t need a complete Hemp wardrobe.

At market introduction, all Leafs will be painted a frosty Aqua Blue, a color that extends to the gauge illumination. It’s as much a blue sky color as that of clear water, and the color should help build recognition among consumers (“Oh, there goes that little blue electric car. I wonder what they’re like?”).

Each laminated layer of the battery pack is about the size of a laptop. They are not water-jacketed. Nissan can create ever-larger battery modules by stacking these bricks one on top of another while leaving room for cooling air to circulate between them. Editor Sawyer tells me Nissan and its battery partner can produce about 65,000 of these battery packs a year, and Ghosn intends to manufacture 100,000 Leafs by 2011.

Nissan Leaf will be available for private and fleet customers. People who want to participate in the reservation program can visit www.nissanusa.com/Leaf-electric-car. According to Ghosn, 25,000 people have already expressed interest in buying a Leaf.

Driving through the coned course in the gray sea of Dodger Stadium’s parking lot, Leaf greatly impresses because it is so…ordinary. Hey, it’s a car, and it works like a car. No golf cart overtones, no foolish LED displays that sap power and kill range. Leaf is not a stupid golf cart like the old DaimlerChrysler Gems I still see bumbling around my beach town.

During my brief drive I asked the Nissan rep if he had proof the batteries remained stable. He pulled out a meter that read out the temperature of the batteries for anyone who wanted to ask. The batteries remained at “room temperature.”

Because severe cold can rapidly drain battery energy, I doubt these cars will meet with sales success in North Dakota. Most of the US population now lives in warmer southern and western states, where the only issues are range, reliability, recharging, and the extreme heat that can kill batteries in places like Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Could I live with one? Well, I can walk to almost anything I want in the neighborhood, I rarely travel more than 50 miles round trip for client meetings, and the Leaf is small enough to cope with crowded, narrow streets. For longer trips, I’d always choose my gasoline car, so yes, I could get along tolerably well with a Nissan Leaf. I would prefer a Leaf that is a “box” car, more upright and space-efficient, like a Kia Soul or the original Scion xB, both of which are ideal for scooting around my neighborhood: tall, stumpy, roomy, with short overhangs, and a high H-point for the seats so you step sideways into the car more than you drop down into it.

During the press conference, Ghosn argued that $100,000 electric cars are an indulgence for a few rich Silicon Valley Trekkies, even if Mercedes is buying into Tesla to cost-effectively exploit the brand work Tesla has already done (Tesla’s a cool name, Nikola). Unless electric cars are priced within a few percentage points of comparable gasoline cars, and are every bit as usable and reliable, they are a pointless exercise meant to placate the California Air Resources Board and the Sierra Club. Leaf is priced to serve as a real car for real people.

Electric cars step off the known infrastructure for transportation in the US—pipelines, tanker trucks, gas stations. Nissan is forging alliances with electric utilities and various levels of government. A functional electric car is one thing. Reworking the systems engineering in the US for energy delivery is another. Home charging stations can only accomplish so much. We suspect that shopping malls will partner with energy companies (local utilities) to build charging stations in their parking lots because then they’ll have electric car owners captive and they might spend some money. Perhaps Exxon or BP will install electric recharging stations near their gas stations.

Nissan’s Leaf zero emissions electric car should find a warm welcome in places like coastal California and Bellevue, Washington. It’s a functional alternative to a gasoline car. However, like the GM EV1 before it, Leaf is an answer to a question posed by CARB, not the answer to a demand driven by the marketplace.