Best-selling electric car ever (so far)
While Tesla has just reached a production rate of 20,000 electric cars a year at its Californian plant, Nissan - despite some troubles - has reached an important milestone of its own: 50,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars have now been sold globally, making it the best-selling electric car of all time (so far).
These ±50,000 LEAF owners have together driven about 160 million electric miles so far (260 million kilometers), and one LEAF owner in Japan seems to be spending his life on the road and has already put 108,000 miles (175,000 kilometers) on his plug-in. Another LEAF driver in Spain has put 26,700 miles (43,000 kilometers) on his EV in a single year, showing that you can indeed go the distance in an electric vehicle.
One of the great things about electric vehicles is that they not only get better quickly as new generations of batteries and power electronics come out, but even existing EVs get more useful over time as more fast charging stations are built everywhere:
In the last 12 months Europe registered significant growth of the CHAdeMO quick charging infrastructure. The number of these chargers which allow batteries to be recharged from empty to 80% battery capacity in around 30 minutes has rocketed from 158 to 601 in the last 12 months. The plans already in place are to more than double by the end of this year the number of installed quick charging installations. These units are being installed at strategic locations such as shopping center car parks or highway service stations, allowing the 50,000 Nissan LEAF owners to push the electric vehicle revolution even further.
And this is just the beginning. The recent price cut should help increase sales, as will further incremental improvements.
(Source: TreeHugger)
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