By Cameron Lucadou-Wells
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HITTING the start button on an electric car is a disconcerting experience: there are no detectable vibrations or noise as such, so it’s hard to believe the car is actually ticking over.
Last week, the Weekly did a number of double-takes as it drove a Nissan Leaf – an all-electric car voted the 2011 World Car of the Year – around the car maker’s Dandenong offices.
Each time the car was stopped at an intersection it idled without even a purr. Such is the cocoon of silence, the car emits mechanical noises and chimes so pedestrians can hear it.
The 10,000-kilometre service costs $88, charging up the battery ‘fuel tank’ costs $3.
The Leaf’s green credentials are impressive: a solar panel on the spoiler to trickle-charge the car’s 12-volt battery, bumpers recycled out of crash-car bumpers and seat fabric made of recycled PET bottles.
Nissan claims a range of up to 170 kilometres for the car in economy mode. If energy gets low, the car’s sat nav searches for the nearest recharging station and it locks into power-saving mode switching off the air-con and radio.
The roomy five-seater is no motorised golf cart. It’s got guts, zipping off from the lights – when not in economy mode.
It’s just the sound of silence that you’ve got to get used to.
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