Nissan Leaf receives content upgrades for 2012, again for 20

[ruimegas]

Nissan Leaf receives content upgrades for 2012, again for 2013

[IMG]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nhmd ... 105834.jpg[/IMG]

"The best selling four-door electric car in the U.S. is about to get a little better thanks to planned content changes for only the second model year of the vehicle, which will be 2012.

The 2012 models, expected to begin arriving at dealers across the country in late November, will now feature the cold-weather package as standard equipment, according to confirmation by the Leaf marketing and sales strategy director Brendan Jones’ interview with Green Car Reports’ John Voelcker.

The cold-weather package consists of such niceties as heated front seats, steering wheel, external rear-view mirrors and a heater for the battery pack to improve performance. The package also would have added a rear heating and air conditioning duct, but like all the previously mentioned features, this is now standard for the 2012 model year Leaf.

Obviously not content to rest on its laurels, Nissan is also planning an arguably more important and significant upgrade for 2013 as the Leaf will be upgrading its 3.3 kilowatt charger to a 6.6 kW unit. This change will enable the Leaf, in theory, to charge faster than the current model – a trait that gives the nearly available Ford Focus Electric a significant leg-up as it can charge its batteries in half the time of the current-gen Leaf.

The changes to the Leaf for 2013 will likely coincide with the beginning of U.S. production of the model as Nissan transfers production from Japan to its production facility in Smyrna, Tennessee. Other content and feature changes are still possible, but for now the all-important charger time is all that has been confirmed.

The only detail missing for the 2012 model at this point is pricing, something expected to be announced in the near future."

Em: http://www.leftlanenews.com/nissan-leaf ... 2013.html#