Once again, with this electric Nuvu concept, Nissan has shown that their designers take a back seat to nobody. Strange? No doubt. Radical? For sure. Will people hate it? Some--but not me as I LOVE it!
Even more radical than the looks is Nissan's approach to marketing their electric cars, which will begin in 2010. What they're proposing is that you buy the car, but lease the battery pack.
Obviously the question is why? So far there's no clear answer here from Nissan, but I would assume it would be cheaper to do so.
firstwagon says:
08:25 AM, 11/17/08
I fail to see how leasing the battery pack can save you money.
You can save money by leasing a car because you only pay for the depreication of the car during the time you have it. After that you return it and the dealer can resell and make the rest of the cars value.
What value does a used battery pack have? Seems to me it would be an expense as you would have to pay to dispose of it.
I think it's more of a marketing scheme to make people less worried about the replacement cost (or life span) of the battery.
ateixeira says:
11:32 AM, 11/18/08
I agree with the comment above.
A recycled battery has a value attached to it, in fact you can get a few hundred bucks for a used set of Prius batteries.
I think they're just trying to capture those for recycling to claim that value. And these will likely be long-term leases, maybe 8 years or so (the useful life of the battery).
I don't see the advantage in separating the car from the battery.