New 2011 Nissan Leaf is knocking on Chevy Volt’s door

Nissan is playing a strong card in the electric vehicle market with its new compact car, the 2011 Leaf. Nissan is pushing some green symbolism, the car is supposed to prevent air emissions from driving, which creates a parallel with how plant leaves clean the air everywhere else.

What does that mean for you and I? It’s good thing for a couple of reasons, chief of which is more competition. The Nissan Leaf brings with it the potential to drive prices down for a product that right now is out of reach for most consumers. For example the Chevy Volt is circling around $40,000 and even with a $7,500 tax credit in the US that’s a hefty bill to swallow. Nissan isn’t coming out with exact pricing yet, but is indicating it will be in line with traditional compact cars.

From what Nissan has shared so far the 2011 Leaf shares a lot in common with compact cars in Europe, and if you draw that comparison like Edmunds did, it boxes the price range in at about $28,000 to $35,000. That’s a lot closer to making a vehicle affordable for the masses, and it has a compelling feature-set to back it up.

The Leaf is supposed to max out around 90 miles per hour, drive for 100 miles on electric energy before needing a charge, and can take advantage of high-voltage charging stations allowing it to refuel in 30 minutes. In a 220 volt outlet, it would take 6 hours to recharge.

GM is differentiating itself still with the Chevy Volt by making it a hybrid, so all-electric range is 40 miles, it will continue on gasoline for another 600 miles. This is where it gets interesting though because the Chevy Volt may take advantage of high voltage charging stations too. However, if GM were to support the creation of those stations they would be diminishing the Volt’s competitive edge. All electric car manufacturers like ZENN, Tesla, and now Nissan will be much more supportive of the idea as it would expand the utility of their vehicles to long range transport.