2017 Nissan Leaf is expected to give a upshot to Electric Cars Future!

First launched for 2011, the Nissan Leaf got some updates in the 2013 model when production for North American sales moved from Japan to Smyrna, Tennessee. Since then, the Nissan Leaf has pretty much stayed the same - but we know an all-new model is coming sometime next year or the year after. The Nissan Leaf is by far the highest-volume electric car ever sold, with total sales now approaching 200,000 units. So, we can expect 2017 Nissan Leaf electric car popularizing even more!

Referring to the future of electric cars and Nissan's CEO faith in this particular segment cars, Carlos Ghosn has said, back in November 2009 that 20 percent of his company's sales would be electric cars by 2020 and that electric cars would make up 10 percent of global sales. But, Ghosn was widely pillored for his projections just a few years later, when Nissan Leaf sales proved slower than expected after its December 2010 launch. As the car approaches its fifth birthday, around 200,000 Leafs have been delivered. It's the best-selling electric car in history, but still just a tiny fraction of the company's sales. And now, with this upcoming 2017 Nissan Leaf Electric Car model, his hope seems to raise the bar again.

2017 Nissan leaf's Breakthrough Battery pack -

Justifying the statement, company put all its faith in 2017 Nissan Leaf's “breakthrough battery” that packs a 60 kWH battery pack that permits a range of 300 miles. That's comparable to the top-tier Teslas.

Tesla has said it will unveil its $35,000, 200-mile Model 3 sedan next spring and put that car into production by the end of 2017. The company's track record of meeting deadlines in the past may argue for a more realistic volume production date of 2018 or 2019. It is sufficient to clear that Nissan Leaf Electric Car will appear soon on roads in comparision to other EVs.

Adding more to the point – 'Nissan Leaf Electric Car significantly raised the bar in comparision to other EV models soon going to join the line up', we at Carbay concluded that - upcoming mass-market Tesla Model 3 and GM's Chevrolet Bolt will offer a rough 200-mile-range for the respective vehicles, which is lower than the Nissan Leaf! Even, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV promises a range of JUST 200 miles. BMW is also expected to boost the range of its i3 electric minicar, which its CEO Harold Krüger confirmed it would do next year, most likely for the 2017 model year.

So, considering this point, we can assume 2017 Nissan Leaf will be in charge of EV's!

The IDS Concept presents a 'vision' of future self-driving Nissan -

The Drive Tech in 2017 Nissan Leaf handles everything from detecting road conditions to merging into traffic, piloted the car onto the interstate, passed slowpokes and exited the freeway. Surely, this will be a notable milestone for Nissan, but the company goal to sell autos with the technology by 2020 is still a long way off. Nissan wants to add their piloted drive 1.0 system to its vehicles by the end of 2016 and hope to have a fully automated system that does not require human input by 2020. The larger autonomous driving system has been labeled the Nissan Intelligent Drive. The first goal of Piloted Drive 1.0 is to permit autonomous driving in crowded highway traffic. Nissan stated that an upgrade is in the works and it will allow cars equipped with Piloted Drive 1.0 to auto-shift from lane to lane on highways.

The company created two innovative components that will help them reach their goal. The first one is a miniature high-spec laser scanner which is currently on a prototype phase. The other component is an 8-way, 360-degree view camera system that helps the autonomous pilot to make accurate routing decisions when driving through intersections and winding roads. Both of them are fitted on Nissan’s autonomous prototype in order to get them ready for production.

Design

Today's Leaf is an upright five-door hatchback that's either a large compact or a small mid-size car, depending on how you measure. Its long wheelbase enables it to have a roomy back seat, giving it comfortable seating for four adults. The rounded ends, the very long lights topped with little fins that stretched to the base of the windshield, and a Space Age-y interior added up to the car will get mixed reaction; some may or may not love it!

The interior is filled with high-tech touches, including driver controls that are concealed when the car is in self-driving mode.

Clearly, Nissan zooms ahead into the future while the rest of the automotive world stands still for a time being. They are planning for a better future, on the contrary, Nissan has already worked upon their future plans about an EV!

If, there exists any competitor to 2017 Nissan Leaf, they would be Tesla Model 3, GM's Chevrolet Bolt and BMW i3 electric minicar. But, these three also look set to be the key contenders in the next iteration of battery-powered mass-market vehicles, only next to the NISSAN'S BIG PLAYER!