The Leaf is the world’s most popular electric vehicle, comprising more than half of all electric car sales. Leaf global sales since late 2010 total 43,000 vehicles, about half of them in Japan. More than 17,000 Leaf cars have been sold in the U.S. and monthly sales are recently at about 1,500 vehicles, according to Nissan. This is a huge growth opportunity as car manufacturers around the world are now racing to catch up to the leadership of Nissan and Tesla. Most exciting is that prices are coming steadily down with the base model Leaf now selling in the $30,000 range. See: Nissan revamps Leaf electric car with more cruise range, cheaper model, and other perks.
Here is an update on the new $5 billion initiative by Renault Nissan to develop a new range of zero emission cars. Here is a direct link.
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There is so much unleashed oil from shale coming in the next 50 years from America that the Leaf will be proven to be another useless car-relic to find its way into the Smithsonian collection of proven useless wastes of material and technology.
More importantly, the US government debt bubble is getting so huge that the Obama Administration along with the Fed have decided to purchase Canada as a place to store the excess toxic waste.
I actually think that you are wrong. What can we observe is exactly the opposite direction – The Increasing Trend of U.S. Immigration to Canada.
There is nothing left in the United States. Foreclosures and debt bubble are just two examples, but we could continue with other variables, which are highly unfavorable for a modern state, such as influence of the religion over the politics, GMO´s planting, low levels of education etc etc…
Electric vehicles will be useful for people who never travel far from home. But we will probably need some new nuke plants to generate electricity to recharge them.
Shale oil does exist in great quantities in the US. The cost to produce it will be extremely high when you factor in environmental costs. Once the coming economic/energy collapse occurs, perhaps they can build a few nuke plants to desalinate sea water and pipe the water from the ocean to the shale processing sites. After the collapse MAYBE we will be able to afford to produce enough oil from shale to power our farm machinery (and a few trucks/trains) so some people might avoid the mass starvation that is coming.
You think Canada does not have a debt bubble in real estate or in basic credit. Canadians now are more indebted than the US ever was at the peak of their credit crisis. Canada’s credit bubble is popping now which is why you see tax revenues significantly reduced. Let’s see where things stand in a year before we talk about how things rock in Canada compared to the US…