In May 2021, during the Ever Monaco show – supported by the principality – Nissan celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Leaf, the Japanese brand’s first electric vehicle. By the way, the Leaf was the first electric vehicle voted car of the year 2011 in Europe, Japan (also in 2012) as well as worldwide. At the time, it was seen as “a technological breakthrough and a questioning of the way of moving“, told us then Grégory Neve, director of communication and VE director of Nissan West Europe, already present in 2011.
Since their launch in 2011, the Nissan Leaf I and II have been produced in more than 500,000 units (September 2020), including 175,000 – since 2013 – in the Nissan plant in Sunderland in the United Kingdom.
The same Sunderland, whose future was uncertain because of Brexit, announced the production of a quarter of a million Nissan Leafs, or 250,000 copies. For Alan Johnson, the UK factory’s vice president of manufacturing, it’s “of an extraordinary stage and [d’une] demonstration of the expertise acquired in the manufacture of electric vehicles“Recall that Sunderland also produces the new electrified versions of the Nissan Qashqai and Juke.
In order to demonstrate the potential of the stainless steel Leaf, one example was used as a power station to power the light garlands covering the 12-metre high Christmas tree, as well as the reindeer. In Sunderland, the magic of Christmas is therefore based on the Vehicle to Grid, or V2G.
Behind this name hides a device allowing an electric vehicle, when stationary, to connect to an electrical network in order to reinject the electricity stored in its batteries. In return, the vehicle can be recharged during off-peak hours or when electricity demand is low. This is also called bi-directional charging. The Nissan Leaf was one of the very first V2G-certified electric vehicles in Europe.
Moreover, the headquarters of Nissan Europe, located in Yvelines (78), has 100 charging stations which allow electric cars to be refueled with electricity, which return the energy from their batteries to the network when there are peaks in consumption are observed.