HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
NOVEMBER 2012
27
ROAD TRIP
PLUG AND PLAY
The Nissan Leaf is quiet. It’s so quiet, in fact,
that it has to play a li le tune to let you know
it’s awake. I step inside a light-blue SL model
outside its place of birth, Nissan’s YokohamaHQ,
and push a bu on that illuminates the deep-blue
LED dashboard, which alerts me that I have 84
miles’ worth of charge and cues a musical snip-
pet reminiscent of “The Jetsons.” And a er that,
silence: the sound of the automotive future.
It was a long time coming. Nissan’s first electric
car, the Altra, debuted back in 1997 at the L.A.
Auto Showwith underwhelming results.
Nissan’s all-electric,
zero-emissions Leaf
is tailor-made for city
driving. But what
happens when it’s taken
out of its urban comfort
zone for a joyride along
the Japanese coast?
BY ROBERT MICHAEL POOLE
JAPAN
