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Nissan Leaf electric arrives in Aus

The Nissan Leaf is an impressive drive that looks like it ticks almost every box on the future of motoring.

The breakthrough Nissan, claimed to be the world's first purpose-built electric car, is an impressive drive that looks like it ticks almost every box on the future of motoring.

There is a downside - an estimated $60,000 pricetag and Australia's coal-fueled power stations - but the Leaf shows that electric motoring doesn't have to feel like a science experiment.

Nissan Australia has landed the first two Leafs (should that be Leaves?) as it prepares for a $5 million electric car trial with the Victorian government from midyear and the start of local sales in around a year.

The cars also celebrate Nissan Australia's successful tender for a $30 million-a-year export deal for aluminium castings used in the invertor housing used in the Leaf.

"This car is real," the boss of Nissan Australia, Dan Thompson, says simply. He has the proof in the carpark, with Leafs that are built in Japan for sales in the UK but charged in Melbourne and ready to run on Australian roads.

The background to the Leaf runs back to 1992, when Nissan began its research on electric vehicles, and includes everything from a cumulative $5 billion in spending to a Leaf-based sports car, shared models wearing Renault badges and plans to produce 300,000 electric cars a year by 2013, The car itself is relatively simple.

It's a similar size to the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, runs a 250- kilogram lithium-ion battery pack under the floor, has 280 Newton- metres of torque, and is loaded with high-tech features including a very special electric aircon system and satnav that automatically tracks the location of the nearest plug-in recharge points.

The Leaf is a long way down the electric road from a Mitsubishi iMiEV or Subaru Stella, or even the MiniE, which I have driven in the past. It's a genuine production car, which means all the touch-and-feel stuff is just like every other Nissan. The ride and handling, too, is impressively 'normal'.

It's not a science experiment, or something that is closer to a golf cart than a car. Even the styling is pitched right, as the Leaf is different enough to satisfy the 'look-at-me' people who will compare it to a Toyota Prius, but not different enough to deter buyers. And it has a genuine five- seater cabin with a boot.

Driving it in everyday conditions in suburban Melbourne, the Leaf has an impressive turn of pace and easily keeps ahead of most traffic away from the lights. It is very very quiet up to 80km/h and the aircon works well The high-tech displays take some learning, but the computers say there is 130 kilometres of driving range and that falls only marginally during my 20-kilometre run. Switching to Eco mode and killing the aircon stretches the distance to a planned plug-in by around 20 kilometres.

This is only Day One of the Leaf story in Australia, and it's very hard to make a genuine assessment without a pricetag - estimated at $60,000, or roughly three times the price of a Corolla - but the signs look good.

Now, if only Australia had more sources of green power to fuel this green machine ...