Leaf too green for mainstream

NO MORE than many observers, I was completely taken aback when the Nissan Leaf won last year’s prestigious European Car Of The Year title, becoming the first electric car to do so.

It was not that this innovative and in some ways ingenious machine did not deserve the title, but I felt it was far too early in the development of the modern electric car to secure such a high honour.

But win the prize it did and in doing so probably put pressure on every other manufacturer out there to speed up whatever development plans they had for electric machines. Unsurprisingly it was Renault — who own Nissan — who were first out of the blocks with their ZE (zero emissions) range of cars.