Nissan Leaf Takes on NASA Space Shuttle; and the Winner is...

Nissan Leaf Takes on NASA Space Shuttle; and the Winner is…

The Leaf, EV-12 prototype and I had a chance to visit the Kennedy Space Center. The temperature was cold, the rain was oppressive, and President Obama depressed everyone there with his announcement about cancelling NASA’s moon rocket. Good thing we showed up to cheer everyone up! Even the most downcast face perked up after driving the EV-12. It turns out there are a lot of EV enthusiasts working at NASA. They even had a Smart that was converted to an EV. I had a chance to drive it – and boy did it make the Leaf look good. Lots of NASA employees turned out to drive EV-12 despite the rain and they were not disappointed. To reciprocate I received a personal back-lot tour of KSC (Kennedy Space Center) where I got to walk up to where the Aires rocket launch platform is (was… sigh) and about as close as you can get to the Space Shuttle without being an astronaut.

That’s Me With the EV-12

Now it’s time for the showdown of the two most important vehicles at the Kennedy Space Center. It’s Nissan Leaf vs. NASA Space Shuttle!!! Who will be the victor?

Nissan Leaf

NASA Space Shuttle

We’re going to have a fair fight. Here are the rules. We use the same criteria that our customers usually use to judge their vehicles. Winner takes all for each category. Here we go:

Criteria	Nissan Leaf	NASA Space Shuttle	Winner
Acceleration	Quicker off the line with instant EV torque response	Faster in the quarter million mile	Shuttle gets the nod as it approaches Mach 25 upon re-entry.
Ride Comfort	Silky smooth	So much vibration the earth rumbles 35 miles away	Leaf smothers the competition
Handling	Maneuvers with a super tight turning radius	Turning radius roughly equivalent to half the earth	Leaf won’t make you spend years learning how to drive it.
Roominess	Seats 5 and room for a few bags of luggage	Seats a crew of up to 7 and has the payload of a semi-truck	Shuttle competes more with Armada for this category.
Quietness	So quiet we’re going to have to add a vehicle sound for pedestrians	Good thing the astronauts wear helmets or else they would probably lose their hearing.	Leaf is the King of serene.
Fuel Economy	367 mpg (energy equivalent)	The Shuttle requires a pipeline to supply fuel to it	Leaf by about a million mpg (energy equivalence)
Cost of Ownership	Targeted to compete with well equipped compacts like Sentra	It isn’t cheap – that’s for sure	Leaf won’t require backing by the Federal Reserve to own
Environmental Friendliness	Carbon footprint of a Gecko and ZERO tailpipe emissions	Most of the smoke you see on takeoff is from steam (they dump a whole water tank full on the pad at takeoff) but they also have to wash down the area for about a quarter mile around because of toxic fallout.	Leaf will let you breath easy
OVERALL	And the winner is… Leaf!!! Winning six out of eight categories the Leaf is definitely a better choice to park in your family’s garage.

The visit to NASA was great fun; both for us and for the people who got to see the Leaf and drive EV-12. There was, however another impressive vehicle at Kennedy, the Crawler-Transporters. These bad boys weigh in at 2,400,000 kg and have eight shoes with 57 cleats on each – with each cleat weighing nearly a ton. It is powered by sixteen 1000 kW traction motors, in turn driven by two 2,050 kW diesel engines (sounds like a series-hybrid to me). All this to move at the rip roaring speed of 2 mph.

There are still more EV events to come, but not for me. I’m arranging a cross country trip with the latest prototype to confirm target achievement. Piece of cake.