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Cue the pundits. Nissan's incoming Leaf has just nabbed an official
EPA sticker, with a mind-melting 99MPG "equivalent" rating set to
grace every single window. That'll undoubtedly catch eyes, but it's
also likely to spur a huge debate on what "miles per gallon" truly
means when you're throwing a battery into the mix. We actually had the
pleasure of driving one ourselves late last month, but we weren't able
to take off on any extended joyrides to really put MPG claims to the
test. At any rate, the 99 rating breaks down to 106MPG in the city and
92MPG on the highway, but there's quite a bit of fuzzy math here that
gas guzzlers aren't accustomed to considering. Nissan claims that the
EPA uses a formula where 33.7 kWhs are equivalent to one gallon of
gasoline energy, and that the entity also found the Leaf's efficiency
to be 3.4 miles per kWh. Given that the car has a 24 kWh battery pack
and can go 73 miles officially, then the EPA says it could
theoretically go 99 miles if it had a 33.7 kWh pack. Still, the Leaf
has to await its other label from the FTC, but it's apt to show a
range of 96 to 110 miles of range. Head on past the break for the full
presser.
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