Day two at Davos and it’s more smiles at the cocoa hut, powered by Nissan’s LEAF-to-home technology, where Nissan Europe’s Matt Loader has been explaining to the crowds how it all works. And, actually, it wasn’t just down to the hot cocoa that they stayed to chat.
“I’ve been thinking about an electric car; it sounds like a good idea,” said David Williams, who is in Davos with his wife Carol Dudley-Williams, an executive vice president of The Dow Chemical Company headquartered in Michigan, the US. “The technology is interesting to me.”
Many passers-by were interested to know how far the Nissan LEAF electric car would run on a full charge: the car has a range of 109 miles or 175km on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), but this will vary with conditions with around 80 miles or 100 kilometres being a realistic average, with the charge taking as little as 30 minutes for an 80% quick charge to around eight hours for an overnight home charge.
“It’s a battery on wheels,” Nissan’s Loader told Wofgang Bockerman, head of security at the World Economic Forum, here in the freezing – but beautiful - Swiss Alps. “And, as it’s connected to the domestic power supply, if there’s any breakdown in the domestic supply it will automatically detect this and can power your home.”
Next up was the communications adviser to the Malaysian Prime Minister, who said that there was “huge” interest in zero-emission vehicles in Malaysia, with talk of tax incentives for the take-up of electric vehicles. “The Minister of Industry and Trade is looking at it,” he told us.